UT History Alumni Advancing in Careers
Alyssa Culp (PhD ’22) accepted an offer to join the faculty of Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU) as an assistant professor of history. She had previously been working at IWU as a lecturer. Culp teaches modern European history, with a focus on Germany.
Ryan Gesme (PhD ’23) has begun work as a civic program instructor for Close Up Foundation, where he leads experiential workshops on civic and historical education for middle and high schoolers utilizing the memorials and museums of Washington, DC.
Kaitlin Simpson (PhD ’24), currently an assistant professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, had her dissertation selected as a finalist for the 2025 Allan Nevins Prize, granted by the Society of American Historians for the best-written dissertation in American history. This award is arguably the most prestigious prize for a US history dissertation. Simpson’s dissertation was titled “The Flowers of El Dorado: Gender, Production, and the Cut Flower Industry in the United States and Colombia, 1908-Present.”
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