Teaching Assistants, History of Wyoming, Autumn Term, 2009

Andrea Binder

            766-4333, 56 History Bldg., abinder@uwyo.edu

Office Hours: T-Th, 11-12:30, and by appointment.  

Andrea  will be grading papers for students with last names beginning with the letters H-O

Robert Lang

            766-4333,  56 History Bldg.,  rlang4@uwyo.edu

Office Hours: T-Th, 11-12:30, and by appointment. 

Robert will be grading papers for students with last names beginning with the letters P-Z

Past Instructors

Tiffany Wilson (Fall 2008; Spring 2009)

Tiffany is a University of Wyoming graduate.  A fourth-generation Laramite, she is studying public history, European history and the American West.  Tiffany is in her second consecutive semester as teaching assistant in the History of Wyoming, having performed that task in the fall of 2008.

Chris Eells (Spring 2008; Spring 2009)

Chris specialized in American Indian history. Prior to entering the UW master's program, he taught courses in the meanings of symbols placed on teepees. His undergraduate degree was from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks. Chris also was graduate assistant for History of Wyoming in the spring of 2008. He was admitted to  the doctoral program in anthropology at Indiana University in the fall of 2009.

Kellyn Younggren (Fall 2008)

Kellyn is a graduate of the University of Idaho. A native of Montana, she is studying the history of the American West and public history in the MA program at UW.

Casey Van Patten (Fall 2008)

Casey is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno. She specialized in European history, with a public history concentration.

Emily Arendt (Spring 2008)

Emily (pictured, left, with William R. Coe in the History Building lobby) is a graduate of the University of Wyoming. She worked in the two fields of public and 19th century history of the American West. Her research interest also included  intellectual history topics on the concepts of equality, happiness, and emancipation. She earned the MA degree in the spring of 2009 and began teaching courses in women's studies and Western history at the University of Wyoming in the summer of 2009.

Miles Mathews (Autumn 2007, Spring 2008)

Miles Mathews is a native of Cody, Wyoming, and a graduate of the University of Wyoming as well as Northwest College, Powell, and Western Wyoming College, Rock Springs. Appropriately, he is posed in front of the bust of fellow Cody resident, William R. Coe. The late Mr. Coe contributed money for construction of Coe Library and the History Building. Miles also served as a teaching assistant in History of Wyoming during the autumn term, 2007. He entered the doctoral program in history at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in the fall of 2009.

Karl Snyder (Autumn 2007)

Karl Snyder was born in Germany where his father was stationed in the U. S. Air Force. He is a graduate of West Texas A&M, Canyon, Texas. He studied American Indian history.

Julie Stidolph (Autumn 2007)

Julie Stidolph is a native of Basin, Wyoming, and a University of Wyoming graduate. Her areas of concentration are the history of American Indians and the history of the American West. She entered the doctoral program at the University of Oklahoma in the fall of 2008.

Jacob Amend (Autumn 2006, Spring 2007)

Jake holds an undergraduate degree in history from the University of Wyoming. A native of Casper, Wyoming, and a graduate of Casper Kelly Walsh High School,  he specialized in 19th century American history.

Xiao Yan Zhou (Autumn 2006, Spring 2007, Autumn 2007)

Xiao Yan is a graduate of Shanghai Normal University, China.  In the UW History Department, she specialized in American history and comparative history. With two  semester's experience in teaching the History of Wyoming, she was designated the lead TA in the autumn of 2007.

Brandi Hilton-Hagemann (Autumn 2006)

Brandi, a graduate of Hastings College in Nebraska, is specializing in the history of the American West and American Indian history. A native of western Nebraska, she has written comparative history of Native Americans and Native Hawaiians. She entered the doctoral program at the University of Oklahoma in the fall of 2008.

Drew Folk (Spring 2005, Autumn 2005, Spring 2006)

Drew Folk was a Master of Arts graduate student from Mullen, Nebraska.  A graduate of Mullen High School (1997), he holds the B. A. degree in history (with minors in business administration and humanities) from Chadron State College. Drew specializes in the history of 20th century America, with particular emphasis on the history of the American West. During the summer months, he operates a landscape business and also works on the family farm near Haxtun, Colorado. Drew enjoys hunting, playing basketball and golf, and watching professional and college sports. He began work with the Wyoming Blue Book project in the fall of 2006 and since that time, has worked with the Wyoming State Parks and Cultural Resources Department in Cheyenne. He was admitted to the doctoral program in history at the University of Nevada-Reno in the fall of 2008.

Matt Mirowski (Autumn 2005)

Matt Mirowski earned his M. A. in history at the University of Wyoming in 2006.  His  primary emphasis was in Napoleonic and Modern Europe, and a secondary emphasis in Modern U.S. History.  His thesis was a revisionist work about Napoleon Bonaparte's Second Italian Campaign from the Second Coalition's point of view. In his spare time he does a variety of activities, but some of the more important ones include fishing, traveling, downhill skiing, and amateur prize fighting.  His plans included enrolling in a doctoral program in the fall 2006.

Rory Telander (Spring 2005)

Rory Telander is a graduate of the University of Minnesota-Duluth. He earned his M. A. in history from the University of Wyoming Department of History in the spring of 2005. His thesis was a study of the boom years of the late 20th century in Evanston and vicinity. Rory's area of specialization is American History, with an emphasis in the American West.  In the fall of 2005, he was working in the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, where he assisted with editing of Annals of Wyoming. He also handled research requests for the reference department of the AHC before returning to public school education in Laramie in 2008.

Catherine Lucignani (Fall 2004)

Catherine Lucignani earned her Master of Arts degree from the UW Department of History in the spring of 2005. She completed her bachelor of science degree in history at Texas Womans University in Denton, Texas. Prior to her foray into the discipline of history, Catherine also earned an AAS degree in radiologic technology, with ten years’ experience as a x-ray technologist and mammographer. A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Catherine came to Wyoming to pursue graduate studies in 19^th century American history, with primary fields of interest in Native American and western U. S. history.  Her ultimate career objective is to teach and write history. While not studying, Catherine enjoys western art exhibits, genealogy, and outdoor activities ranging from hiking and biking to sea kayaking.

John French (Fall 2004)

John French is from Powell, Wyoming. He graduated from Powell High School in 1999.  He graduated from UW with a B.A. in History in May 2004.  He earned the M. A. degree in history,  specializing in 19^th century U.S. history, in the spring of 2005.  His thesis was a biography of Thomas Meagher, the Irish-born Civil War officer and Montana territorial governor. In the fall of 2005, he entered the doctoral program in history at Marquette University.

Skott Vigil (Fall 2004)

Skott Vigil is a native of Star Valley Wyoming (Afton). He is a member of the Yankton Sioux and Southern Ute tribes. Skott served a mission for the LDS church in Hong Kong where he learned to speak Cantonese. He earned a BA degree from Brigham Young University in Hawaii in History and Social Science Education and holds a state of Hawaii Teacher's license. Skott came to the University of Wyoming to pursue a masters degree in American History, with emphasis in Native American and western history. When he is not fishing or studying, Skott enjoys spending time with his wife and children. He entered the doctoral program in history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in the fall of 2006.

Jack Preston (Spring 2004)

Jack Preston earned his Master of Arts degree in history from the University of Wyoming in the summer of 2005. His thesis was a study of the emigration of "ploughmen" from Britain who became "ranchmen" in western Nebraska. He is a graduate of the University of Denver with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration in Finance. After graduating from the university, he spent more than three years in the United States Army, serving two as a Lieutenant in the Finance Corps. For the past 30 years he has been the fifth generation operator of a family ranch near LaGrange, Wyoming. He has served as a director of Wyrulec Company, a rural electric cooperative in Lingle, Wyoming, for 25 years. He is past director of Tri-State Generation & Transmission Company of Denver, Colorado, and director and past president of the Nebraska Rural Electric Association. Jack is a trustee of the Nebraska State Historical Society and is the immediate past president of the organization. One of the founders of the Farm And Ranch Museum in Gering, Nebraska, he currently serves on the board of directors. Agricultural History published his article on the life of Heyward G. Leavitt, an important developer of the sugar beet and irrigation industries in Nebraska. Annals of Wyoming published his history of electricity in Goshen County including the Wyrulec Company. Agricultural history is his specialty.

Sarah Ligocki (Autumn 2003)

Sarah Ligocki graduated from the University of Wyoming in December 1999 with a Bachelor’s degree in Administration of Justice.  She then moved to Cheyenne where she worked as the Outreach Coordinator for a residential treatment center for juvenile delinquents.  After two and a half years in Cheyenne, she decided to return to her hometown of Sheridan, Wyoming, where she worked for a year as a substitute teacher for grades K – 12.  While she gained valuable experience in both positions, she wanted to explore opportunities that would satisfy her interest in history.  She returned to Laramie in July 2003 to pursue a Master’s degree in history, completing her degree in the spring of 2005. Her studies focus on 20^th century American history. She now works in the Wyoming State Archives, Cheyenne, where she is curator of education in the Wyoming State Museum..

Sarah Bohl (Autumn 2003, Spring 2004)

Sarah Bohl, a native of Missouri, was a graduate student in history at the University of Wyoming, where she specialized in the history of Wyoming and the American West. She holds a bachelor’s  degree in history from Northwest Missouri State University. During her career, she has worked at the National Archives in Kansas City, the Missouri Supreme Court Historical Society and Missouri State Archives in Jefferson City. She was summer intern at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, in 2003.  She is author of a  article in Annals of Wyoming on the career of Estelle Reel, the first woman in the nation to win election to a statewide office when she was elected state superintendent of public instruction by Wyoming voters in 1894.  Sarah’s article was extracted from the first portion of her monograph-length biography of Reel, now in progress. Her article on Civil War Missouri appeared in the spring 2004 issue of Prologue: The Journal of the National Archives. Sarah served as assistant editor of Annals of Wyoming. She began work in the doctoral program in history at Arizona State University in the fall of 2004.

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