During the 2016-2017 academic year, Phil Tiemeyer and Nadia Oweidat (new professors in the History Department) along with Michael Tyburski (new professor in the Political Science Department) joined the Security Studies faculty.
Professor Phil Tiemeyer joined the History Department in Fall 2016. He is a graduate of Georgetown University who also holds degrees from the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome) and the University of Chicago. He received his Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007 and taught at Philadelphia University before coming to K-State. Professor Tiemeyer is a historian of gender, sexuality, and twentieth-century culture whose research engages with labor history, the history of the airline industry, and the public diplomacy of the Cold War era. His first book, Plane Queer: Labor, Sexuality, and AIDS in the History of Male Flight Attendants, was published by the University of California Press in 2013. He is now working on his next book project, “Aerial Ambassadors: National Airlines and U.S. Power in the Jet Age.” He was recently awarded a five-month teaching and research Fulbright Fellowship based in Belgrade, Serbia, where he will spend the spring and summer of 2018 researching the history of JAT Yugoslav Airways during the Cold War. This will involve not only forays into the archives of the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Serbian Museum of Aviation, but also collecting oral histories from former JAT pilots and flight attendants. Professor Tiemeyer, who has recently been granted tenure and promoted to associate professor, will teach a research seminar (HIST 928) on the cultural history of the Cold War in the fall of 2017.
Professor Michael Tyburski joined the faculty of the Department of Political Science in Fall 2016. Professor Tyburski received his MA and PhD in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His research investigates the impact of migration and remittances for political development and security. His work appears in the Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and Post-Soviet Affairs. Professor Tyburski is teaching courses for Security Studies on transnational issues and terrorism as well as political development.
Professor Nadia Oweidat joined the History Department and Security Studies program in January 2017 as an assistant professor. She is currently in the Middle East conducting interviews for her book, A Million Clicks to Freedom: The Real Agents of Change in the Middle East (working title), which investigates the impact of advances in information technology on society, religion, politics and education in the Arabic-speaking world. Work on this book started in 2016 with a year-long grant from the Smith Richardson Foundation at New America, a think tank based in Washington DC. In parallel, she is also conducting research for a peer-reviewed article on Islamic skepticism online. Her current field research in Jordan and Lebanon is funded by a USRG grant from Kansas State University, support by the History Department and support from New America.