Hello alumni and friends of the Security Studies program! I am very pleased to report the activities and outstanding accomplishments of the faculty and students in the Security Studies program at Kansas State University. We’ve experienced a significant number of exciting changes since my last message. There are new students, of course, some new faculty in the History and Political Science departments and a move to Calvin Hall. Continue reading “Letter from the Director”
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. Continue reading “Welcome to Our New Faculty Members!”
As some of you will know, the Security Studies program lost two incredibly valuable members of faculty from the History department last year. Dr. David Stone resigned as Director of the Institute for Military History in 2015 after six years in the position, took a leave of absence from History and spent the year teaching at the Naval War College (NWC) in Newport, Rhode Island. He officially left the Department of History for NWC prior to the 2016-2017 academic year Continue reading “A Special Message of Thanks”
In the spring of 2016, Juste Codjo (PhD 2017) made significant contributions to a discourse on institutional reforms in his West African home country of Benin. He was the guest of more than 10 televised shows on five different TV channels. He also participated in a dozen radio talks on six different stations, and was interviewed by more than five major newspapers in Benin. His accomplishments earned him meetings with and letters of encouragement from high level dignitaries, including former President of Benin Nicephore Soglo, current President of the parliament Adrien Houngbedji, the U.S. Ambassador to Benin, as well as several other figures of the sociopolitical scene in Benin.
Major John Barrington, MA student in Security Studies, won the Excellence in Joint Service Warfare Award at the June 2017 CGSC graduation ceremony. “The Excellence in Joint Service Warfare Award is presented to the student who contributes the most significantly to the study, implementation and spirit of joint service warfare. Additionally, the student must demonstrate proficiency in joint core courses, Joint Advanced Warfare Studies, attainment of an additional skill identifier in joint service warfare, participation in joint special operations areas of concentration, Continue reading “Student Highlights”
David Graff’s second book, The Eurasian Way of War: Military Practice in Seventh-Century China and Byzantium, was published by Routledge in the spring of 2016. The book challenges the notion of a distinctive Western way of war, identifying military similarities across Eurasia in the early medieval period and highlighting the influence of nomadic steppe peoples in bringing this about. Professor Graff, who has also edited the Journal of Chinese Military History since 2012, was promoted to full professor and named Pickett Professor of Military History in the spring of 2017. Continue reading “Faculty Achievements”
Colonel Thomas A. Duncan II was one of our first MA graduates in 2007. His last assignment in the United States Army was Command of the Pueblo Chemical Depot, Colorado. There he oversaw the security of 780,078 mustard agent filled munitions, and was a member of the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant start up team, helping keep the United States in compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention. In the Summer of 2017, he became the Assistant Commandant of the U.S. Army’s Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear School at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. Continue reading “Where Are They Now?”
On April 24, 2017, the History Department hosted a guest lecture by Professor Chris Dixon of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, under the auspices of the “Oz to Oz” program bringing Australian Fulbright scholars to visit K-State. Professor Dixon teaches American History at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and was Fulbright Professional Scholar in US-Australian Alliance Studies at the University of Texas at Austin during 2016-17. Continue reading “Events”