Bethany Bell studies the relationship between Black southerners and the built environment in the Civil War era with Professors Elizabeth Varon and Justene Hill Edwards. Her current research explores how unfree and free Black southerners used the Civil War as a catalyst to renegotiate their relationships to sites of slavery. Originally from Arkansas, Bethany received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Arkansas and a master’s degree from Boston University.
Daniele Celano studies legal history and the Civil War era with Professors Elizabeth Varon and Cynthia Nicoletti. Her current research focuses on the repeal of the fugitive slave laws in connection with larger Constitutional issues of military emancipation and federal war powers. She is originally from New Jersey and graduated from Purdue University with a BA in 2018.
Eitan Marshall-Pinko studies nineteenth century policing and its intersections with race, capitalism, and the state. Eitan earned a B.A with Honors, cum laude, from Boston University, writing his thesis on the complexities of criminal jurisdiction and policing in the Indian Territory from 1877-1887. Eitan's primary advisor is Dr. Justene Hill Edwards, and he will be writing his master's thesis on policing in the South during Reconstruction.
Maggie Matheson studies gender and the nineteenth century and is advised by Dr. Caroline Janney. Her current research focuses on female military prisoners during the Civil War. She graduated from Gettysburg College with a BA in History in 2025.
Jaiden Mosley studies the African American experience during the Civil War and Reconstruction era. He focuses on how African American freedmen in the Mid-Atlantic States and the Carolinas founded autonomous communities during the troublesome era of Reconstruction and during the transition from enslavement to freedom.
L. Carrington OBrion is a PhD candidate studying race, culture, and performance and is advised by Professor Justene Hill Edwards. Originally from Virginia, she holds a B.A. in American Studies from Wellesley College and an M.Phil. in American History from the University of Cambridge. Carrington’s dissertation examines the history of theatre segregation in the nineteenth century South.
Kathryn Patterson studies the nineteenth century U.S. South and is advised by Dr. Caroline E. Janney. Raised in Southwest Georgia, Kathryn received a BS in History and Government from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in 2020, and her MA in History with a major in Public History from Florida State University in 2023. Her current research examines Virginia’s 1868 Constitutional Convention and how its Black delegates shaped ensuing debates.
Cathryn Perini studies enslaved women with Professor Justene Hill Edwards. She graduated from the University of Kentucky with a BA in History in 2020 and from the University of Reading with her MA in History in 2021. Her master's thesis looked at the capitalistic market of hiring out enslaved labor, how enslaved wet nurses might have experienced forcible relocation for bodily exploitation, and how archival silences impact the ways that historians might navigate intentional speculation within their research.
Katie Wu studies the history of compensation and claims-making movements in post-Civil War America and is advised by Dr. Caroline Janney and Dr. Grace Hale. Her current research traces movements led by African American, Chinese American, and Italian American claims-seekers in the wake of racial violence. She is originally from Newton, Massachusetts, and received her bachelor's degree from Harvard in 2017. Prior to coming to UVA, Katie worked for the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama.