Meet our Graduate Students

Mitch Axness is a Master’s of Science student in History with emphasis on public history and mid-19th to mid-20^th century (1850-1950) American history. He has worked in the IT field for 25 years, currently providing IT support for the NDSU Libraries. At age 41, seeking a career change, he decided to return to college and completed his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Public History in May 2024. Desiring to do archival work with occasional writing and maybe short documentary films, he’s continuing his education at NDSU and enjoying the learning of how to “do history” from the wonderful faculty of the NDSU History department. As a multi-generational, lifelong North Dakota resident (he doesn’t count that 5 year stint living in Moorhead), Axness wants to preserve the history of the region so future generations can tell our stories.

When he’s not binging history documentaries on YouTube or other streaming services, he’s either reading history, indulging in entertainment featuring lightsabers or capes and cowls, or, as the father of 2, scrolling through the latest TikTok videos they’ve sent him. Axness also enjoys visiting historic sites that fall into his historic period of interest, such as Civil War and Indian War battlefields, frontier forts, and classic buildings.

“History is not the past but a map of the past, drawn from a particular point of view, to be useful to the modern traveler.”
Henry Glassie, US historian

Jacob Clauson is a PhD student focusing on the environmental and agricultural history of the Great Plains. Specifically, his research focuses on shifts in the agricultural landscape between WWII and the 1980s farm crisis. Jacob utilizes firsthand accounts as well as modern GIS and UAV imagery into his research to analyze the past and the present landscape of this region, the changes to its people, and what both of their stories can tell us now. He received his M.S. from the University of Oregon and previously taught 7-12 Social Studies for seven years in both Bottineau, ND and Alexandria, MN. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Geography at Valley City State University.

Dakota Wind Goodhouse is a Ph.D. student in History. Goodhouse completed his M.A. in History at North Dakota State University in 2019. He was born and raised on the vast open plain, the ancestral land of sky and wind, the homeland of the Ochéthi Shakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires).

Goodhouse seeks to establish the earliest window of Ochéthi Shakówiŋ cultural and historical occupation on the Great Plains at the turn of circa 900 CE, using Waníyetu Wówapi (Winter Counts) which are pictographic records, oral tradition associated with place, and Wílowaŋ (a song tradition) a unique and ancient song composition style with origins only on the Great Plains.

Goodhouse teaches US History and Native American Studies at United Tribes Technical College. His interests outside of history include mythology, watercolors, gaming, laughing at his own jokes, and touring places of interest on the Great Plains.

He occasionally updates his history blog The First Scout.

He occasionally posts his art @thefirstscout.

Phee (Pheeraphong) Jampee is a PhD candidate specializing in Colonial and Post-Colonial Southeast Asian history, with a particular focus on ethnohistory, Indochinese refugees, women, and Thai nationalism during the post-WWII period (1945–1975). As a native speaker of Thai and its minority dialects, Phee brings a deeply personal connection to the study of mainland Southeast Asian history, especially the formation of Thai identity and nationalism in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Phee chose to pursue graduate studies at North Dakota State University to delve deeper into Southeast Asian history and to share his knowledge with students and fellow scholars. The field of Southeast Asian history offers boundless opportunities to explore topics such as nationalism, ethnicity, gender, and the experiences of refugees in the twentieth century—subjects that inspire Phee’s passion for research. He is particularly motivated by the untapped potential of archival sources scattered across the globe, which hold rich, unexplored insights into this dynamic region's history.

For more about Phee's work, visit his Academia page: https://ndsu.academia.edu/PheeJampee

Laura Kluckman is a Ph.D. student focusing on gender in 1920s Vaudeville. She is particularly focused on comparing male and female impersonation in Vaudeville, and why one became hugely successful and the other did not. She is pursuing her degree in order to become a college professor.

Nasih Alam, a proud Bangladeshi, is a first-year PhD student in History. He completed his MA in English at North Dakota State University (NDSU) in May 2024. From August 2022 to May 2024, he taught first-year writing in the Department of English at NDSU. In March 2024, NDSU recognized him as an “Innovative Teacher.”

Before joining NDSU, Nasih taught English Language, 19th-Century Novel, Victorian Poetry, History of English Literature, Cultural Studies, Technical Writing & Communication, and Composition Studies in Bangladesh from 2013 to 2022. Nasih has 12 scholarly publications in Bangladesh and India, but he is most proud of his 4 publications in America. While completing his MA, he gave 7 talks in the United States. In March 2024, he won a $30 grant for the best proposal at the Minnesota Writing and English (MnWE) conference.

Nasih has always been interested in the history of marginalized people. He focuses on understanding how major political events shape the lives of ordinary individuals who are not affiliated with political groups or organizations. Inspired by Stephen Greenblatt, Nasih aims to create histories of everyday people often overlooked by traditional grand narratives. Under the guidance of Dr. Donald Johnson, associate professor, History, NDSU, he is currently researching how the Dakota War of 1862 affected the lives of Native Americans and Euro-American settlers in the Great Plains.

Nasih loves the History Department at NDSU and greatly admires his colleagues. He finds them caring, friendly, and excellent mentors. If you want to study hard and learn from supportive professors and administrative officials, join the History Department. You will forever thank Nasih for that.

After completing his PhD at NDSU, Nasih will go back to Bangladesh. He wants to serve his country as a researcher and tenured professor.

Nasih's YouTube. Nasih's LinkedIn

Jon Rundquist (they/them) is a Ph.D. student studying the history of rural LGBTQIA2+ Minnesotans. Their current focus is on the history of Two-Spirit people from Northern Minnesota and the current realities they face as advocates for their communities. As a Trans/Non-Binary scholar living in rural Minnesota, Jon has always felt at home among the rolling prairies of the Red River Valley, and wonders what helps LGBTQIA2+ Minnesotans living on the prairies, hills, forests, and lakes of Greater Minnesota – thrive – despite the metrocentrist ideals of American society. Another aspect that fascinates Jon is how religion and spirituality intersect with rural LGBTQIA2+ Minnesotans, with steeples and cemeteries down nearly every country road. Jon hopes to one day teach at a Minnesota college or university to further their studies by teaching Minnesota history to high school and college students. North Dakota State University was Jon’s original choice for colleges when they graduated high school, but life had other ideas. Many years later, they arrived on NDSU’s campus as a Ph.D. student with big ideas. NDSU might not be in Minnesota, but Jon is growing in their appreciation for North Dakota’s rich history of rural survival politics.