MEET THE CURRENT LEPAGE CENTER INTERNS
This year, the Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest is delighted to partner with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Rosenbach Museum & Library, Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index, Maryland State Archives, Jewish Historical Society of Delaware, the Mansion House Foundation at Radley Run, and Historic Fallsington.
We are proud to have four Villanova History MA students and three Villanova History undergraduate student representing the University, their programs, and the Center in the wider world of research and scholarship.
Janis Parker '25 MA
Spring 2025 graduate Janis Parker will be working with the Maryland State Archives, where she will work on "A Jury of One's Peers," a study of incarceration in the state tracking Maryland's history as a border state with approximately equal numbers of free and enslaved people of African descent in the pre-Civil war period, and which seeks to explore the legal treatment of those individuals through the primary resources in the collections of the Maryland State Archives.
Janis Parker is an upcoming second year graduate student in the history program. She studies late-19th and 20th century U.S. history, with special interests in race, gender, and law.
Allen Rosso '26 MA
Rising graduate Allen Rosso will be working with the Jewish Historical Society of Delaware on their 50th anniversary project, contributing to the community archive and comemmoration of Wilmington as a National Parks Service-designated WWII Heritage site.
Mansfield, Ohio native Allen Rosso began his undergraduate career at North Central Community College before a successful career in alumni relations, development, and market research at Vanderbilt University, the University of Chicago, and Columbia University. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he completed the World War II Studies MA Program at Arizona State University and decided to pursue his passion for history as a career. His area of study in the Villanova MA program is the influence of public opinion on United States foreign relations between 1913 and 1952.
Jacob Smith '25 MA
Rising graduate student Jacob Smith will work at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, where he will work on the political cartoon documentary exhibit Satire as Political Speech: Cartoons in Early America, debuting June 11th. He will also help develop a week-long summer academy focused on historical research for early undergraduates at HSP. Jake's personal research interests relate to the place of esoteric thinkers and paranormal/supernatural events and ideas in American history.
Ryan Snyder '24 MA
Fall 2024 graduate Ryan Snyder will be working with The Mansion House Foundation at Radley Run. He will contribute to their goal of having their James Painter House in Chester County listed as a site on the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network. As the '23-'24 Graduate Lepage Fellow, Ryan gained valuable experience in public history. Ryan studies the United States in the World during the twentieth century, focusing on the dynamics of global capitalism in theories and practices of economic development.
Reily Brown '26 CLAS
Rising junior Reily Brown is a Posse Scholar from New Orleans, Louisiana. She is majoring in History with a minor in Art History and is interested in the preservation and accessibility of history to the public. She will be working at the Rosenbach Museum and Library, assisting in filing exhibition materials and adding to the museum’s online database.
Peggy Murray '25 CLAS
Rising Villanova senior in the History and Political Science Departments, Peggy Murray will be working with Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index over the summer where she will be helping to further build and develop the extensive catalogue of both Medieval primary image records and secondary scholastic sources that comprise the Feminae Index, as well as furthering the social media presence of the Feminae Index to expose a broader range of the public to Medieval women and scholarship. After studying abroad in England last spring, Peggy developed a love of medieval Europe, particularly in France and England, and is excited to be able to contribute to scholarship on women during this period.
Lexi Toriello '25 CLAS
Lexi Toriello is a rising senior in the Villanova department of history. This summer she will be working at Historic Fallsington Inc. conducting research on the diverse experiences of those that lived there, through the utilization of primary and secondary source materials. In her work, Lexi aims to diversify the historical narrative through the inclusion of previously excluded voices. This will also include recommendations for incorporating the new information as part of the tours of the historic sight. She is very eager for this opportunity, as much of her undergraduate research has focused on highlighting women's history. After she completes her undergraduate degree, she plans to attend law school.