Alexandra Garnhart-Bushakra

Academic Program Manager

Bio

Alexandra Garnhart-Bushakra serves as the Academic Program Manager for the Department of History, where she oversees our undergraduate course development, enrollment, and outreach beyond Dietrich College.  She coordinates with the Director of Undergraduate Studies regarding registration, scheduling, examinations, room assignments, and course offerings (via the catalog).  In partnership with the DUS and Department Head, she offers strategic guidance on improving our department’s programming and implements those recommendations.  Alexandra also meets with senior majors and minors to review their course requirements and their readiness for graduation. Furthermore, her responsibilities include promoting undergraduate history degrees, major-specific internships, and research at CMU.  Finally, Alexandra organizes community events and support for history students at the Pittsburgh campus, and she encourages any students interested in our program and classes to contact her.

Alexandra holds a doctorate in medieval history from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  Her research focuses on the crusades, masculinity, bereavement and memorialization in poetry, and the Classical legacy in twelfth-century France and the Mediterranean.  Her dissertation received the Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies’ 2019-20 Jimmy and Dee Haslam Fellowship and the UT Department of History’s 2020-21 Award for Excellence in Gender Studies.  Previously, Alexandra completed a postdoctoral lectureship and taught pre-modern courses at UT-Knoxville, where she earned the Susan Becker Award and Graduate Student Senate’s recognition for excellence in teaching.  Alongside her managerial role for the CMU Department of History, Alexandra regularly offers classes on medieval topics.

Education

Ph.D.: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2021