Ph.D. Candidate Graduate Teaching Assistant Presidential Graduate Fellow A doctoral candidate and Presidential Graduate Fellow at UGA, Matthew Burkhalter studies the political, intellectual, and environmental history of the American South. His dissertation, provisionally titled "Apostles of Beauty: Environmentalism and Beautification in the Twentieth-century South," situates garden clubs, horticulturists, city planners, and highway engineers within the broader context of southern environmental history and explores beautification's crucial role in economic development, especially in Georgia. He earned his B.A. at the University of the South and his M.A. at Florida State University. He worked as Aiken-Taylor intern and copy editor at the Sewanee Review, under George Core's leadership, for a year after college. Matthew has presented his research at annual meetings of the Southern Historical Association, the Agricultural History Society, and the St. George Tucker Society. He has also had the privilege of sharing his work with various civic organizations, including local libraries, garden clubs, and chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Matthew and his wife, Whitney, have a one-year-old daughter, Dorothy. Research Research Areas: U.S. South U.S. 19th & 20th Century Environment & Agriculture Cultural & Intellectual Political & Legal Education Education: MA, Florida State University, 2014 BA, Sewanee: University of the South, 2010
