Doctoral Academy Fellow in History Awarded Truman Library Institute Fellowship

Photo Submitted

Aaron Moulton with Rafael Angel Calderon Fournier, president of Costa Rica (1990-94)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Doctoral Academy Fellow Aaron Moulton, a history student in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a Dissertation Year Fellowship from the Harry S. Truman Library Institute. The institute’s grants, fellowships and awards provide assistance to emerging and established scholars whose contributions illuminate the critical issues of Truman’s presidency and legacy.

“Aaron's research has already garnered attention from heavyweights in the field of U.S.-Latin American relations,” said Kathryn Sloan, chair of the department of history and a member of Moulton’s dissertation committee. “His project is remarkable for its equal attention to U.S. and Latin American sources in English and Spanish.”

The $16,000 fellowship will allow Moulton to focus on writing his dissertation, The Dictator’s Backyard: Rafael Trujillo and the Dawn of the Cold War in the Greater Caribbean Basin, 1944-1954, which he is completing under the direction of Randall Woods, Distinguished Professor and the John A. Cooper Professor of History.

“The Truman Library Institute is one of the most well-funded and prestigious programs in the nation,” Woods said.

Moulton has also received research support from a Samuel Flagg Bemis Research Grant from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the Phi Alpha Theta John Pine Memorial Award, a Fulbright College Dissertation Research Award and the Willard B. Gatewood History Graduate Fellowship from the department of history.

Because of these awards, Moulton was able to spend the past year researching in archives in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Cuba, London and the United States, where he uncovered materials on Dominican intelligence networks, Costa-Rican foreign policy and Cuban international affairs. Outside the archives, Moulton connected with descendants of exiles and relatives of the former Costa Rican president.

In his research, Moulton recasts the story of the overthrow of Guatemala’s democracy in the 1950s from a transnational perspective. He engages not only materials from the United States but also the stories of other Central American and Caribbean nations to create an engaging history of the many exiles, counter-revolutionaries, democrats and dictators who shaped the region. 

Moulton earned a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American studies, Spanish and mathematics from the University of Arkansas before going on to graduate work in Latin American studies at the University of Kansas. He returned to the University of Arkansas as a Doctoral Academy Fellow in 2009.

The Truman Library Institute is the not-for-profit partner of the Truman Library located in Independence, Mo. For more than 40 years, the Truman Library and the Truman Library Institute have worked together to fulfill the Truman Library's commitment to research and education.