ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University Contemporary History Institute graduate students JonDavid Wyneken and James Waite, doctoral candidates in the Department of History, have received Ohio University's 2003-04 Baker Peace Dissertation Fellowships.

The $14,000 Baker Fellowships provide support to graduate students writing dissertations in peace studies.

Wyneken earned his undergraduate degree at Humboldt State University in California and his master's degree in American history from the University of Nebraska. His dissertation topic is "Driving Out the Demons: Denazification, German Churches and Allied Policies in Occupied Germany, 1945-1949."

Waite earned undergraduate degrees in chemistry and history from the University of Otago in New Zealand. His dissertation, "The End of the First Indochina War: An International History," focuses on the 1954 international conference in Geneva that ended the French war in Indochina.

The Baker Fellowships are part of the Baker Endowment, which was created by former Ohio University President John C. Baker and his wife, Elizabeth, in 1982 to fund peace studies initiatives at Ohio University.

The current holders of the Baker Fellowships are Department of History doctoral students Samuel E. Crowl and Tarik W. Kamil.