Matthew R. Bahar is currently in his second year of the PhD program, and arrived with an M.A. in history from St. Cloud State University in 2006.  His M.A. thesis examined the cultural interaction of Amerindians and Jesuit missionaries in seventeenth-century New France.  He is now working with Prof. Joshua Piker on colonial-era Amerindians in North American frontiers.  His interests also include the influence of native and European religions in this cultural exchange.