Connor Cottrell is an alum of the CHRM program, having received his master's degree in 2023. His thesis is titled An Oral History and Archeological Study of Nineteenth-Century Dugouts and Sod Homes in Frontier County, Nebraska. Cottrell examines the distinctive material and narrative legacies of frontier architecture in dugouts and sod homes in Frontier County, NE during the westward expansion under the Homestead Act of 1862. He coupled oral histories with archaeological evidence to show how more ephemeral architectural forms are made to endure through narrative and reconstructive practices.