Western Michigan University has brought together an engaged group of scholars working in the field of ethnohistory. Particular areas of expertise include culture contact, colonialism, material analysis, historiography, oral history, gender, historical archaeology, ethnography, tribalization, globalization, and modernization. These topics are not restricted to any particular geographic area nor any particular societal structure.

The core of ethnohistory lies in the realization shared by practitioners of the benefits obtained through the use of multiple lines of evidence to study history and culture. Ethnohistorians recognize that documents, archaeological findings, oral histories, and ethnographies can be profitably compared, contrasted, and integrated to elucidate the histories and cultural contexts of groups that have been ignored in conventional historical accounts. Thus, interdisciplinary study is incumbent in ethnohistory. By juxtaposing multiple lines of evidence, the ethnohistorian can at once examine the distant and the local, the general and the particular, bringing human experience into better focus.

The Ethnohistory Certificate is open to students enrolled in a graduate degree program at Western Michigan University. The Certificate requires that students take 15 credit hours of Ethnohistory courses, at least one of which is outside of their home department. Students will also take the Ethnohistory seminar that will be taught every year, alternating between the Departments of History and Anthropology. Students must take the course once in each department.

Brochures
Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)
Microsoft Word (.doc)

Faculty List

Links
Ethnohistory Website

Faculty
Beyan, Amos (History, Africana Studies) African & African-American History, Colonization, Slave Trade

Brandão, José António (History) North American Indian, New France, Comparative Colonial, Iroquois

Chiarappa, Michael (History) Folklife Studies, Oral History, Maritime, Great Lakes, Pacific Islands

Cremin, William (Anthropology) Archaeology, Great Lakes, Culture Contact

Faires, Nora (History) 19th and 20th-Century America, Gender, Migration, Race and Ethnicity

Haight, Bruce (History ) West Africa, Islam, Artistic Traditions

Julien, Catherine (History) Inca, Colonial Latin America, Historical Archaeology

Kachun, Mitch (History) African-American, Historical Memory, Public Commemorations

Mirzeler, Mustafa (Africana Studies) Africa, oral history

Mrozik, Susanne (Comparative Religions) History of South Asian religions, Buddhism, Sanskrit literature, Ethics, Gender

Nassaney, Michael (Anthropology) Culture Contact, Historical Archaeology, Material Analysis, Eastern United States

Palmitessa, James R. (History) Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Everyday Life, Society & Religion, Urban History/Culture, Material Culture

Saillant, John (English, History) American Studies, early American Literature, Colonialism, Slavery, African-American diaspora

Smith, Frederick H. (Anthropology) Caribbean Ethnohistory, Historical Archaeology, Alcohol Studies

Straight, Bilinda (Anthropology) Oral History, Ethnography, Material Culture, African

Ulin, Robert (Anthropology) Europe and France, History and Anthropology, Theory

Zagarell, Allen (Anthropology) Tribal Groups in South Asia, Tribalism, Pastoralism