Doctoral Alumni
The Department of History at Western Michigan University is proud of its doctoral alumni. Please send us your updated information.
2022
Dr. Matthew Penix
Ph.D. (2022) History, Western Michigan University
Dissertation Title: "German Imperialism and Applied Orientalism: Germans in Ottoman Lands, 1850-1918."
Advisor: Dr. Eli Rubin
Penix is an adjunct history instructor at Eastern Michigan University.
2021
Dr. Skylar Bre'z
Ph.D. (2021) History, Western Michigan University
Dissertation Title: "The Coalitions of National Women's History Month: Practicalities and Consequences"
Advisor: Ed Martini
Dr. Bre'z is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Grand Valley State University, teaching in Women and Gender Studies.
2020
Dr. John Byczynski
Dissertation Title: "Capitalism in North-central Minnesota, 1880-1940"
Advisor: Ed Martini
Dr. Byczynski is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Grand Rapids Community College.
Dr. Joshua D. Koenig
M.A. (2006) History, Southern Illinois University
Graduate Certificate (2003) Museum Studies, Southern Illinois University
B.A. (2001) Anthropology and German, Southern Illinois University
Dissertation Title: "Our Shared Vision: Public Depictions of the Trans-Mississippi American West"
Advisor: Ed Martini
2019
Dr. Peter Dobek
Dissertation Title: "Karczma/Taberna: Public Houses in Cracow during the Jagiellonian Dynasty"
Advisor: James Palmitessa
Dr. Dobek currently holds a VAP appointment at Grand Valley State University.
2017
Dr. David DiTucci
Dissertation Title: "Deadly Hostility: Feud, Violence, and Power in early Anglo-Saxon England"
Advisor: Robert Berkhofer, III
Dr. DiTucci teaches social studies at Suncoast Polytechnical High School in Sarasota, Florida.
Dr. Jack Goodman
Dissertation Title: "Slavery and Manumission in Fourteenth-Century Palermo"
Advisor: Larry Simon
Dr. Patrick Harris
Dissertation Title: "Primatus Hispaniae: Identity and Assimilation in Medieval Toledo"
Advisor: Larry Simon
Dr. David Terry
Dissertation Title: "Practicing Piracy: Violence, Identity, and Cultural Interaction in the Later Medieval Mediterranean"
Advisor: Larry Simon
Dr. Terry is a visiting instructor teaching at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, MI.
2016
Dr. Caitlyn Dial
M.A. (2009) History, Wayne State University
B.A. (2007) History, Michigan State University
Dissertation Title: "Only the River Remains: History and Memory of the Eastland Disaster in the Great Lakes Region, 1915-Present"
Advisor: Mitch Kachun
Dr. Dial is Executive Director at Michigan Women Forward (formerly the Michigan Women’s Historical Center and Hall of Fame) and Assistant Professor at Michigan State University, Lansing, MI
Dr. Thomas Mackie
Dissertation Title: "A Shrine for President Lincoln: An Analysis of 100 years of Lincoln Interpretation in Public History, 1909-2009"
Advisor: Mitch Kachun
Dr. Mackie was awarded the Hay-Nicolay Dissertation Prize by the Abraham Lincoln Association for his dissertation. He is currently teaching at Indiana University East in Indianapolis.
2015
Dr. Valerie Hampton
Master of Latin (2004) Medieval Latin, University of Florida
B.A. (2003) Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Dissertation Title: "Power Relations at the Cistercian Abbey of St. Mary at Rushen: With special interest in connections at Furness Abbey and influence through the Kingdom of the Isles"
Advisor: E. Rozanne Elder
Dr. Jamie McCandless
M.A. (2004) History, University of Utah
B.S. (1999) History, Southern Utah University
Dissertation Title: "A Difficult and Dangerous Thing": Religious Reform in Late Medieval Ulm, 1434-1532"
Advisor: Robert F. Berkhofer III
Dr. McCandless is a Lecturer in the History and Philosophy Department at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. Dr. McCandless’ position includes both online and traditional lecture courses in world history as well as upper-division courses in his specialization of medieval European history. Dr. McCandless was also a Scholar in Residence at the Newberry Library in Chicago where he did research on book culture and early printing in southwestern Germany.
2014
Dr. Stephen Staggs
M.A. (2002) History, Western Michigan University
B.A. (1994) Calvin College
Dissertation Title: "Gentiles by Nature: Indian-Dutch Relations in New Netherland/New York, 1562-1749"
Advisors: José A. Brandão and James Palmitessa.
Dr. Staggs is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of History at Calvin College.
2013
Dr. Brian Bradford
M.A. (2003) Central Michigan University
B.A. (2000) Spring Arbor University
Dissertation Title: "The Quranic Jesus: A Study of Parallels with Non-Biblical Texts"
Advisor: Paul Maier
Dr. Bradford is an independent scholar of early Islam. He continues to research and publish independently; he presented a 10-week radio program on Good Shepherd Catholic Radio on the origins of Islam and has conducted numerous lectures on the topic.
Dr. Katherine Ellison
M.A.(2006) American History, Central Michigan University
B.A.(2003) Education, Central Michigan University
Dissertation Title: “Building a House of Peace: The Origins of the Imperial Presidency and the Framework for Executive Power, 1933-1960.”
Advisor: Edwin Martini.
Dr. Ellison is the Director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Saginaw Valley State University and President of the Hemlock School District Board of Education. She was previously an adjunct at Saginaw Valley State University.
Dr. Anthony Frazier
Dissertation Title “'Air Too Pure for Slavery and the Rights of British Liberty': The Black Experience in London, 1772-1833”
Advisors: Judy Stone and Marion Gray.
Dr. Frazier is a tenure-track assistant professor at North Carolina Central University. He was recently selected as a 2021-22 National Humanities Fellow.
2012
Dr. David Zwart
M.A. (2004) History, California State University, Fresno
B.A. (1999) History and Education, Dordt College
Dissertation Title "Faithful Remembering: Constructing Dutch America in the 20th Century”
Advisor: Edwin Martini.
Dr. Zwart is an associate professor of history at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, where he teaches in the social studies education program in the history department. He was an assistant professor of history at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa from 2008 to 2012. He taught a wide range of courses from Ancient History to the History of American Evangelicanism as well as Teaching Methods for Secondary History Teachers with student teacher supervision. His research focused on Dutch-American ethnic identity in the twentieth century. Zwart has published in both national and international journals as well as presenting at numerous conferences. He served as president of the Association for the Advancement of Dutch-American Studies from 2013 to 2015.
2011
Dr. Gordon P. Andrews
M.A. (1996) Educational Leadership, Western Michigan University
B.S. (1984) History, Western Michigan University
Dissertation Title: “Charles Hamilton Houston: Civil Rights Attorney.”
Advisor: Nora Faires.
Dr. Andrews is an associate professor of history at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. He has taught a variety of subjects at the secondary education and university level, including social studies, education and history. Andrews' primary research interests focus on secondary education, gender, race and immigration. His dissertation was titled Undoing Plessy: Charles Hamilton Houston, Race, Labor and the Law, 1895-1950, and he is revising it for publication. In 2010, Andrews received the International Baccalaureate Educator of Distinction Award.
Book publications:
Undoing Plessy: Charles Hamilton Houston, Race, Labor and the Law, 1895-1950. New Castle upon Tyne, London: Cambridge Scholars Press. (February, 2014)
Collaboration and the Future of Education: Preserving the Right to Teach and Think Historically. New York: Routledge. (April, 2015) with Wilson Warren and James Cousins.
Dr. Karl Baughman
M.A. (2004) Historical Theology, Concordia Seminary
B.A. (2002) History, The Ohio State University
Dissertation Title: “Women of Foreign Superstition: Gender, Politics, and Christianity in the Roman Nobility, 57-324.”
Advisor: Paul L. Maier.
Dr. Baughman is an Associate Professor of History at Prairie View A&M University. His research and teaching interests center on the Roman Empire and early Christianity, and he dabbles a bit in the wider ancient Mediterranean and the connections between Classical and modern understandings about race and gender. He is the co-author of Parallel Lives: Romans and the American Founders, and several other articles and book chapters on the Roman Empire, early Christianity, and the teaching of Classics.
Dr. Irene E. Geisler
M.A. (2006) Eastern Michigan University
B.A. (1979) University of Michigan
Dissertation Title: “The Gendered Plight of Terror: Annexation and Exile in Latvia, 1940-53.”
Advisor: Marion W. Gray.
Dr. Geisler is Interim Dean at Glen Oaks Community College. She was previously Director of Tutoring and Testing at Glen Oaks. Irene has taught introductory courses in world and European history as a visiting assistant professor of history at Grand Valley State University. She was also a part time instructor at Western Michigan University. Her primary research interests are eastern Europe and the Baltic States, Russia/Soviet Union, gender, nationalism, migration, ethnicity and oral history. The focus of her research, “Into Diaspora: Gender, Annexation and Exile of Latvians 1940-1953,” examines the involuntary and forced migration of individuals due to war and aggression. Geisler is working on a series of articles on “Power Structures and the Problem of Sources: History Writing in Post-Soviet Latvia following 50 years of Soviet Annexation.” She is also in the process of revising her dissertation to publish it as a book. She received a 2011-12 Post-Doctoral Grant in Aid to conduct research at the Immigration History Research Center with the University of Minnesota: Minneapolis.
Dr. Samuel Ngovo
M.A. (2003) SUNY Binghamton
B.A. (1989) Cuttington University College (Liberia, West Africa)
Dissertation Title: “The Bandi of Northwestern Liberia: A Study of Social Change in Continuity in Bandi Society, 1900-64.”
Advisor: Amos Beyan.
Dr. Ngovo is a History Lecturer in the Department of History & Geography at Morgan State University specializing in the Africa diaspora.
2010
Dr. Brian Becker
M.A. (2002) Medieval History, Western Michigan University
B.A. (1999) History, University of Missouri: Columbia
Dissertation Title: “Mechanisms of Colonization in Action: Genoese Chios in the 14th and 15th Centuries.”
Advisor: Larry J. Simon.
Dr. Becker is an associate professor of ancient and medieval history at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. His primary training is in medieval European history, with a specific focus on the Mediterranean world, while his research revolves around cultural interaction, exchange and colonization in the eastern Mediterranean. Becker was a lecturer in medieval history at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee from 2009-11. He has taught courses in The Early and Later Middle Ages, Medieval Conquest and Colonization, and The Great Plague and Late Medieval Society. Becker’s research interests focus on the medieval Mediterranean and include cultural interaction exchange, and colonization; urban history and demography; forms of documentation; ways of knowing and memory; and historiography.
Dr. Travis Bruce
Ph.D. (2010) History, Western Michigan University
M.A. (2000) University of Poitiers
B.A. (1999) Portland State
Dissertation Title: “The Hispano-Muslim Taifa of Denia and the Medieval Mediterranean.”
Advisor: Larry J. Simon.
Dr. Bruce is a specialist of medieval intercultural relations. His research focuses on communications networks in the Western Mediterranean from the 11th to the 14th century. His first book, La taifa de Denia et la Méditerranée au XIe siècle, examined relations between the 11th-century Hispano-Muslim kingdom of Denia and the Christian and Muslim ports of the Mediterranean. The project drew on written sources in Latin, Arabic and Judeo-Arabic, and material sources such as ceramics and archaeological data. His new project examines relations between the ports of Pisa and Tunis during the 13th-14th centuries. This study specifically looks at relations between Italian and North African merchants, and will lead to a larger project on the role of translators as cultural facilitators between various Mediterranean communities. Before his position at McGill, Travis was an assistant professor of history at Wichita State University.
Dr. Christopher M. Jannings
M.A. (2004) History, Western Michigan University
B.A. (2001) History, Western Michigan University
Dissertation Title: “‘Through the Fog of War and the Haze of Years’: The Veterans History Project, a National Effort to Document and Preserve the 20th-Century American War Experience.”
Advisor: Kristin M. Szylvian.
2008
Dr. Robert H. Duke
M.A. (1987) Educational Leadership, Western Michigan University
M.A. (1980) History, Western Michigan University
B.A. (1974) Secondary Education, Western Michigan University
Dissertation Title: “Bilingual Education, Federalism, and the Political Culture of American Public Education, 1964-1980.”
Advisor: Nora Faires.
Dr. Duke served as assistant professor of history at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan from 2008 until his retirement in 2013. At EMU, he taught courses preparing students for positions in secondary education in addition to undergraduate and graduate coursework in U.S. History. His research focused on American political culture, especially the intersection of race and ethnicity with public education policies. Duke has extensive professional experience in K-12 education, having served as superintendent at Gull Lake and Mendon Community Schools, and director of curriculum, instruction and community services at Galesburg-Augusta Community Schools. During his doctoral studies, he taught four years as an instructor of record.
His research interests include Modern United States social, cultural, and political history, U.S. environmental history, and cultural exchange through agriculture. Duke’s book, LBJ and Grassroots Federalism: Congressman Bob Poage, Race, and Change in Texas was published by Texas A&M University Press in 2014. He is working on his next book, an organizational biography of Tillers International. Duke’s students selected him for recognition at the annual College of Education Celebration of Excellence Convocation at Eastern Michigan University three times. He also received the New Faculty Research Award and the Academic Service-Learning Fellowship in 2009, the Dean’s Program Initiative Award in 2010, and the EMU Foundation’s Women in Philanthropy Award in 2011. As a doctoral candidate at WMU, Dr. Duke received the Graduate College Teaching Effectiveness Award, the Robert Russell Writing Award, the Research and Creative Scholar Award, and the Gwen Frostic Doctoral Fellowship. In addition, he received the Albert Shanker Educational Research Award from Wayne State University and was named a Research Fellow by Baylor University’s Institute for Oral History.
2007
Dr. Ray DeBruler, Jr.
M.A. (1995) History, Eastern Michigan University
B.S. (1992) History, Central Michigan University
Dissertation Title: “Frontier Michigan, 1763-1837: Land Use and Settlement Patterns in Three Lower Peninsula Locations.”
Advisor: José A. Brandão.
Dr. DeBruler is a professor of history at Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek, Michigan, and has been teaching there full time since 2007. He has also taught at Kalamazoo Valley Community College and Western Michigan University. DeBruler’s research interests include land use and settlement patterns in Michigan, local history, and Jewish history. He is an avid speaker and presented at the Battle Creek Historical Society Speaker Series in Battle Creek in 2009 and 2010. DeBruler has also served as Research Fellow for Heritage Battle Creek since 2008.
Dr. J. Clay Johnson
M.A. (1999) Public History, Wright State University
B.A. (1997) History, Wright State University
Dissertation Title: “Flights Past: The Wright Brothers' Legacy and Dayton, Ohio.”
Advisor: Kristin M. Szylvian.
Dr. Johnson is the CEO of the Garst Museum, The National Annie Oakley Center, Darke County Research Center, and President of the Darke County Historical Society in Greenville, Ohio. His professional interests include museum and exhibit management, nonprofit administration, human resources management, artifact conservation, and records and archives management. Johnson’s research interests focus on American flight and military history. His current research is a book entitled Flights Past: The Wright Brothers’ Legacy and Dayton, Ohio, which examines the relationship between the legacy of the Wright brothers; Dayton, Ohio; and the Smithsonian. He has also published articles on the history of flight and aircraft.
Dr. S. Mark Veldt
M.A. (1999) History, Western Michigan University
B.A. (1973) Religion, Cornerstone University
Dissertation Title: “Jewish-Christian Relations in the Earliest Centuries A.D.”
Advisor: Paul L. Maier.
Dr. Veldt was associate pastor at Gun Lake Community Church in Wayland, Michigan, until 2012 when he became Leadership Coordinator at Church Leadership Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After completing his Ph.D. in ancient history in 2007, Veldt completed a two-year program of classes and examinations leading to ordination in the Reformed Church of America. He taught history at Western Michigan University, classics at Grand Valley State University, systematic theology, Bible survey, and church history for the Reformed Church in America, and spiritual formation at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan.
2006
Dr. Maureen O'Brien
M.A. (1995) University of Notre Dame
B.A. (1991) Benedictine College
Dissertation Title: “Power and Prayer as Reflected in ‘A Mirror of Monastic Perfection’: A Prosopographical Study of the Abbey of La Chaise-Dieu, 1043-1184.”
Advisor: E. Rozanne Elder.
Dr. O’Brein is associate professor at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. Her research and teaching interests include the Ancient World (Greek and Roman), Medieval Europe, Near/Middle East, Methods and Historiography, Ecclesiastical History, and Muslim/Jewish/Christian Relations. Her dissertation was titled "Far from the heart : the social, political, and Ecclesiastical milieu of the early abbots of La Chaise-Dieu, 1052-1184 ."
2005
Dr. Michael T. Martin
M.A. (1996) Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University
B.A. (1989) English, University of Iowa
Dissertation Title: “The Italian Homiliary: Texts and Contexts.”
Advisors: Thomas Amos and E. Rozanne Elder.
Dr. Martin is chair of history and associate professor of history and gender and women's studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. Martin’s research focuses on medieval Europe, specifically the sermon literature of the Carolingian period. He is transcribing the Latin text for a ninth-century commentary on the Psalms from Ireland, sourcing it and writing the introduction for the book. Martin has translated two ninth-century texts for a Benedictine monastic source reader. He is also developing a monograph that analyzes the dissemination of knowledge through pastoral theology of the Carolingian era. He also teaches ancient history, gender and women’s studies and honors courses at Fort Lewis and was the coordinator for the John F. Reed Honors Program from 2007-12. Martin has been an active supporter of the John F. Reed Library, serving on numerous committees and secured in 2005 grant funding to update its world history collection. He has taught at the State University of New York/Empire State College as a distance-learning instructor and Southwest Community College as an adjunct.
Martin is a member of numerous professional associations, including the International Medieval Sermon Studies Society, the Medieval Academy of America and the American Society of Irish Medieval Studies, among others. He is a member and former chair of the Board of Directors for the Sexual Assault Services Organization of Durango.
Dr. Andrea Yount Donovan
M.A. (1993) Western Michigan University
B.A. (1989) Education, Western Michigan University
Dissertation Title “William Morris and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings: 19th- and 20th-Century Historic Preservation in Europe.”
Advisor: Dale Porter.
Dr. Yount Donovan is associate professor of art and humanities at Minot State University where she has taught art history and humanities since 2007. She has a Ph.D. in European and Art History from WMU. Her degrees include work in painting, design, art education, art history, architectural history and historic preservation, European history and cultural studies. Teaching experiences range from elementary and secondary art education to post-secondary work with art history, European history and the humanities. Research experiences include a book publication titled William Morris and the Society for the Protection for Ancient Buildings, several journal articles and current research in symbolism in historic paintings and historic preservation and architecture. Active in Michigan and Arizona in painting, photography and singing, she continues her artistic pursuits in Minot by painting, working on her photography and participating in the Minot Chamber Choral. University service includes work with the General Education Committee, the Sustainability Committee and the Women’s Heritage Month Committee. She also is the Art Club advisor and is a Taube Art Museum board member.
2004
Dr. Lucia Curta
Ph.D. (2004) Western Michigan University
M.A. (1998) Western Michigan University
B.A. (1996) University of Bucharest
Dissertation Title: “The Nationality Rooms Program at the University of Pittsburgh: Imagined Communities in Showcases”
Advisor: John Norman.
Dr. Curta is an adjunct assistant professor of history at the University of Florida.
Dr. Stephanie J. Jass
M.A. (1994) American Culture Studies, Bowling Green State University
B.A. (1992) History, Valparaiso University
Dissertation Title: “Recipes for Reform: Americanization, Gender, and Foodways in Settlement Houses, 1890-1920”
Advisor: Marion Gray.
Dr. Jass is professor of history at Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan. She teaches courses on American history, gender and race, Native American history, historical methods, and women’s studies. Jass began teaching at Adrian College in 2005. She is very active in the Reacting to the Past community, a network of faculty dedicated to developing, publishing and promoting pedagogical games designed to improve student engagement. She is author of No Victory Without Work: A Pictorial History of Adrian College (2009) and A Guide on Legislation for Protection of Indian Burial Sites (1997).
Dr. Kevin M Kain
M.A. (1995) European History, Appalachian State University
B.A. (1990) History, University of North Carolina: Wilmington
Dissertation Title: “Patriarch Nikon's Image in Russian History and Culture.”
Advisor: John Norman.
Dr. Kain is senior lecturer in history and humanistic studies at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. His research and teaching interests include Modern Europe, Russian cultural and religious history, gender history, and the history of images. His book with Ekaterina Levintova, From Peasant to Patriarch: Account of Upbringing, and Life of His Holiness Nikon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (2007) provided the first English annotated translation of the account. Kain has been the recipient of several research grants, including a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, a Kennan Institute (Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars) grant and two recent awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung (Germany).
2003
Dr. Kevin B. Vichcales
Ph.D. (2010) History, Western Michigan University
M.A. (1994) Western Michigan University
B.A. (1990) Albion College
Dissertation Title: “The Tragedy of the Rivers: Building Authority over the British Water Environment”
Advisor: Dale Porter.
Dr. Vichcales is associate provost and dean of humanities in Arts and Social Sciences at the University of the Incarnate Word.
2002
Dr. Sharon Carlson
M.L.S. (2001) Library and Information Science, Wayne State University
M.P.A. (1991) Public Administration, Western Michigan University
B.S. (1987) Political Science, Western Michigan University
Dissertation Title: “Ladies Library Associations in Michigan: Women, Reform, and Use of Public Space.”
Advisor: Linda Borish.
Dr. Carlson is a professor emerita of the University Libraries and previous director of the WMU Archives and Regional History Collections. In addition to managing all aspects of the University Archives, Carlson also taught courses in history and library science at WMU. Her research interests focus primarily on American history, including American culture studies, material culture and public history. Carlson’s most recent publications include Archivists Partnering With Oral Historians: Documenting the Experiences of African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans in Librarians as Community Partners: An Outreach Handbook and Teaching American History: Archivists Partnering with Public Schools in Librarians as Community Partners: An Outreach Handbook. Carlson is an active presenter at professional organizations, most recently the Michigan Archival Association. Carlson is very active in community and campus programs, and she has consulted several historical societies in archival methods. In 2020-21, Carlson served as President of the Board of Trustees for the Historical Society of Michigan.
April R. Summitt
M.A. (1993) History, Andrews University
B.A. (1987) History and English, Newbold College, England, United Kingdom
Dissertation Title: “The Other New Frontier: John F. Kennedy and U.S.-Middle East Relations.”
Advisor: Ross Gregory.
Dr. Summitt is the provost at La Sierra University in southern California. Summitt is a leading expert on water culture and environmental history. Her primary research focuses on water issues in the American West, specifically the environmental histories of rivers and their watersheds. "I grew up near the Tennessee River and have always felt a strong connection to water. As I researched my Ph.D. dissertation on U.S.-Middle East relations during the Kennedy administration, I examined the conflict over dividing the waters of the Jordan River in Palestine. Later, after moving to a position at Arizona State University, I shifted my research focus to water in the American Southwest, where I studied the environmental history of the Colorado River and American Indian history of the West in connection to water and environment." Summitt has four books:
John F. Kennedy and U.S. - Middle East Relations: A History of Foreign Policy in the 1960s (2008)
Sacagawea: A Biography (2008)
Sequoyah and the Invention of the Cherokee Alphabet (2013)
Contested Waters: an Environmental History of the Colorado River (2013).
2001
Dr. Steven R. Cartwright
M.A. (1992) Western Michigan University
B.A. (1979) University of Michigan
Dissertation Title: “The Roman Commentaries of William of St. Thierry and Peter Abelard: A Theological and Methodological Comparison.”
Advisor: E. Rozanne Elder.
Dr. Cartwright was the acquisitions associate for Western Michigan University Libraries.
Dr. R. Clifford Jones
Doctor of Ministry (1989) New York Theological Seminary
M.A. (1979) Religion, Andrews University
B.A. (1976) History, Fitchburg State University
Dissertation Title: “Utopia Park, Utopian Church: James K. Humphrey and the Emergence of Sabbath-Day Adventists.”
Advisor: John Saillant.
Dr. Jones gave 19 years of service to the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary as associate dean and professor of Christian ministry, leaving in 2014 for his current role as president to the Lake Region Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. As professor of Christian ministry at Andrews University, he teaches courses in urban ministry, the church and social issues, issues in Black church leadership, Biblical preaching, and several other subjects. Jones’ book, James K. Humphrey and the United Seventh-day Adventists was published in 2006 and details the emergence of the Sabbath-Day Adventists. He edited Preaching With Power: Black SDA Preachers Share Secrets for Effective Preaching, a book of interviews of prominent African American Seventh-day Adventist preachers, published in 2005.
2000
Dr. Robert Galler
M.A. (1994) History, The University of South Dakota
B.A. (1985) English, The State University of New York at Albany
Dissertation Title: “Environment, Cultures, and Social Change on the Great Plains: A History of Crow Creek Tribal School.”
Advisor: Don Fixico.
Dr. Galler is a professor of history at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota and specializes in Native American history. He is working on a book titled A History of Crow Creek Tribal School for which he is under contract with the University of Nebraska Press. Galler is also a frequent presenter at teacher training workshops and programs in Native American studies. He presented at the National Indian Education Association in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2009; on the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation in central South Dakota in 2010; at workshops connected to the Teaching American History grant program in Thief River Falls and Bemidji in 2010; at the Native Studies Summer Workshop for Educators at the White Earth Reservation in 2010; and at the Minnesota Historical Society-sponsored Central Minnesota Teachers Academy in 2010. Galler developed and organized an extensive public programming schedule pertaining to the display of “Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country,” a National Endowment for the Humanities exhibit in 2009. In 2009, his article “Sustaining the Sioux Confederation: Yanktonai Initiatives and Influence on the Sioux Confederation, 1680-1880,” Western Historical Quarterly 39 (Winter 2008) was nominated for the Michael P. Malone and Arrell Gibson (Western Historical Association) Awards.
He recently published an article in The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Titled “Councils, Petitions, and Delegations: Crow Creek Activism and the Progressive Era in Central South Dakota,” Dr. Galler’s article argues that Native people were quite active in their reservation communities during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dr. Galler’s case study reveals numerous similarities and distinctions between Indian and non-Indian people in terms of progressive activities. See The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 16 (2017), 206-227.
1999
Dr. Juleen Audrey Eichinger
M.A. (1992) Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University
M.A. (1980) Comparative Religion, Western Michigan University
B.A. (1973) Home Economics Education, Western Michigan University
Dissertation Title: “Muggletonians: A People Apart.”
Advisor: E. Rozanne Elder.
Dr. Eichinger is the owner of an editorial business, Eichinger Communications, LLC in Tucson, Arizona. Her business provides editorial services to scholars and publishers, specializing in Medieval studies, history and literature. In addition to academic editing, she also provides technical editing, print publication, teaching and writing services. Eichinger served as production editor at WMU's Medieval Institute Publications for many years. She also was director of communications for WMU’s Research and Graduate Studies before moving to Arizona.
1998
Dr. Florin Curta
M.A. (1999) Medieval Studies, Cornell University
M.A. (1995) History, Western Michigan University
B.A. (1988) History and Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Romania
Dissertation Title: “Making an Early Medieval Ethnie: The Case of the Early Slavs”
Advisor: Lucian Rosu.
Dr. Curta is a specialist in medieval history and archaeology and a professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Curta has taught a wide array of courses on medieval ethnicity, economic and social history, religion, and archaeology. Curta has published four books, edited four others, and is the author of many chapters, articles, papers, and presentations. His most recent book, The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, c. 500 to 1050 (2011), explores the relation between the presence of Byzantine troops and the rise of a landed aristocracy in early medieval Greece. He also wrote The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, A.D. 500-700 (2001) which was named a 2002 Choice Outstanding Academic Title and won the Herbert Baxter Adams Award of the American Historical Association in 2003. His second book, Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250 (2006), was published with Cambridge University Press. His third book, Text, Context, History, and Archaeology: Studies in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (2009), is a collection of studies which explores a wide variety of themes, from language, philosophy and religion in Late Antiquity to medievalism and nationalism, as well as power in the early Middle Ages. Curta is the recent recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. He received WMU’s College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Achievement Award in 2003. Curta has appeared on several History Channel specials.
Dr. Cheryl H. Lyon-Jenness
M.S. (1972) Biological Science, University of Michigan
B.A. (1970) English Literature, Kalamazoo College
Dissertation Title: “For Shade and Comfort: Ornamental Plants and Concepts of Home in the Mid-19th-Century Midwest”
Advisor: Linda Borish.
Dr. Lyon-Jenness retired in 2011 as the director of undergraduate studies in the Department of History at WMU, where she taught courses in 19th and 20th century United States history and in women's history. Her research interests focus on horticultural history with emphasis on ornamental plants as material culture. Lyon-Jenness’s 2004 book, For Shade and For Comfort: Democratizing Horticulture in the Nineteenth-Century Midwest explores the mid-nineteenth-century boom in horticultural interest and analyzes its cultural significance. She contributed a chapter to Mapping in Michigan and the Great Lakes Region, which received the 2008 Historical Society of Michigan Award and 2008 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award, Gold Medal for Regional Books. Lyon-Jenness has also contributed a multitude of papers, articles and presentations on horticultural and agricultural history.
1997
Dr. Charles Johnson
Ph.D. (1997) History, Western Michigan University
Dissertation Title: “The National German-American Alliance, 1901-1918 cultural politics and ethnicity in peace and war.”
Advisor: Ross Gregory.
Dr. Johnson is a professor of history and coordinator for international studies at Valdosta State University. His areas of research include the United States since 1877, US diplomatic history, American studies and German history and cultural studies since 1700.