About Us

The History Department teaches students history with special responsibility for the education of history majors and minors, secondary education social studies majors, and Associates of Arts; engages in scholarly research and publication; and serves the University, the profession, and the community.

Goals

Students who complete the B.A. degree in history should:

1. Possess broad knowledge and some specialized understanding of the diverse historical pasts of America, Europe, and the World;
2. Understand the basic scientific and humanistic methodology of history as an intellectual discipline including the direct experience of evaluating primary sources and secondary literature;
3. Demonstrate the ability to read, analyze, and write about historic topics;
4. Recognize historical analyses of human experience as the basic outlook of modern culture; and
5. Be equipped to continue historical studies throughout life.

Students who complete an introductory course in history at the 100- or 200-level should learn:

1. The basic narrative of events and their historical context within the temporal and geographical framework of the course; and
2. The relations of the past to the culture and society of today.

Students who complete the Associate of Arts degree in history should:

1. Have a basic introductory knowledge of the history of the United States, Europe, and other world areas;
2. Have a basic understanding of history as a method of intellectual investigation;
3. Appreciate the relationship of the past to the culture and society of today; and
4. Have a foundation for making a decision to continue toward the B. A. in history.

Assessment

1. Internal exit:  A. A. graduates will be sent an exit questionnaire adapted from that sent to B. A. recipients, asking about the effectiveness of the program and if they plan to continue for the B. A. in history or a related field.
2. External exit:  The percentage of A. A. degree recipients who successfully complete the B. A. degree will be measured four and eight years following completion of the A. A. degree.
3. Review of the A. A. program will take place every fifth year during the spring semester, concurrently with and by the same committee as assessment of the B. A. degree.

Full-Time Faculty

Christine K. Erickson, Associate Professor
E-mail: ericksoc@ipfw.edu
Office: LA279
Office Hours: TR - 11:45-1:15 p.m.
Phone: 260-481-6695

Christine Erickson (U.S. Women's History; 20th C. U.S.) is a graduate of the University of Montana and received her Ph.D. from the University of California Santa Barbara in 1999. Her publications include, but are not limited to, "'I have not had One Fact Disproven': Elizabeth Dilling's Crusade Against Communism in the 1930s," in Journal of American Studies, "'Kluxer Blues': The Klan Confronts Catholics in Butte, Montana, 1923-1929," in Montana: The Magazine of Western History and "'So much for men': Conservative Women and National Defense in the 1920s and 1930s," in American Studies.

Bernd Fischer, Professor and Chair
E-mail: fischer@ipfw.edu
Office: LA205
Office Hours:  On Sabbatical
Phone: 260-481-6698

Bernd Fischer (Balkans, Ottoman Empire) received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1982. His publications include, but are not limited to, King Zog and the Struggle for Stability in Albania (1984); Albania at War, 1939-1945 (1999); "Kollaborationsregime in Albanien, 1939-1944" in Europe unterm Hakenkreuz- Okkupation und Kollaboration, 1938-1945; and an edited volume entitled Balkan Strongmen: Dictators and Authoritarian Rulers of Southeast Europe, Purdue University Press, 2007. 

Benton Gates, Continuing Lecturer
E-mail: gatesb@ipfw.edu
Office: Walb Union, 235
Office Hours: MW - 11:00-12:00 noon and M - 1:00-2:00 p.m. 
Phone: 260-481-6993

Ben Gates (colonial America, American religious, Constitutional) received his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1996.  Ben teaches courses through Continuing Studies and was awarded the IPFW Continuing Studies Excellence in Teaching Award in 2007.  He is also the Campus Minister at IPFW.

Eleanor Hannah, Visiting Associate Professor
E-mail: hannahe@ipfw.edu
Office: LA223
Office Hours: - W - 10:00-12:00
Phone: 260-481-0148

Eleanor L. Hannah (Nineteenth and Twentieth Century US Social and Cultural history, Military, Gender, Regional and Local history) received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1997.  Her publications include, but are not limited to, Manhood, Citizenship and the National Guard, Illinois, 1870-1917 (2007); “A Place in the Parade: Citizenship, Manhood and African-American Men in the Illinois National Guard, 1870 – 1917,” ch. 5, Brothers to Buffalo Soldiers: Black Citizen Soldiers (2011), “Soldiers under the Skin: Diversity of Race, Ethnicity, and Class in the Illinois National Guard, 1870-1916,” American Nineteenth Century History, 8:3 (2007); and “From the Dance Floor to the Rifle Range: The Evolution of Manliness in the Illinois National Guard,” the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 6:2 (2007).

Suzanne M. LaVere, Assistant Professor
E-mail: laveres@ipfw.edu
Office: LA201
Office Hours: - MW - 2:30-4:00 p.m.
Phone: 260-481-6696Suzanne LaVere (Medieval Europe, Medieval Islam) received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2010. Her publications include "From Contemplation to Action: The Role of the Active Life in the Glossa Ordinaria on the Song of Songs," in Speculum, January 2007.  This article received the Van Courtland Elliot Prize from the Medieval Academy of America for best article in medieval studies.  Professor LaVere's dissertation entitled "Out of the Cloister: Scholastic Exegesis of the Song of Songs, 1100-1340" was awarded the Harold Perkin Prize for the best dissertation of the year by the History Department of Northwestern University.


Ann Livschiz, Associate Professor
E-mail: livschia@ipfw.edu
Office: LA275
Office Hours:  WF - 11:00-12:00 p.m.; W - 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Phone: 260-481-6693

Ann Livschiz (Russian and Soviet, Central Asia, World, gender and women's) received her  Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2005. Her dissertation was titled "Growing Up Soviet:   Childhood in the Soviet Union, 1918-1958."  Her publications include, but are not limited to, "De-Stalinizing Children: The Quest for Moral Rebirth," in Negotiating Cultural and Social Change in the Khrushchev Era, ed. by Polly Jones; "Pre-Revolutionary in Form, Soviet in Content? Wartime Educational Reforms and the Postwar Quest for Normality," for History of Education Special Issue Making Education Soviet, 1917-1953; and "Battling 'Unhealthy relations:' Soviet Youth Sexuality as a Political Problem," Special Issue of The Journal of Sociology, "The History of Sexuality of Childhood and Youth." 

Jeffrey Malanson, Assistant Professor 
E-mail: malansoj@ipfw.edu
Office: LA203
Office Hours:  MW - 10:00-12:00 p.m.
Phone: 260-481-6694

Jeffrey Malanson (early American Republic, American foreign policy, colonial and revolutionary America) received his Ph.D. from Boston College in 2010.  His dissertation is titled "Addressing America: Washington's Farewell and the Making of National Culture, Politics, and Diplomacy, 1796-1852."  His publications include, but are not limited to, "'Entangling Alliances with None': John Quincy Adams, James K. Polk, and the Impact of Conflicting Interpretations," The New England Journal of History; "The Congressional Debate over U.S. Participation in the Congress of Panama, 1825-1826: Washington's Farewell Address, Monroe's Doctrine, and the Fundamental Principles of U.S. Foreign Policy," Diplomatic History; and "Comparison of the Structure and Accuracy of Two Land Change Models," International Journal of Geographical Information Science (with Robert G. Pontius Jr.).

David G. Schuster, Associate Professor
E-mail: schusted@ipfw.edu
Office: LA 277
Office Hours: MWF - 12:00-1:00 p.m.
Phone: 260-481-6697

David G. Schuster (19th & Early 20th Century Culture, Medicine & Society) received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2006. He is the author of a book titled "Neurasthenic Nation: America's Search for Health, Happiness, and Comfort, 1869-1920."  (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2011)  He is also the author of two articles: “Personalizing Illness and Modernity: S. Weir Mitchell, Literary Women, and Neurasthenia, 1870-1914,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 75 (Winter 2005): 695-722 and "Neurasthenia and a Modernizing America," Journal of the American Medical Association290 (November 5, 2003): 2327-2328. 

Richard H. Weiner, Associate Professor and Acting Chair
E-mail: weinerr@ipfw.edu
Office: LA207
Office Hours: TR - 10:30-12:00 p.m.
Phone: 260-481-6692

Richard Weiner (Latin America) is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts and received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Irvine in 1999. He is the author of Race, Nation and Market: Economic Culture in Porfirian Mexico and (with Raul A. Galoppe, eds.) Explorations in Subjectivity, Borders, and Demarcation.

Emeritus Faculty

John P. Bell (Latin America) received his Ph.D. from Tulane University in 1968. He is the author of Crisis in Costa Rica: the 1948 Revolution. Before coming to IPFW he taught at the College of William and Mary and served for two years in the U.S. foreign service.

Gary B. Blumenshine (Medieval Europe, Roman, Historiography) is a graduate of Northwestern University and received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1973. His edition of Liber Alcuini Contra Haeresim was published in Studi e Testi (1980).

Louis Cantor (Modern U.S.) received his Ph.D. from Duke University in 1963.He is the author of A Prologue to the Protest Movement, Wheelin' on Beale: How WDIA Memphis became the Nation's First All-Black Radio Station and Created the Sound that Changed America and Dewey and Elvis: The Life and Times of a Rock 'n' Roll Deejay (2005).

James A. Haw   (U.S. Colonial, American Revolution) received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1972. He is the principal co- author (with Francis F. Beirne, Rosamond R. Beirne and R. Samuel Jett) of Stormy Patriot: the Life of Samuel Chase (1980) and the author of John and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina (1997).

Clifford H. Scott (American, Ethnic and Social Conflict) received his Ph.D. at The University of Iowa in 1968. He is the author of Lester Frank Ward and articles on ethnic conflict in America.

Aurele J. Violette (World History, Russia and the Soviet Union) is a graduate of Bowdoin College and received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 1971. His articles have appeared in the Slavonic and East European Review, the European Studies Review, and the Indiana Magazine of History. He has written the article on the "French" in Peopling Indiana:the Ethnic Experience (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1996). His most recent publication is Fort Wayne. Images of America Series (Arcadia, 1999)

Limited-Term Lecturers

• John Bequette, Ph.D., University of Saint Louis (2001), M.A. (1996)
  
• Stanley Campbell , J.D., Indiana University (1976), M.A., Ball State (1982)
• David Coles, Ph.D., Yale (1983), M.Div., Concordia Theological Seminary (1986)
• Richard Hertel, M.S., St. Francis College (1972)
• Cameron MacKenzie, Ph.D. University of Notre Dame (1992)
• Saneta Maiko, Ph.D., Concordia Theological Seminary (2007)
• Jill Nussel, Ph.D., Toledo (2006)
• Carter Ringle, M.A., Chicago (2009)
• Alan Terlep, Ph.D., Chicago Divinity School (2010)
• Sam Thorn, M.S.Ed., Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (1981)
• Deanna Wooley, ABD, Indiana

Barbara L. Blauvelt

Secretary

• Phone: 260-481-6686
• Office: LA209
• Fax: 260-481-6985
• Email: blauvelt@ipfw.edu

Barbara L. Blauvelt has been secretary of the history and political science departments from 1970 to the present, and secretary of the Fort Wayne Senate from 1980 to 2002. Ms. Blauvelt has been with IPFW since 1969.