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Faculty & Staff

 
  • Georgia B. Bazemore
    Georgia B. Bazemore
    Assistant Professor - Department of History
    RRL 129D
    Phone: 509.359.2235
    Specializations: Ancient Greek and Roman History, Archaeology, Linguistics
  • Larry Cebula
    Larry Cebula
    Associate Professor - Department of History
    RRL 129K
    Phone: 509.359.6079
    Specializations: History of American Indians, American West, Public History
  • Michael F. Conlin (Ph.D., University of Illinois, 1999)
    Michael F. Conlin (Ph.D., University of Illinois, 1999)
    Associate Professor - Department of History
    RRL 129J
    Phone: 509.359.7851
    Vita: Download

    Specializations: Early Republic, Civil War, History of Science

    Specializations: Antebellum and U.S. Civil War, Slavery in the U.S., History and Philosophy of Science, Early American Republic, Atlantic History

    Michael Conlin's research focuses on public memory, sectional identity, and political conflict during the Antebellum Era of U.S. History (1846-1861) as well as the difficulties in repeating experiments, the idea of an experimentum crucis, and the influence of nationalism on scientific practice.

    Michael Conlin has published peer-review journal articles on Joseph Priestley's defense of Phlogiston Theory, Pierre-Auguste Adet's Revolutionary Diplomacy and Chemistry {Adet}, the Reception of the Foucault pendulum {pendulum}, and the Smithsonian Abolition Lecture Controversy {Smithsonian}.

    Michael Conlin's completed book manuscript "One Nation Divided by Slavery: Remembering the Founders while Marching toward the Civil War" examines how Americans in the two decades before the Civil War remembered their common past, in particular how they explained (or explained away) the presence of slavery during the American Revolution, in the lives of the Founders, and in the early republic. "One Nation Divided by Slavery" is currently under review by an academic press.  Listen to podcasts {3.14.2010_mp3} {7.4.2011_mp3} from Anthony Flinn's radio show "Just a Theory" (KSFC FM 91.1) which discuss parts of "One Nation Divided by Slavery."

    Michael Conlin has begun to write the book manuscript "South Carolina versus Massachusetts: Sectional Extremes in a Hegelian Regress to Civil War," which examines how caricatures and stereotypes of Northern Abolitionists and Southern Fire-Eaters - Boston Garrisonians and Palmetto Calhounites -- exacerbated the sectional conflict, by crowding out the middle ground and reducing the other side to its most radical elements.

    In addition to being named a Visiting Scholar by the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina, Michael Conlin has won research fellowships from the Virginia Historical Society (Richmond, VA), the Maryland Historical Society (Baltimore, MD), the Filson Historical Society (Louisville, KY), the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (New York City, NY), the North Caroliniana Society (Chapel Hill, NC), and the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry (Philadelphia, PA). 

    Michael Conlin has presented his research at several scholarly venues, including the Virginia Historical Society (Richmond, VA), the Center for Civil War Research, University of Mississippi (Oxford, MS), the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies, Graduate Center/CUNY (New York City), the Charles Warren Center for the Study of American History, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), and the Arnold O. Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA).

    Michael Conlin teaches classes on early U.S. history, slavery, and the history and philosophy of science. His upper-level courses include:

    • History 406: Darwin and his Discontents: the Creation-Evolution Controversy

    • History 466: Slavery in the United States and its Colonial Antecedents

                • History 472: Early American Republic, 1787-1826

                • History 473: The Jacksonian Era, 1824-1848

                • History 475: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1848-1877

                • History 490 History of Geology, 1786-1978

                • History 534: Graduate Seminar on 19th Century American History

    Michael Conlin has won the Century Tel Achievement Award for excellence in teaching at Eastern Washington University and has been named the Most Influential Faculty Member by the Edmund J. Yarwood & Jeffers Chertok Dean's Honor Student on four occasions.

     

  • Robert Dean
    Robert Dean
    Associate Professor & Graduate Director - Department of History
    RRL 129C
    Phone: 509.359.7953
    Vita: Download
    Specializations: 20th Century U.S. History, Cultural History, Gender
  • Scott Finnie
    Scott Finnie
    Affiliated Faculty Professor
    204 Monroe Hall
    Phone: 509-359-6152
    Scott Finnie has a doctorate degree in leadership studies with a special emphasis on U.S. race relations from Gonzaga University. He has taught a wide variety of African American courses at EWU since 1993. As a consultant in cultural competency and ethnic history over the past several years, Finnie is excited about the opportunity that these courses provide for students to enhance their appreciation and understanding of the dynamics that shape our multicultural society. 
  • Jerry Garcia
    Jerry Garcia
    Affiliated Faculty Professor
    203 Monroe Hall
    Phone: 509.359.6146
  • Kathleen Huttenmaier
    Kathleen Huttenmaier
    Senior Associate Lecturer - Department of History
    RRL 113
    Phone: 509.359.4824
    Specializations: Women's History, Social Studies Education
  • James Kieswetter
    James Kieswetter
    Professor - Department of History
    RRL 114
    Phone: 509.359.6086
    Vita: Download
    Specializations: French History, 19th and 20th Century Europe, Military History
  • Ann C. Le Bar
    Ann C. Le Bar
    Associate Professor - Department of History
    RRL 129B
    Phone: 509.359.6084
    Vita: Download
    Specializations: Early Modern European History, Cultural/Intellectual History, German History, Historiography
  • Joseph Lenti
    Joseph Lenti
    Faculty
    RRL 129G
    Phone: 509-359-7951
    Vita: Download
  • Laura L. Phillips
    Laura L. Phillips
    Professor - Department of History
    RRL 129B
    Phone: 509.359.6025
    Vita: Download
    Specializations: Russian History, Eastern European History, Comparative Social History, European Gender History, Historical Methods
  • Robert Sauders
    Robert Sauders
    Assistant Professor - Departments of History and Anthropology
    Isle 109
    Phone: 509.359.6087
    Specializations: Middle East Studies
  • Edward R. Slack
    Edward R. Slack
    Professor and Chair of History- Department of History
    RRL 107
    Phone: 509.359.7954
    Vita: Download

    Specializations: Chinese History, East Asian History, World History

     

    Teaching Philosophy

    My philosophy of teaching is not something that I can sum up in a few words or so.  As a scholar who specializes in East Asian history, I see my role as that of a cultural broker, a bridge to foreign cultures and also a lens through which "the other" is refracted.  Having spent over half of my life learning about East and Southeast Asia, living in Taiwan, mainland China, and Hawaii, plus having a family that is literally one-half Chinese (my wife is Chinese and my son one-half), I can speak with an authentic authority about matters related to my profession.  Confucius [Kong Qiu] once said "Enliven the ancient, and also know what is new; then you can be a teacher."  Perhaps this sagely advice still resonates with relevancy in our day, despite the fact that the twenty-first century world is vastly different from the times of East Asia's greatest teacher.

    I feel that to be a successful educator I must blend many diverse elements together to create an effective learning environment, a methodology that I term the "alchemy of teaching." These basic elements include knowledge, organization, delivery of information, interaction with the students, expanding their understanding and worldview, and promoting critical thinking skills, to name but a few.  My grand objective is that students take something more from the classroom than just a grade that fulfills a certain academic requirement.  Whether it is a new appreciation for an "exotic" culture, or an improvement in their writing skills, students need a class that was meaningful or worthwhile to them in some way, shape, or form.  Ultimately, this is the supreme test, in my mind, to being an effective educator.


     

     

  • Gerald Wilson
    Gerald Wilson
    Faculty
    RRL 116E
    Phone: 509-359-6083
  • J. William T. Youngs
    J. William T. Youngs
    Professor
    RRL 129H
    Phone: 509.359.6944
    Vita: Download
    Specializations: U.S. History, American Wilderness, Early America, History of Disease, History and New Media, Public History
  • Liping Zhu
    Liping Zhu
    Professor - Department of History
    RRL 129A
    Phone: 509.359.4703
    Vita: Download
    Specializations: American West, Asian-American History, Pacific Northwest History
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