History

Department Head: Molly Michelmore; michelmorem@wlu.edu; 540-458-8779

Academic Division: The College

History examines the past through various lenses — social, political and intellectual; textual and material — enriching us as individuals and preparing us to engage the complexities and ambiguities of the contemporary world. Join us!

Our department of a dozen faculty members offers a variety of courses and perspectives on the remote and recent histories of the United States, Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and East Asia. It supports programs in Africana Studies, East Asian Studies, Environmental Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Russian Area Studies, and Women and Gender Studies, and offers courses in the history of science. History courses emphasize careful reading and analysis of original sources in order to approach the past on its own terms. But we also stress that studying history is an interpretive process requiring attention to methods, theories, and scholarly debates. The training students receive in research skills, critical analysis, and expository writing prepares them to pursue careers in business, education, law, public service and a variety of other professions. The History major is compact enough that many students choose to double major, add a minor, or just sample broadly the rest of the W&L curriculum.

Honors: The History Department offers an Honors Program in history for qualified students; see the department head or department web page for details.

Note: History courses are numbered according to the following scheme. Within the 200 and 300 levels, the last two digits indicate the following groupings:

00-29 European History
30-69 United States, Canadian, and Latin American History
70-89 African, Asian and Global History

Offerings

History, B.A.  

Faculty

First date is the year in which the faculty member began service as regular faculty at the University. Second date is the year of appointment to the present rank.

Kameliya Atanasova, Ph.D.—(2017)-2017
Assistant Professor of History and Religion
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Henryatta Ballah, Ph.D.—(2020)-2020
Assistant Professor of History
Ph.D, The Ohio State University

David A. Bello, Ph.D.—(2004)-2016
Elizabeth Otey Professor of History
Ph.D., University of Southern California

Michelle Diane Brock, Ph.D.—(2014)-2024
Professor of History
Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin

Nneka D. Dennie, Ph.D. —(2020)-2020
Assistant Professor of History
Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Romina Green, Ph.D.—(2022)-2022
Assistant Professor of History
Ph.D. University of California, Irvine

Alana Holland, Ph.D.—(2024)-2024
Assistant Professor of History
Ph.D., University of Kansas

Sarah Horowitz, Ph.D.—(2008)-2020
Professor of History
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

Molly Michelmore, Ph.D.—(2006)-2020
Professor of History
Ph.D., University of Michigan

Barton A. Myers, Ph.D.—(2013)-2022
Martin and Brooke Stein Professor of History
Ph.D., University of Georgia

Nicolaas A. Rupke, Ph.D.—(2012)-2012
Johnson Professor of History
Ph.D., Princeton University

Franklin Sammons, Ph.D—(2021)-2023
Assistant Professor of History
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

Melissa E. Vise, Ph.D.—(2018)-2023
Associate Professor of History
Ph.D. Northwestern University