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Home: Department of History
B.S., Concordia College, River Forest; A.M. and Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Teaching Areas: Modern Europe
Research Areas: Austrian History and Culture; German Unification in the 19th and 20th Centuries; European Diplomacy in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Roy Austensen joined the faculty of Valparaiso University in 1992. He teaches courses on modern Europe, including Developments in Western Culture Through the Ages; Europe in the 19th Century; European Diplomacy in the 20th Century; and History and Literature of the Great War. His research interests have been in the area of Austrian and German history, especially the period of German unification in the 19th century. His publications include articles in The Journal of Modern History, International History Review, Historical Journal, German Studies Review, among others. He has received numerous awards for both his scholarship and his teaching, including the Chester Penn Higby Prize from the European Section of the American Historical Association (1980) and the Outstanding Teacher in the University award from Illinois State University (1986). He has been a Fulbright fellow in Austria and has held grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council for Learned Societies. Since 1992 Professor Austensen has served concurrently as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
B.A., St. Olaf College; M.A and Ph.D., Tulane University
Teaching and Research Areas: Twentieth Century America
Professor Berg joined the the History Department in l963 as instructor. He has served continuously in the Valparaiso University History Department since that time with the
exception of the academic year 1970-1971 when he taught for the University of Maryland
(Overseas Division). Professsor Berg currently teaches courses on Progressivism,
the Depression and World War II, the post-World War II Counterculture and Modern
America. In addition to book reviews published in a variety of journals, Prof. Berg has
written scholarly articles for Journalism Quarterly and the Historian, and has
contributed a chapter ("Protecting National Interests by Treaty: The Second London
Naval Conference, 1934-1936") to B.J.C. McKercher's Arms Limitation and Disarmament.
In his spare time Professor Berg likes to travel.
B.A., University of California at Santa Barbara; M.A., Ph.D. Duke University
Teaching and Research Areas: Colonial America, Nineteenth-Century United States, Chicago, Homelessness
Professor Bloom joined the History Department in the fall of 2000 as a Lecturer in History and the Humanities. He completed his Ph.D. at Duke University in the spring of 2001 and became an Assistant Professor of History at Valparaiso in 2004. His course offerings include Colonial America, the American Revolution, the Civil War and Reconstruction, History of Chicago, African American History, U.S. History through Sports, History of U.S. Immigration, and U.S. History through Film. He has written essays on the history of homelessness and on Malcolm X, and he is currently writing a manuscript entitled: ‘/Where Else Can They Go?’: Homelessness in Early Chicago, 1833-1871/. Professor Bloom is the faculty adviser for the history honors society, Phi Alpha Theta and also fulfills that role for the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity and the Pact Mentoring Group. In the wider community he serves as Co-chair of VALPO Reads a Book! Professor Bloom’s hobbies include: swimming, walking, and cleaning his office tomorrow.
B.A., University of Washington/Tacoma; M.A., Ph.D., University of Washington Additional graduate study at the Instituto Cultural de Oaxaca (Mexico), Hewlett Graduate Field School in Mexican History (Mexico), and the Advanced Oral History Summer Institute, University of California (Berkeley)
Teaching Areas: Modern and Colonial Latin America; Mexico; Revolutionary Movements in Latin America; Latino/a immigration and community in the U.S.
Research Areas: Popular Resistance; Latin America in the Cold War; Revolutionary Movements and Theory
Professor Blacker-Hanson joins the Valparaiso faculty in Fall 2007. She is particularly interested in diverse forms of social struggle in Latin America. Her doctoral dissertation is an analysis of the political leadership of teachers in one of Mexico’s most conflictive regions. Her work links the more frequently depicted popular resistance – revolutionary movements – with other forms of organizing for progressive change. She explores the intersection of long-standing popular opposition with the dynamics of the Cold War and the resulting ideological contradictions between nationalism and socialism. Her research and teaching share a common objective: to encourage civic engagement among students. Blacker-Hanson has taken students to study in Mexico, and has most recently taught at Bowdoin College in Maine. She looks forward to offering courses on modern Mexico; the Mexican Revolution of 1910; revolutionary movements in Latin America; U.S.-Latin American Relations, and Latin America in the Cold War. She has yet to find any spare time in need of filling, although the mercados of Mexico manage to attract any spare pesos in her pocket.
B.A., University of Pennsylvania; A.M. and Ph.D., Harvard University
Teaching and Research Areas: Early and Modern Europe, Germany, Religion, and German-American Studies
Professor Ostoyich joined the History Department in 2006 after having taught at The University of Montana. He is a former Notre Dame Erasmus Fellow and former Harvard Business School Research Associate. He received his Ph.D. in history from Harvard for his dissertation “The Transatlantic Soul: German Catholic Emigration during the Nineteenth Century.” The German Historical Institute (Washington, D.C.) has recently published his book, The German Society of Pennsylvania: A Guide to Its Book and Manuscript Collections. He is currently working on two book projects: the first (with Johannes Heil) is a broad history of confessional conflict in German history, and the second (with Birte Pfleger) is a biography of Kuno Francke (founder of the Busch-Reisinger Museum in Cambridge, Ma.). Professor Ostoyich’s research has been funded by such institutions as The Krupp Foundation, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the German Historical Institute, and the Charles Warren Center for American History (Harvard). At Valpo, Professor Ostoyich instructs general courses in Western Civilization and Modern European History, as well as, specialized courses in German History. In his spare time, he listens to the music of Richard Strauss, Beck, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and George Pasles’ Overlord. His lifelong pursuit is to emulate the Bee Gees.
B.A., Wheaton College; M.T.S., Regent College; Ph.D., Harvard University
Teaching and Research Areas: Medieval and Early Modern/Reformation Europe
Professor Rittgers joined the History Department in the fall of 2006 after having taught for seven years at Yale University. He is the first occupant of the Erich Markel Chair in German Reformation Studies. Professor Rittgers is interested in the religious, intellectual, and social history of late medieval and early modern Europe. His course offerings include Medieval Europe, Reformation Europe, The Theology of Martin Luther, Penitential Thought and Practice in the Christian Tradition, Christian Devotion in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Reformation Theology, and The European Enlightenment. His first research project examined how the Lutheran version of private confession shaped the politics and piety of the German Reformation. His book, The Reformation of the Keys: Confession, Conscience, and Authority in Sixteenth-Century Germany (Harvard University Press, 2004), was nominated for the American Society of Church History 2005 Philip Schaff Prize, and for the 2006 Columbia Council for European Studies Book Award. Professor Rittgers is currently working on a book project that examines the efforts of Protestant reformers to change the way their contemporaries understood and coped with suffering. The project is tentatively entitled The Reformation of Suffering: A Study of Pastoral Theology and Lay Piety in Early Modern Germany and Switzerland. Professor Rittgers has received research grants from the German Academic Exchange Service, the Lilly Endowment, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, Germany. He has also served on the Governing Council of the American Society of Church History. Professor Rittgers is married and has three sons. He enjoys hiking, soccer, playing with his kids, and watching Star Trek re-runs.
B.A., Pacific Lutheran University; M.A. & Ph.D., University of Chicago
Teaching Areas: Political and Social history of modern Africa and the Middle East
Research Area: The indigenous methods of peace, reconciliation and restorative justice in Ethiopia
Professor Chuck Schaefer joined the Department of History in 1994 and served as Chair from 1997 through 2006. Currently Professor Schaefer is the Chair of the International Service Program. Prior to arriving at Valparaiso University, he taught at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia from 1992 through 1994 as a Fulbright Lecturer. Teaching Areas: Professor Schaefer is interested in modern African and Middle Eastern history focusing specifically on political and social history. The courses he teaches on a regular basis include a survey course on African History and Society and upper level classes in twentieth century African history; modern Middle Eastern history; and topics courses on the British Raj in India. In addition, Professor Schaefer teaches twentieth century world history and a more ethnographic course on Global Perspectives. Research Areas: The focus of Professor Schaefer’s research is Ethiopia. Starting out as an economic historian, he analyzed Ethiopia’s integration into the world economy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries looking strictly as economic indices such as trade, capital creation, money supply and credit and lending in order to partially answer the question: Why is Ethiopia poor? The overarching question of his research shifted about ten years ago to: Why is there conflict in Ethiopia and what can be done about it? This new research initiative has ushered Professor Schaefer into rereading the hagiographic literature and imperial chronicles to ascertain indigenous methods of peace, reconciliation and restorative justice in Ethiopia. Some article titles include “Scriptures, qene and traditions of restorative justice in nineteenth century Ethiopia: Forgiveness with consequences”; “Reexamining the Ethiopian Historical Record on the Continuum between Vengeance and Forgiveness”; and “The Derg Trial versus Traditions of Restorative Justice in Ethiopia” published in The Ethiopian Red Terror Trials: Transitional justice & human rights denied, which he co-edited. Since January 2006 Professor Schaefer has accepted a volunteer position as Country Specialist for Ethiopia for Amnesty International-USA which consumes an inordinate amount of time. In his spare time he enjoys almost any activity or sport that takes place out-of-doors.
B.A., Mount Holyoke College; M.A., Ph.D., Duke University
Phone: (219) 464-6962
E-mail: Colleen.Seguin@valpo.edu
Teaching Areas: England, European Women, Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Research Areas: Early Modern England, European Women
Professor Seguin came to Valparaiso University as a Lilly Fellow in the Humanities in 1996. She is interested in the social and religious history of early modern Europe, particularly the histories of women and of families. Her course offerings include: Tudor Stuart England; History of Modern Britain; Gender, Spirituality, and Power: European Women, 1300-1700; The Origins of the Modern Family: Europe, 1400-1700; Medieval Europe; Developments in Western Culture through the Ages; and The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Her research focuses on the experiences of Catholic women in post-Reformation England. Her article, “Ambiguous Liaisons: Catholic Women’s Relationships with their Confessors in Early Modern England” (Archive for Reformation History, vol. 95, 2004) won the American Society of Church History’s Jane Dempsey Douglass Prize in 2006. Professor Seguin is currently working on a book project that examines Catholic women’s resistance to religious conformity in early modern England. She enjoys reading, walking, and watching classic films.
BA Amherst College, MCS Regent College, PhD Cambridge University
Teaching Areas: History and culture of China and Japan
Research areas: Late-Qing China, Protestant Christianity in China
Prof. Whitefield joined the VU History faculty in 2002. His primary research interest is in the intersection of late-Qing intellectual trends and Protestant mission Christianity in China. He is finishing work on a manuscript entitled: "Truth Wherever Found: The Christian Literature Society for China 1887-1911." He is also an observer of the modern house church movement in China and maintains contact with that community. Prof. Whitefield is a member of the Chinese and Japanese Studies program and has led numerous trips for students and faculty to Asia. His non-academic interests include chairmanship of his church outreach committee, international travel, Scrabble, and snowboarding.
Additions and corrections for this page may be directed to Colleen.Seguin@valpo.edu