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History Faculty


  • Department Chair

  • Matthew Pinsker
    Associate Professor of History, Pohanka Chair in American Civil War History (2002).
    Denny Hall Room 218
    pinskerm@dickinson.edu
    (717) 245-1350

  • Department Faculty

  • Stephen Weinberger

    Stephen Weinberger
    Robert Coleman Professor of History (1969).
    Denny Hall Room 217
    (717) 245-1500 | weinberg@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Northeastern University, 1965; M.A., University of Wisconsin, 1966; Ph.D., 1969.

    His teaching interests center on medieval and Renaissance history, European intellectual history, and the history of film. His current research involves conflict in medieval society, and censorship in the American film industry.

  • Neil B. Weissman

    Neil B. Weissman
    Provost and Dean of the College, Russell I. Thompson Chair of the Dean of the College, Professor of History (1975).
    West College (Old West) 2nd Floor
    (717) 245-1321 | weissmne@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Colgate University, 1970; M.A., Princeton University, 1972; Ph.D., 1976.
    Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, 1984-1985.

    His areas of specialization involve the comparative history of Russia, Japan, and Germany, with emphasis on the impact of revolution and modernization on traditional societies and cultures. His research deals with police and deviance in early Soviet Russia.

  • Kim L. Rogers

    Kim L. Rogers
    Professor of History (1983).
    239 W Louther St
    (717) 245-1517 | rogersk@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Florida State University, 1973; M.A., University of Minnesota, 1976; Ph.D. 1982.

    Her teaching interests center on recent U.S. history, urban America, and gender and family history. Research interests include biography and autobiography, oral history, and life-course analysis.

  • David D. Commins

    David D. Commins
    Professor of History, Benjamin Rush Chair in the Liberal Arts and Sciences (1987).
    Denny Hall Room 205
    (717) 245-1015 | commins@dickinson.edu | Visit Web Site
    B.A., University of California at Berkeley, 1976; Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1985.

    His teaching interests are in modern Middle Eastern history with an emphasis on Islamic thought and political movements. His most recent book is The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia. Current projects include a textbook on the modern history of the Persian Gulf and an introduction to Islam in contemporary Saudi Arabian society.

  • Marcelo Borges

    Marcelo Borges
    Associate Professor of History (1997).
    Denny Hall Room 111
    (717) 245-1186 | borges@dickinson.edu | Visit Web Site
    Licenciado en Historia, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 1988; Profesor en Historia, 1988; Ph.D., Rutgers University, 1997.

    He teaches Latin American, Iberian, and comparative history. His current research deals with transatlantic migration from Portugal to Latin America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly to Argentina; and with migration, identity and community formation in the oil fields of Patagonia, Argentina.

  • Karl D. Qualls

    Karl D. Qualls
    (on leave 2011-12)
    Associate Professor of History (2000).
    Kaufman Hall Room 181
    quallsk@dickinson.edu | Visit Web Site
    B.A., University of Missouri at Columbia, 1993; Ph.D., Georgetown University, 1998.
    Ganoe Award for Inspirational Teaching, 2003-04.

    His teaching interests include Russian and German history, comparative revolutions (political, social, and cultural), dictators, urban history, and more. His new book "From Ruins to Reconstruction: Urban Identity in Soviet Sevastopol after World War II" (Cornell, 2009) overturns notions of totalitarianism, investigates the creation of historical myths, and outlines the role of monuments and urban space in identity formation in a city torn between Ukraine and Russia. He is currently working on a new book about children who fled the Spanish Civil War and were raised in the Soviet Union.

  • Regina M. Sweeney

    Regina M. Sweeney
    Associate Professor of History (2001).
    Denny Hall Room 310
    (717) 245-1682 | sweeneyr@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Tufts University,1980; M.A., University of California-Berkeley, 1986; Ph.D., 1992.

  • Matthew Pinsker

    Matthew Pinsker
    Associate Professor of History, Pohanka Chair in American Civil War History (2002).
    Denny Hall Room 218
    (717) 245-1350 | pinskerm@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Harvard University, 1990; D.Phil., University of Oxford, 1995.

    Pinsker teaches courses in U.S. political, legal and diplomatic history. His research focuses on the career of Abraham Lincoln, partisanship in the Civil War era, American constitutionalism, the Underground Railroad and the history of U.S. campaigns and elections.

  • Jeremy R. Ball

    Jeremy R. Ball
    Associate Professor of History (2005).
    Althouse Hall Room G10
    (717) 254-8191 | ballj@dickinson.edu | Visit Web Site
    B.A., Boston College, 1994; M.A., Yale University, 1998; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 2003.

    He teaches courses in African political and ecological history, apartheid, the Atlantic slave trade, and human rights. His research focuses on the labor and business history of Angola, Portuguese colonialism, and oral history.

  • Christopher J. Bilodeau

    Christopher J. Bilodeau
    Assistant Professor of History (2006).
    Denny Hall Room 302
    (717) 245-1385 | bilodeac@dickinson.edu
    B.A., University of Vemont, 1991; M.A., Brown University, 1994; M.A., Columbia University, 1998; Ph.D., Cornell University, 2006.

    He focuses his research on the history of American Indian-European interaction during the American colonial period, paying particular attention to the French, English, and Indian interaction. He teaches courses on Colonial America, the American Revolution, American Indian History, and the roles that violence plays in colonial situations.

  • Wilson T. Bell

    Wilson T. Bell
    Visiting Assistant Professor of History (2009).
    Denny Hall Room 307
    (717) 245-1774 | bellwi@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Dalhousie University (Nova Scotia), 2000; M.A., University of Toronto, 2001; Ph.D., 2011.

    His research focuses on the history of forced labor in the Soviet Union, particularly during the Stalin era. He has published articles and reviews in Canadian Slavonic Papers, Gulag Studies, and Modern Language Quarterly. His teaching interests include Russian history, modern European history, comparative history, and global environmental history

  • Emily Pawley

    Emily Pawley
    Assistant Professor of History (2011).
    Denny Hall Room 10A
    pawleye@dickinson.edu
    B.A., University of Toronto, 2001; M.A., University of Pennsylvania, 2004; Ph.D., 2009.

  • Hilary A. Smith

    Hilary A. Smith
    Assistant Professor of History (2012).
    Denny Hall Room 12
    smithhi@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Princeton University, 1998; M.Phil., University of Cambridge, 2000; M.A., University of Pennsylvania, 2004; Ph.D., 2008.

  • Contributing Faculty

  • David G. Strand

    David G. Strand
    Charles A. Dana Professor of Political Science (1980).
    Stern Center for Global Educ Room 105E
    (717) 245-1204 | strand@dickinson.edu | Visit Web Site
    B.A., Lawrence University, 1971; M.A., Columbia University, 1973; M.Phil., 1974; Ph.D., 1979.

    His field is 20th century Chinese politics and history with related interests in comparative social and political development.