Upcoming Events

Bryna Goodman, Professor of History at the University of Oregon, will speak alongside PLU Visiting Professor of Chinese Studies Sidney Rittenberg on a panel discussion entitled "China's 21st Century?" in the Scandanavian Cultural Center on Thursday, November 19, at 7 p.m.

The 36th annual Schnackenberg lecturer this year will be Dr. Martha Sandweiss, Professor of History at Princeton University.  The lecture is scheduled for Thursday, February 25, 2010, at 7pm in Xavier 201 (Nordquist Lecture Hall). 

Student Research & Activities

Thompson Rivers University (Kamloops, BC) is again having its January conference for Philosphy, History, and Politics undergraduates.  The deadline for submitting a conference paper proposal is Nov. 20, 2009.  Contact department chair Michael Halvorson for more information about this opportunity.

The PLU History Club, an organization of History majors, minors, and interested students, is currently meeting and taking field trips to museums in Seattle and elsewhere.  For information about organizing in Fall 2009, contact Gina Hames (hamesgl@plu.edu).

The History Department has selected the Capstone Prize Winners for 2008-09:

Each winner receives a Borders Books gift certificate and the overall winner receives a second gift certificate.  Congratulations to all winners and graduates!

Other History Department winners included:

Faculty News

In fall 2009, the History department welcomes Visiting Assistant Professor Chad J. Moody (University of Washington) to teach courses in Colonial American History; Visiting Assistant Professor Tomaz Jardim (University of Toronto) will be teaching courses in modern European history and the Holocaust. 

Over fall break, October 2009, Assistant Professor Adam Cathcart led a group of history students to research Japanese war crimes in the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.  The group included Kaitlynn Retherford, Trevor Short, Clark Webber, and Nathan Akers.  He is currently preparing an application for an ASIANetwork-Freeman Foundation Student Faculty Research Fellowship with five (5) PLU students for travel to China in June 2010.

In Fall 2008, the History department was pleased to welcome a new tenure-track member to its ranks!  Assistant Professor Rebekah Mergenthal, an American historian (19th century), arrived from the University of Chicago, where she completed her Ph.D. in History.  

In May, 2008, Associate Professor Michael Halvorson received a PLU Regent's Award providing funding for archival and library research in Wolfenbüttel and Hildesheim, Germany.  Halvorson is working on a book investigating pastoral networks and early Lutheran orthodoxy in the German Reformation.

Professor E. Wayne Carp was recently awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Lectureship and taught Spring 2008 at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.  In addition to keeping a busy schedule of conference presentations, Dr. Carp maintains a blog regarding the biography of Jean Paton, the "mother" of the adoption reform movement.

The History Department announces the publication of a volume of essays in honor of Emeritius Professor of History Philip A. Nordquist, who taught 42 years in the department: Robert P. Ericksen and Michael J. Halvorson, eds., A Lutheran Vocation: Philip A. Nordquist and the Study of History at Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA: Pacific Lutheran University Press, 2005).  Copies of the book are available at the Garfield Book Store at PLU.

Past Conferences & Events

The Thirty-fifth Annual Walter C. Schnackenberg Memorial Lecture was delivered on Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. in the Scandinavian Cultural Center by Joshua A. Fogel, Canada Research Chair, York University, Toronto.  The title of his talk was "The Nanjing Atrocity in Chinese Historical Memory."

The Fifth Annual Dale E. Benson Lecture in Business and Economic History was  delivered on October 12, 2009 by Walter Licht, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania. The title of his talk was "Topsy-Turvy: The American Economy in Crisis--A Long View."