About Me

David Imhoof is Professor of History and Susquehanna’s NCAA Division III Faculty Athletic Representative. He served from 2006 to 2015 and from 2020-2023 as Chair of History and was also Faculty Coordinator of the Global Opportunities Program from 2015 to 2021.

He teaches on modern European, German and cultural history, including classes on the Holocaust, film and history, and music and history. Each summer he leads students on the three-week GO Austria program.

In 2021 Bloomsbury Press published his irreverent and humorous (yes, really) textbook So, About Modern Europe: A Conversational History from the Enlightenment to the Present. In 2022 Patakis Books in Athens published a Greek translation of this book. His book, Becoming a Nazi Town: Culture and Politics in Göttingen between the World Wars, appeared with University of Michigan Press in 2013. In 2016 he published an edited collection, The Total Work of Art, with Berghahn Books and a special edition of Colloquia Germanica on sound studies. He has also written about sports, film, and sharpshooting in interwar Germany. Imhoof serves as the Secretary of the German Studies Association. He is also writing a history of the German recording industry in the twentieth century and working on a biography of a small-town mayor during the Third Reich.

Imhoof says:

“Two things really get me going: music and travel. I use music to teach many of my history classes and actually teach a course on popular music in the twentieth century. One of my favorite moments every semester occurs when my survey history class talks about punk music and existentialism. In my first-year seminar, I have used punk music to help students find their voices. I never had a mohawk or anything growing up, but it’s clear that punk’s stance against authority and the need to “do it yourself” has shaped a lot of how I look at the world. Sharing that energy with students can help them figure out who they are and how to express themselves. Sometimes I even get to do that with the rock band Faculty Lounge, a group I play in with other SU professors, where we don’t act like normal professors.

“Second, my own semester abroad in Vienna, Austria, during college has shaped my life ever since. There I decided to find a job to get me back to that kind of place as much as possible. Being a German historian has given me that opportunity. I lived in Germany for nearly three years while writing my dissertation. I take students to Austria every summer and visit places as faculty coordinator of our Global Opportunities program, and to keep writing about Germany. Yeah, it’s work, but the slightly different, less stressed lifestyle in Europe makes that work awesome.

“Food has shaped many of those experiences abroad. My wife and I worked in an Italian restaurant when we lived in Germany, and we still think about food and life, in part, as a result of those experiences. When I take students to Austria, I certainly want to share that country’s history, culture and mountains. But often, we learn as much about that place and about ourselves at the table.”

Professional Experience

Education

Ph.D. in History, University of Texas at Austin 

Dissertation: “Guns, Opera, and Movies: Local Culture in Interwar Germany, Göttingen 1919-1938”

B.A. in History and Liberal Arts, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas (1992)

Professional Experience

Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania

• Chair of History (2006 – 2015 and 2020 – 2023)
• Professor of History (2017 – present)
• Global Opportunities Director of Curriculum (2015 – 2021)
• Associate Professor (2006 – 2017)
• Assistant Professor (2001 – 2006), Visiting Assistant Professor (2000 – 2001)
• Director, GO Austria study abroad program (2010 – present)
• Teach courses on modern European history, the Holocaust, cultural history, literature, first-year seminars, and for students studying away
• Advise ca. 20 students; supervise Senior Theses, Honors Sophomore Theses, and Independent Studie

Editor, H-German Electronic Discussion Group (http://www.h-net.org/~german/) (2002 – 2007)

• Interdisciplinary email list of over 2500 subscribers around the world.
• Conference reports; multi-media forums; reviews of books (average 7/week), journals, film, and current affairs.

Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Arlington (1999 – 2000)

Instructor, Eastfield College, Mesquite, Texas (1998 – 1999)

Instructor and Visiting Scholar, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas (1998)

Current Projects

Collection: “The Sounds of War,” a volume of a dozen essays, co-edited with Rita Krueger and Adam Seipp, in discussion with Berghahn Books as potential publisher.

Preparing second edition of textbook So, About Modern Europe.

Book Project: “Ambivalence and the Nazi Mayor” (a biography of Albert Gnade, a Nazi leader in Göttingen during the Third Reich).

Book Project: “Recording Germany in the Twentieth Century” (a synthetic history of the record industry in Germany from the late 1800s to the 1990s).

Publications

“Sport, fascismo e il sindaco nazista (Sport, Fascism, and the Nazi Mayor),” In: Proceedings of the 10th Congress of the Italian Society for Sports History, Salerno, Italy, submitted January 2023, forthcoming 2024.

“Interwar German Culture,” a six-part series of videos for Massolit Videos (recorded 2021, published 2022).

So, About Modern Europe: A Conversational History from the Enlightenment to the Present (London and New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2021); in Greek: Αυτή είναι λοιπόν η Ευρώπη μας: Μια ιστορία από τον Διαφωτισμό ως σήμερα (So This is Our Europe: A History from the Enlightenment to the Present Day) (Athens: Patakis Publishers, 2022).

Editor, with Joy Calico, Special Edition of Colloquia Germanica on Sound Studies 46.4 (2013, pub. 2016).

“Introduction: Sampling Sound Studies in German Studies,” with Joy Calico, Colloquia Germanica 46.4 (2013, pub. 2016): 325-30.

The Total Work of Art: Foundations, Articulations, Explorations, edited with Anthony Steinhoff and Margaret Menninger (New York: Berghahn Books, 2016).

“Consuming Voices: Musical Film and the Gesamtkunstwerk of Mass Culture,” in The Total Work of Art collection, 2016.

“Prince: Black and White and Rock all Over,” The Daily Item, April 23, 2016.

“Playing with the Third Reich: Sports, Politics, and Free Time in Nazi Germany,” in Life and Times in Nazi Germany, edited by Lisa Pine (London: Bloomsbury Academy Press, 2016), 161-186.

Becoming a Nazi Town: Culture and Politics in Göttingen between the World Wars (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2013).

“Blue Angel, Brown Culture: The Politics of Reception in the University Town of Göttingen,” in Weimar Culture Revisited, ed. John A. Williams (New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2011), 49-72.

Conference Report: “Commemorating the Nation in Modern Central Europe” at 2009 German Studies Association Conference for H-German Electronic Discussion List 22 March 2010.

“Rhythm and Ritual, Guns and Opera: The Function of Sharpshooting and Music Festivals in Göttingen during the 1920s and 1930s,” in L’Art et le Sport: Proceedings of the 12th International Congress of the European Committee for Sport History, vol. 1 (Biarritz, France: atlantica 2009), 247-57.

“The Game of Political Change: Sports in Göttingen during the Weimar and Nazi Eras,” German History 27 (2009): 374-394.

“Culture Wars and the Local Screen: The Meaning of World War I Films in One German City around 1930,” in Why We Fought: America’s Wars in Film and History, edited by Peter C. Rollins and John E. O’Connor (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2008), 175-95.

“Reflecting Pool: Sports, Politics, Hygiene, and the Construction of Göttingen’s First Swimming Pool in 1927,” in Proceedings of the 11th International Congress of the European Committee for Sport History (Vienna: University of Vienna, 2007), 540-48.

“Political Integration and Everyday Life: Göttingen’s Sport Clubs during the Weimar and Nazi Regimes,” in Sport e Culture/Sport and Cultures: Proceedings of the Ninth Congress of the History of Sport in Europe, vol. II: Età moderna e contemporanea. Edited by Angela Teja, Arnd Krüger, and James K. Riordan (Crotone, Italy: Edizioni del Convento, 2005), 274-282.

“Sharpshooting in Göttingen: A Case Study of Cultural Integration in Weimar and Nazi Germany,” German History 23.4 (2005): 460-493.

“Keep media presentations of history in proper perspective” (review of CBS miniseries “Hitler: The Rise of Evil”), The Harrisburg Patriot-News, June 1, 2003 and The Daily Item, June 8, 2003.

“Guns of Tradition, Guns of Change: Sharpshooting Clubs in Interwar Germany, The Example of Göttingen,” in Proceedings of the Fifth Congress of the History of Sport in Europe (Madrid, Spain: Universidad Politéncia de Madrid, 2002), 581-594.

Op-Ed piece on neo-Nazism in Germany and the United States, The Harrisburg Patriot-News, March 23, 2001.

Translator: “100 Years Spindler & Hoyer, 1898-1998” (CD-ROM) Spindler & Hoyer GmbH, Göttingen, Germany, 1998.

“A Discussion of Theory and Methodology for Cultural Historians,” in Proceedings of the Popular Culture Association of America (CD-ROM), March 1997.

“Borders, Boundaries and Identities: Defining the German Nation from the Nineteenth Century to the Present (conference report),” Social History 22.1 (January 1997): 78-82.

Presentations

“Sport, fascismo e il sindaco nazista (Sports, Fascism, and the Nazi Mayor),” The 10th Congress of the Italian Society for Sports History (SISS), Salerno, Italy, September 2022.

“Professors Drop Textbooks,” Textbook release event, Susquehanna University, February 2022.

“That Time I Tried to Write a Book for Students and with Students,” Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA, September 2021.

“Managing Sounds: Record Libraries in the Third Reich, Federal Republic, and Democratic Republic,” German Studies Association Conference, Portland, OR, October 2019.

“Study Away as General Education Requirements,” AAC&U Global Conference, San Antonio, TX, October 2019.

“The Rock n Roll Cold War,” invited lecture, Social Studies and Literature Class, Selinsgrove High School, April 2019.

“Twentieth-Century Germany: Train Wrecks, Inspiration, and Lessons Learned,” Invited Lecture, West End Library, Laurelton, PA, November 2018.

Comment: “Sounding Bodies (1): Noisy Writing,” German Studies Association Conference, Pittsburgh PA, September 2018.

“Study Away Requirements and the Liberal Arts: Experiences at Agnes Scott College and Susquehanna University,” WISE Conference for Study Abroad, Wake Forest University, February 2018.

“Kultur vs Culture: An entrée into 20^th-Century German History,” Invited Oldenborg Luncheon Colloquium lecture, Pomona College, October 2017.

“Intercultural Learning as Bridge between Study Away and Study at Home,” Forum on Education Abroad Annual Conference, Seattle, WA, March 2017.

“GO Susquehanna: Lessons Learned,” WISE Conference for Study Abroad, Wake Forest University, February 2017.

“Culture qua Politics in Twentieth-Century Germany,” Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA, September 2016.

“Athletes Abroad: A Study of Student Athletes’ Participation in Susquehanna University’s Global Opportunities Program,” Forum for International Education, Atlanta, GA, April 2016.

“The Rise and Fall of a Nazi Town: Göttingen during the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich,” invited talk, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, February 2016.

“The German Recording Industry: A Century of Ton and Drang,” Festschrift Symposium for David Crew, University of Texas at Austin, February 2016.

“The Third Reich, World War II, and the Holocaust,” invited talk, Social Studies and Literature Class, Selinsgrove High School, December 2015.

“World War II and Nazis, or: How to Talk about Old Stuff with Older People,” Susquehanna University, November 2015.

Comment: “Music and Sound Studies: Noisy Instruments,” German Studies Association Conference, Washington D.C., October 2015.

“War and Records: Sound Studies of the Third Reich,” invited keynote address, Undergraduate Conference in German Studies, Moravian College, April 2015.

“Sound Studies in German Studies: A Snippet,” Modern Germany Workshop, Bryn Mawr College, March 2015.

“War and Records: Sound Studies of the Third Reich,” invited talk, Susquehanna University, February 2015.

“The Philosophical Implications of Becoming a Nazi Town,” Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA, November 2014.

“War and Records: Sound Studies of the Third Reich,” invited talk, Virginia Tech University, October 2014.

Commentator: Mei Hu’s Confucius, Asian Studies Symposium, Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove PA, October 2014.

Commentator: “Sound and Technology in German Contexts,” German Studies Association Conference, Kansas City, Missouri, September 2014.

“Deeper (Relationships) and Wider (Reach): New Media in the Classroom,” Digital Transformations: Impacts on Research, Science and Teaching; Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Research Alumni Conference; San Francisco, CA, September 2014.

“The Rise and Fall of a Nazi Town: Göttingen, 1920-1960,” Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA, February 2014.

“Vienna, Göttingen, Selinsgrove: Mapping the Meaning of GO,” Susquehanna University Alumni Event, Mahwah, NJ, November 2013.

“Becoming a Nazi Town: Culture and Politics in Göttingen between the World Wars,” Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA, November 2013.

“From Weimar Republic to Third Reich: Culture and Germany’s Road to Nazism,” Rotary Club, Selinsgrove, PA, October 2013.

Commentator: “Music and Sound Studies: Public,” German Studies Association Conference, Denver, CO, October 2013.

“The Rise and Fall of a Nazi Town: Göttingen during the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich,” Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, September 2013.

Chair: “Alternative Musical Geographies: Rock ‘n’ Roll and Place in Postwar German History,” German Studies Association Conference, Denver, CO, October 2013.

“War and Records in the Third Reich,” Modern Germany Workshop, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, March 2013.

“War and Records in the Third Reich,” German Studies Association Conference, Milwaukee, WI, October 2012.

Chair, “Complexity/Simplicity: Twenty-First-Century Approaches,” German Studies Association Conference, Milwaukee, WI, October 2012.

“Voices on the Screen and Off: Musical Film as Consumed Gesamtkunstwerk, 1930s-1950s,” Modern Germany Workshop, Swarthmore, PA, March 2012.

“Becoming a Nazi Town: Culture and Political Change between the World Wars in Göttingen,” German Studies Association Conference, Louisville, KY, September 2011.

“Rhythm/Fest/Politics: The Meaning of Sharpshooting and Music Festivals in Weimar and Nazi Germany,” Popular Culture/American Culture Association Conference, San Antonio, TX, April 2011.

“Voices on the Screen and Off: Musical Film as Consumed Gesamtkunstwerk, 1930s-1950s,” German Studies Association Conference, Oakland, CA, October 2010.

Chair: “Social Practices and the Local: National Socialism and the GDR,” German Studies Association Conference, Oakland, CA, October 2010.

“Posing Then and Now: Reflections on Interdisciplinary Work in Music History from the 1920s to Today,” German Studies Association Conference, Washington, DC, October 2009.

Commentator: “Commemorating the Nation in Modern Central Europe,” German Studies Association Conference, Washington, DC, October 2009.

“The Cunning of Modernist Aesthetics: The Illustrative Case of the Göttingen Händel Festival during the Weimar and Nazi Eras,” German Studies Association Conference, Minneapolis, October 2008.

Commentator: “The Sounds of Twentieth-Century Germany,” German Studies Association Conference, Minneapolis, October 2008.

“The Cunning of Modernist Aesthetics: The Illustrative Case of the Göttingen Händel Festival during the Weimar and Nazi Eras,” American Historical Association Conference, Washington, DC, January 2008.

“Rhythm and Ritual, Guns and Opera: The Function of Sharpshooting and Music Festivals in Göttingen during the 1920s and 1930s,” 12th International Congress of the European Committee for Sport History, Lorient, France, September 2007.

Chair: “Sport Cartoons in The United States and Germany,” 12th International Congress of the European Committee for Sport History, Lorient, France, September 2007.

“Festspiel Politics: Defining ‘German’ Culture at the Göttingen Händel Opera Festival during the Weimar and Nazi Eras,” German Studies Association Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September, 2006.

“Reflecting Pool: Sports, Politics, Hygiene, and the Construction of Göttingen’s First Swimming Pool in 1927,” 11th International Congress of the European Committee for Sport History, Vienna, Austria, September, 2006.

Chair: “European Sport and its Influence,” 11th International Congress of the European Committee for Sport History in Vienna, Austria, September, 2006.

“Staging Cultural Politics in Weimar and Nazi Germany: The Göttingen Händel Festival, 1919-1938,” 5^th Annual Modern Germany Workshop, Villanova University, April 2006.

“Weimar Culture, Nazi Culture, and the Space Between,” Susquehanna University Faculty Colloquium, February 2006.

Commentator: Panels “Nazi Germany” and “Germany in the 19^th and 20^th Centuries,” 2006 Phi Alpha Theta Biennial Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 2006.

“Studying Culture in Interwar Göttingen,” 4^th Annual Modern Germany Workshop, Swarthmore College, March 2005.

“Culture Wars and the Local Screen: The Meaning of World War I Films in Göttingen around 1930,” War in Film, TV, and History Conference, hosted by Film & History and the Film & History League, Dallas, Texas, November 2004.

“Political Integration and Everyday Sports: Göttingen’s Football Clubs during the Weimar and Nazi Regimes,” Ninth Congress of the History of Sport in Europe, Crotone, Italy, September 2004.

Commentator and Organizer: “The Hollywood Songbook: Eisler and Brecht in Exile” symposium and concert, Susquehanna University, October 2003.

Commentator: Panel “Nazi Cinema Studies: What is at Stake?” German Studies Association Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, September 2003.

“Beyond Berlin: Political Change and Cultural Continuity in Germany During the Weimar Republic and Third Reich,” invited talk, Bowling Green State University, April 2003.

Organizer: “Globalization in the 21^st Century,” Susquehanna University, March 2003.

“Political Change and Cultural Continuity in Göttingen During the Weimar and Nazi Eras,”

American Historical Association Conference, Chicago, IL, January 2003.

“Modernism Outside the Metropolis: Cultural Practice in Interwar Göttingen,” German Studies Association Conference, San Diego, CA, October 2002.

“Weimar Culture, Nazi Culture, and the Space Between,” Villanova History Department Lecture Series invited talk, September 2002.

“Schützenwesen as Metaphor and Medium for Interwar Political Change: The Example of Göttingen,” Max Plank Institute for History, July 2002.

“Guns, Culture, and Politics: Local Culture in Germany during the Weimar and Nazi Eras,” Bankhead Lecture invited talk, University of Alabama, March 2002.

Organizer: “Responding to 9/11: Before and After,” Susquehanna University, February 2002.

“Nightclub Singers, Professors, and Newspaper Critics: The Reception of The Blue Angel in the University Town of Göttingen,” Modern Germany Workshop, Villanova University, November 2001.

Commentator: Panel on Europe in the Modern Era, Phi Alpha Theta Conference for the Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey Region, April 2001.

“International Performance on a Local Stage: The Göttingen Händel Opera Festival, 1920-1937,” Modern History Workshop, Pennsylvania State University, March 2001.

Organizer: Colloquium on Race, Police, and Coercion: Nazi Germany and Beyond, Susquehanna University, March 2001.

“Guns of Tradition, Guns of Change: Sharpshooting Clubs in Interwar Germany, The Example of Göttingen,” Fifth Congress of the History of Sport in Europe, Madrid, Spain, November 2000.

“Old and New, Local and International: Interwar German Culture in the City of Göttingen,” German Studies Association Conference, Houston, TX, October 2000.

Moderator: Panel “Psyche, Social Change, and the Self in Twentieth Century Germany,” German Studies Association Conference, October 2000.

“Festspielkultur und -politik: Die Göttinger Händel-Aufführungen, 1920-1935” [Festival Culture and the Politics of Festivals: Göttingen Händel Performances, 1920-1935], Historical Seminar, University of Hanover, June 1997.

“Festspielkultur und -politik: Die Göttinger Händel-Aufführungen, 1920-1935” [Festival Culture and the Politics of Festivals: Göttingen Händel Performances, 1920-1935], Seminar for Early Modern and Modern History, University of Göttingen, November 1997.

Commentator: Graduate Student Panel on Research in Progress; Conference on Borders, Boundaries and Identities: Defining the German Nation from the Nineteenth Century to the Present; University of Texas at Austin, April 1995.

“Nazis like movies, too: A Discussion of Theory and Methodology for Cultural Historians. The Example of Göttingen, 1895-1935,” Popular Culture and American Culture Association Conference, Stillwater, OK, February 1995.

“Nazis like movies, too: A Discussion of Theory and Methodology for Cultural Historians. The Example of Göttingen, 1895-1935,” Riding Mountain History Colloquium, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, February 1995.

“Class in a Populist World,” Texas Historical Symposium, University of Texas at Austin, October 1993.

Fellowships and Awards

Susquehanna University Research Grant (2001, 2004, 2011, 2015, and 2018)

WIT (“Whatever it takes”) Service Award, Susquehanna University (February 2010)

Summer Research Fellow, Max Plank Institute for History, Göttingen, Germany (2002 and 2005)

The Nachtegall Junior Scholar Award for Best Paper at the Fifth Congress of the History of Sport in Europe, Madrid, Spain (November 2000)

Dora Bonham Research Fellowship, University of Texas (Summer 1999)

Sheffield Dissertation Fellowship for European History, University of Texas (1996 – 1997)

German Academic Exchange Service Fellowship (DAAD) (1995 – 1996)

Research Assistant, University of Texas (1994)

Presidential Scholar, Trinity University (1988 – 1992)

Professional Positions and Service

German Studies Association

• Secretary (2020 – present)
• Arts Night Committee (2017 – 2020)
• Coordinator, Music and Sound Studies Network for German Studies Association (2013 – present)
• Program Committee, German Studies Association Conference (2014 – 2015)

Book reviews published in The American Historical Review, The Journal of Social History, Journal of Modern History, European History Quarterly, Canadian Journal of History, Choice, Central European History, German History, German Studies Review, Journal of the History of Sexuality, Monatshefte, H-German Electronic Discussion List, H-Soz-und-Kult Electronic Discussion List, Historische Anthropologie, H-Net Electronic Discussion List, Weimar Studies Electronic Discussion List, Coordinating Council for Women’s Historians Newsletter.

Invited External Evaluations:

• History Program, Western New England University, Springfield. MA (February 2022)
• Department of History, Politics, and Global Studies, Lebanon Valley College, Annville, PA (February 2017)
• History Department, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY (February 2016)
• History Program, Wheaton College, Norton, MA (November 2014)
• History Program, Bryant University, Smithfield, RI (November 2013)
• History Department, Adelphi University, Garden City, New York (April 2012)
• History and Political Science Department, St. Francis University, Loretto, Pennsylvania (April 2012)
• History Department, Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania (March 2012)
• History Department, Alma College, Alma, Michigan (March 2012)
• History Department of North Central College, Naperville, Illinois (November 2008)
• History Department of Kutztown University, Kutztown, Pennsylvania (September 2006)

Other Service

• Days of Remembrance Essay Competition about Holocaust (2018 – present)
• External reviewer for tenure portfolio of John Eicher, Penn State Altoona (August 2022)
• External reviewer for tenure portfolio of Jason Johnson, Trinity University (August 2018)
• Guest on “On the Mark” Radio Program, WKOK 1070, Sunbury, PA (January and April 2013)
• Attendee, Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Pennsylvania Assessment Workshop, Hershey, PA (August 2012)
• Reviewer, Susan Kingsely Kent proposed textbook The History of Western Civilization since 1500: An Ecological Approach, Sage publications (May 2011)
• Co-Organizer, 5-panel series on Gesamtkunstwerk (Total Work of Art), proposed for German Studies Association Conference, Oakland, CA (February 2010)
• Reviewer, Journal of Contemporary History manuscript (April 2009)
• Editorial Board Member, H-German Electronic Discussion Group (January 2008 – present)
• Reviewer, “Body by Weimar: Athletes, Gender, and German Modernity, 1918-1933” for Oxford University Press (October 2008)
• Participant, American Council on Education workshop on chairing the academic department, Austin, Texas (November 2007)
• Reviewer, Journal of Central European History manuscript (July 2007)
• Interviewed for “Rocking the Ivory Tower” by Sierra Millman in The Chronicle of Higher Education 13 April 2007.
• Reviewer, Nietzsche and the Killing of God: Selected Writings, translated, edited, and with an introduction by Peter Fritzsche, Bedford/St. Martin’s Press (2005 – 2006)
• Member, College of Fellows, European Committee for Sports History (2006 – 2012)
• Reviewer, German Studies Review manuscript (2003)
• Co-organizer and participant, Modern Germany Workshop (2001 – 2012)
• Member, Conference Group on Central European History, German Studies Association, German History Society, American Historical Association, H-German Discussion List
• Reviewer, Western Civilization Textbooks, Longman and Houghton Mifflin (Summer 2000)
• Consultant and Reviewer, On-Line Western Civilization Textbook, DigitLearn.com (Spring 2000)
• Member, Graduate Program Revision Committee, History Department, University of Texas (1994 – 1995)

Service at Susquehanna University

Chair of History Department (2006 – 2015 and 2020 – 2023)

• Managed department with up to 7 full-time faculty, 2-3 adjunct faculty, and 100 majors.
• Searches directed: Assistant Professor of African History (hired 2023), Visiting Assistant Professor of African History (replacement position, hired 2022), Assistant Professor of Latin American History (new position, hired 2009), Assistant Professor of East Asian History (replacement position, hired 2009), Visiting Lecturer in History (new position, hired 2008), Visiting Assistant Professor of East Asian History (replacement position, hired, 2006).
• Directed 10-Year Departmental Review (2007-2008) with external reviewer.
• Supervised three successful Tenure Reviews, two promotions to Full Professor, and four Third-Year Reviews that lead to Tenure
• Curricular Reform: incorporated majors-only courses into new university general education requirements; revised all 100-level history survey classes for new general education requirements; helped formalize 100- vs. 200-level survey classes; added additional non-US, non-European upper-division courses to History curriculum.
• Recruiting: grew number of history majors surpassed university growth overall; selection of $5000/yr scholarships for incoming history majors; year-round work with Admissions to increase number of incoming students; regular email and phone contact with prospective students; supervised all printed recruiting material and on internet.
• Regularized assessment of Departmental Learning Goals; oversaw complete revision in 2022.
• Enhanced student research by requiring all seniors to present work at national, regional, or campus academic conference.
• Led campaign that raised $3500 to honor two emeritus professors as part of library renovation; helped direct Day of Giving campaigns resulting in some of the highest levels of participation at the university; cultivated some larger donors for gifts to department.

Global Opportunities (GO) Director of Curriculum (2015 – 2021)

• Main Tasks
  • Supervise curricula for all GO educational content
  • Assess GO classes
  • Promote the professional development of GO instructors, including workshops, attending conferences, and co-curricular events
  • Schedule GO classes and recruit faculty to teach them
  • Help develop new GO programs and promote the GO Program across campus
• Other Responsibilities/Work
  • Direct comprehensive self-study via Forum for Education Abroad’s Standards of best practice (August 2017 – May 2018)
  • Teach preparation and reflection classes for students spending time off campus
  • Lead GO Programs regularly
  • Represent the GO Office and Program at various events on and off campus
  • Work with students who have concerns/thoughts/conflicts about GO classes
  • Assist with university-wide Internationalization Plan
  • Search Committee for Study Away Advisor (2016-2017)
  • Search Committee for Faculty-Led Program Director (2015-2016)
  • Organize and direct GO Puerto Rico for Staff and Faculty (March 2016 and 2017)
  • Member of search committee for International Student Admissions Officer (2015-2016)
  • Visit Selinsgrove High School (April 2017, January 2018)
  • Visit GO Long sites in Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, and the Netherlands (2016, 2017)
  • Help develop new GO Short programs to Peru, Morocco, Argentina, and Australia

Faculty Athletic Representative (2013 – present)

• Facilitate cooperation between academic and athletic divisions, especially coaches, professors, and students
• Search Committee for Athletic Director (2019 – 2020)
• Committee on Landmark Conference NCAA Self-Study (November 2017 – June 2018)
• Member, Faculty Athletic Committee (2013 – present)
• Fellow to NCAA Division III Faculty Athletic Representative Fellows Institute (October 2016)
• Organize regular events through the Teaching and Learning Center for coaches, faculty members, and student athletes
• Facilitator, “Athletes Abroad” workshop as part of International Study Week (November 2015)
• Member of committee deciding on new nickname and mascot for Susquehanna (2015 – 2016)
• Search Committee for Head Football Coach (2014 – 2015)
• Regular recruiting presentations for football and other teams
• Delegate to 2015 and 2016 NCAA Conventions

Director, Holocaust-Genocide Studies Group (2000 – 2014)

• Organize and support programming on campus aimed at studying genocide.
• Performances: “Opera in Terezín: Performance as Protest,” featuring Hans Krása’s Brundibar, Viktor Ullman’s The Emperor of Atlantis, and visit from former cast member and Holocaust survivor, Ella Stein Wesisberger; Ernest Bloch’s Sacred Service, featuring lecture by Klara Moricz (Amherst College); Christopher Sergel’s The Sacred Hoop and discussion.
• Lectures/Discussions: “A New Index for Time: Calendars and the Holocaust” by Alan Rosen (Yad Vashem, Israel), “Photographic Sites of Holocaust Memory” by David Crew (University of Texas), “Shoah Business: The Holocaust and Hollywood Since the 1990s” by David Brenner (Kent State University), “Sovereignty, States, Genocide: A Comparative Look at the 20^th Century” by Alex Alvarez (Northern Arizona University), “Al Jolson: Jewish Jazz and Blackface by Felicia Londré (University of Missouri, Kansas City), “Race, Police, and Coercion: Nazi Germany and Beyond” by Robert Gellately (Florida State University).

Other Study Away

• Director of GO Austria: three-week summer trip to Salzburg, Vienna, and Munich that studies the legacy of history and culture by facilitating contact between US and Austrian students (2010 – present)
• Co-organizer and leader of student/faculty Spring Break trips to Rome; Paris and Normandy; Vienna, Krakow, Auschwitz, Prague, and Berlin (2004 – 2007).

Member of University Council (2015 – 2020)

• Advise President on direction of University
• Chief Faculty vehicle for financial oversight and direction of University
• Help frame Susquehanna University Strategic Plan 2020 (2018 – 2019)

Fund Raising

• Alumni solicitation visits (2015 – present)
• Faculty advocate for United Way campaign (Fall 2017 – present)
• Faculty advisor for Day of Giving Campaign (Spring 2018)
• Led campaign that raised $3500 to honor two emeritus professors as part of library renovation (2012 – 2013)

Campus Coordinator of Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows Program (2001 – 2007)

• http://www.cic.edu/programs-and-services/programs/woodrow-wilson-visiting-fellows/Pages/default.aspx
• Host prominent diplomats, artists, business leaders, organizers, and politicians for weeklong stay on campus, including classroom and community visits and keynote address.
• Fellows Hosted: Nonprofit Executive and Former New York Mayoral Candidate Ruth Messinger, Human Rights Activist Dimon Liu, (former) Ambassador (to Nepal) Julia Chang Bloch, International Education Leader Dr. Marcia Grant, Educator and Political Consultant Anita Perez Ferguson, Community Activist and Nonprofit Executive Stephen Vetter.

Evaluation, Assessment, Planning

• Middle States Team I on how Central Curriculum and individual departmental curricula reflect University Mission and Learning Goals (2021 – 2022)
• Steering Committee for Middle-States Evaluation (2011 – 2014)
• Chair of “Transparency” Sub-Committee for Middle-States Evaluation on Assessment and Communication (2012 – 2014)
• Facilitator, Workshop on Assessing Historical Perspectives in Central Curriculum (August 2012)
• Strategic Planning Committee on Student Outcomes (Spring 2010)
• Co-Organizer, Workshop on Teaching Historical Perspectives courses as part of Central Curriculum (August 2009)
• Committee for Learning Goals for the Historical Perspectives component of the Central Curriculum (Summer 2007)
• Strategic Planning Committee on Fostering a Culture of Intellectual Engagement (2003)
• Middle-States Evaluation and Strategic Planning Task Force on Creating a Working/Learning Community (2002 – 2003)

Search Committee for other History Department searches

• Assistant Professor African History (2017, 2018, and 2019)
• Assistant Professor of Early American History (new position, hired 2004)
• Assistant Professor of US History (replacement position, hired 2004)
• Visiting Assistant Professor of US History (replacement position, hired 2003)
• Assistant Professor of US History (replacement position, hired 2002)
• Assistant Professor of African History (replacement position, hired 2001)

Organized Lectures and Events

• Organizer: talk by John Eicher (Penn State Altoona) on “Before Covid and Beyond Belief: The 1918 ‘Spanish’ Flu Pandemic” (March 2022).
• Organizer: Talk and classroom visits by Jason Johnson (Trinity University) as part of Common Reading series on “‘An ugly piece of work’: Cold War Conflict on the German Frontline” (November 2017).
• Organizer: Talk and classroom visits by Kevin Lerner (Marist College) on “Public Culture in an Age of Hyperinformation: Contexts and History” (November 2017).
• Co-Organizer: Common Reading Lecture (for entire first-year class and rest of campus) by Natalie Zemon Davis (September 2016).
• Co-Organizer and Panelist: “The Swastika: History, Meaning, Uses,” with Jewish Studies and Student Life (February 2014).
• Organizer: “Meet The Beatles! What Beatlemania can tell us about West Germany and the U.S. in the mid-1960s” by Julia Sneeringer (Queens College and CUNY Graduate Center), April 2013.
• Co-Organizer and Panelist: “Opera and the Holocaust,” featuring operas Brundibar and The Emperor of Atlantis, as well as visit from Ella Stein Wesisberger (April-Mary 2010)
• Organizer: History vs. Memory Lecture Series:
  • David Crew (University of Texas), “Photographic Sites of Holocaust Memory,” March 2009
  • Michael Bertrand (Tennessee State), “Forever in the Shadow of Race, Region, and Rumor: Elvis Presley and the Politics of Popular Memory,” November 2008
  • Don Housley (Susquehanna University), “Memory and the Making of Susquehanna University’s History,” September 2008
• Organizer: Klara Moricz (Amherst College), “Universal Mass or Jewish Oratorio: Bloch’s Beethovenian Vision of Brotherhood in the Sacred Service” lecture before performance of Ernest Bloch’s Sacred Service, April, 2006.
• Organizer and Moderator: Robert Stephens (Virginia Tech University), “Germans on Drugs,” lecture, classroom visit, and faculty workshop, February 2006.
• Organizer and Moderator: David Brenner (Kent State University), “Shoah Business: The Holocaust and Hollywood Since the 1990s,” lecture and classroom visit, November 2005.
• Co-Organizer and Participant: “SU Rocks for Hurricane Survivors,” raised $3000 for Habitat for Humanity for victims of recent Gulf Coast hurricane victims, November 2005.
• Co-Organizer and Moderator: David Margolick (Senior Contributing Editor to Vanity Fair), “Two Minutes of History,” lecture and classroom visit, October 2004.
• Co-Organizer and Commentator: “The Pastor and the Führer: A Screening and Discussion of the movie Bonhoeffer,” featuring Professor Richard Steigmann-Gall (Kent State University); film, panel discussion, classroom visit; February 2004.
• Paul Steege (Villanova University), “‘Let them come to Berlin’: Everyday Life and the Making of the Cold War,” lecture and classroom visit, September 2003.
• Alex Alvarez (Northern Arizona University), “Sovereignty, States, Genocide: A Comparative Look at the 20^th Century,” March 2003
• Production of The Sacred Hoop by Christopher Sergel, October 2002
• Felicia Londré (University of Missouri, Kansas City), “Al Jolson: Jewish Jazz and Blackface,” October 2001
• Robert Gellately (Florida State University) “Race, Police, and Coercion: Nazi Germany and Beyond,” March 2001

Musical Performances

• Susquehanna University Homecoming (October 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2022)
• Performance with members of Phi Mu Alpha fraternity (February 2016)
• Charity:Water Event (March 2012)
• Live Performance of music for Metropolis (February 2011)
• Profapalooza: fund-raising event for student scholarship at House of Blues, Atlantic City (March 2009)
• Rock 4 Relief (November 2008)
• “Go Green” (March 2008)
• Music for Nosferatu (October 2003 and 2007)
• Hillel Purim/St. Patrick’s Day (March 2007)
• Hurricane Relief Fund (November 2005)
• Degenstein Theater (March 2005)
• Charlie Degenstein’s Birthday Party (March 2004 and 2006)

Specific Recruiting Events

• University recruiting panels (Summers 2014 – Present)
• GO meetings with visiting high school groups (March and April 2016)
• Yield events in New York City and New Jersey with Admissions and Alumni Affairs (March 2014 and 2015)
• Meeting with visiting high school guidance counselors (April 2013, 2014, and 2015)
• Panel Presentation for College Access (Philadelphia) visit (November 2007)
• Presentation with Chris Markle (Director of Admissions) to School of Arts Humanities and Communications on faculty role in admissions process (October 2005)
• Recruiting Visit to public and private high schools in Dallas, TX (November 2002)

Member of Curriculum Committee (2001 – 2004)

• Supervised development of “Writing and Thinking” program
• Overhaul of existing Core Curriculum (general education)
• Approval of new major and minor curricula

Miscellaneous Service

• Visits with alumni in New Jersey (July 2013, February 2020), Connecticut and Massachusetts (October 2019)
• Member, Political Science Search Committee (2012 – 2013)
• Attended SU Board meetings to discuss strategic faculty work and Strategic Planning (October 2012 and June 2013)
• Member, Art History Search Committee (2010 – 2011)
• University Representative for Marshall Commission Scholarships (2007 – 2012)
• Research Presentation to Board of Trustees’ Spouses (October 2007)
• Faculty Liaison to Susquehanna Men’s Soccer Team (2007 – 2015)
• Member of Jewish Studies Advisory Group (2000 – Present)
• Member of International Studies Advisory Board (2007 – Present)
• Faculty Colloquium Presentation, “Weimar Culture, Nazi Culture, and the Space Between,” February 2006.
• Student trip to Biannual National Phi Alpha Theta Conference in Philadelphia, PA, January 2006.
• Member, Search Committee for Dean of Arts, Humanities, and Communications (2004 – 2005)
• School Representative for Regional Phi Alpha Theta (History Honors Society) Conference, Kutztown University (April 2001)

Languages

German (fluent) and French (basic reading)

Courses Taught