Faculty

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William H. Bergmann

Dr. William H. Bergmann William H. Bergmann, Ph.D. - University of Cincinnati
303 D Spotts World Culture Building
724.738.4655
william.bergmann@sru.edu

Dr. Bergmann grew up in New Hampshire before moving to Pennsylvania for his undergraduate degree. After completing his Ph.D. at the University of Cincinnati, he spent seven years teaching in northern Michigan before returning to Pennsylvania to work at SRU.

Bergmann's historical interest is in the relationship between the federal government and the development of the early American West, particularly in the Ohio Valley. His dissertation, "Commerce and Arms: The Federal Government, Native Americans, and the Economy of the Old Northwest, 1783-1807," won the Allan Nevins Prize from the Economic History Association in 2005.

His first book, The American National State and the Early West, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2012. In it, he shows that the federal government contributed to western expansionism and economic development in the trans-Appalachian West prior to the War of 1812. Bergmann also has published articles in Ohio Valley History and Early American Studies.

His current book project is a biography of Isaac Shelby, the first and fifth governor of Kentucky. He is also working on an article about masculinity and credit reporting prior to the Civil War. In addition to his teaching, Bergmann is currently serving as interim Co-Editor of Ohio Valley History, a peer-reviewed, quarterly journal.

Research Fields: Early Republic, Ohio Valley, American government

Teaching Fields: Colonial America, the Early Republic, Native American, Masculinity, Pennsylvania History

Aaron Cowan

Dr. Aaron Cowan, Ph.D. Aaron Cowan, Ph.D. - University of Cincinnati
303 G Spotts World Culture Building
724.738.2409
aaron.cowan@sru.edu

A native of southwest Virginia, Aaron Cowan has been teaching at Slippery Rock University since 2008. He is the author of A Nice Place to Visit: Tourism and Urban Revitalization in the Postwar Rustbelt, published in 2016 by Temple University Press. The book examines the rise of tourism as a revitalization strategy in struggling "Rustbelt" cities, and the effects of that development on cities' political, economic, and social dynamics.

Dr. Cowan is also founder and director of SRU's Stone House Center for Public Humanities, an initiative that seeks to build partnerships between university and community that expand public appreciation of the humanities.

Dr. Cowan lives in Grove City with his wife and three children. When not teaching, writing, or buried under a pile of grading, he enjoys reading fiction, playing tennis, and cheering for the Cincinnati Reds.

Research Fields: 20th century U.S. urban history, tourism, public history

Teaching Fields: Modern United States, urban history, environmental history, public history

Melissa Ford

Melissa Ford, Ph.D. - Saint Louis University
303 H Spotts World Culture Building
724.738.4744
melissa.ford@sru.edu

Melissa Ford is an Associate Professor in the History Department. She joined Slippery Rock faculty in 2017 after receiving her PhD in American Studies from Saint Louis University. Her undergraduate degree is from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She teaches classes on United States History, African American history, women’s history, social movements, and popular culture.

A native of St. Louis, her research interests include Midwestern social movements that intersect with race, class, and gender. Her first book was published in 2022 by Southern Illinois University Press, titled A Brick and a Bible: Black Women’s Radical Activism in the Midwest. She is currently working on a book of biographies of Black communist women for International Publishers. She is also working on a book chapter about Thyra Edwards, a radical social worker in Chicago, and an article on radical labor organizing in Pittsburgh. She has been interviewed on several podcasts regarding her research. More information can be found at https://melissafordphd.com/.

Outside of the classroom, Dr. Ford is advisor of Phi Alpha Theta, the History Honorary Society, and the Improv Club at SRU. She is a member of the Gender Studies Committee and is the editor of Black History Matters, an annual journal of student essays celebrating Black History Month. Volume 3 is available here. She also serves as the director of the History MA program.

Dr. Ford lives in Pittsburgh with her son, husband, dog, and cat. When not teaching, she enjoys cooking (and eating), hiking, and rooting for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Research Fields: 20^th century social movements, radical history, labor history, Black women’s history

Teaching Fields: US history, popular culture, women’s history, African American history

Corinne Gressang

Corinne Gressang, Ph.D. - University of Kentucky
303 C Spotts World Culture Building
724.738.2403
corinne.gressang@sru.edu

Dr. Corinne Gressang began as an Assistant Professor of History at Slippery Rock University in the Fall of 2023. She specializes in the history of the French Revolution, but she teaches various courses on Early Modern and Modern European History. She grew up in Western Pennsylvania and received her undergraduate degree in History with a minor in Legal Studies from Grove City College in 2013. From there, she received her MA and Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky in 2015 and 2020, respectively. She spent three years teaching at Erskine College in Due West, SC as an Assistant Professor before moving back home to Western Pennsylvania to teach at Slippery Rock.

Her dissertation topic developed after reading an editorial in a short-lived Catholic newspaper called L’Ange Gabriel (1799). The editor argued that the French nuns had suffered expulsion from their convents, and they were the most unfortunate victims of the Revolutionary decade. Dr. Gressang’s curiosity about what became of these women became the focus of her dissertation which she is currently revising for publication.

She is a member of the American Historical Association, the Western Society for French History, the Society for French Historical Studies, Phi Alpha Theta, and the American Catholic Historical Association. Dr. Gressang currently serves as an Assistant Digital Coordinator for the Society for French Historical Studies and is a member of the executive council for the Western Society for French History. She has won numerous teaching awards including the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the University of Kentucky in 2018-2019 and the Younts Excellence in Teaching Award in 2021-2022 from Erskine College. When she is not teaching, grading, researching, or writing, Dr. Gressang enjoys hiking, running, and hanging out with her niece and nephew.

Hsiang-Wang Liu

Hsiang-Wang Liu, Ph.D. - Pennsylvania State University
303 A Spotts World Culture Building
724.738.4923
hsiang-wang.liu@sru.edu

Dr. Hsiang-Wang Liu began as an Instructor of History at Slippery Rock University in the Fall of 2023.

Thomas L. Pearcy

Dr. Thomas L. Pearcy Thomas L. Pearcy, Ph.D. - University of Miami, Coral Gables
303 E Spotts World Culture Building
724.738.2407
thomas.pearcy@sru.edu

I completed a BA (Political Science) and an MA (American History) at Purdue University and earned a Ph.D. (Latin American History) from the University of Miami in Coral Gables. I have an established record of scholarly excellence including a half-dozen research monographs published by university presses in the US and Panama, a coauthored US History textbook, and more than one dozen articles published in professional journals. I have also served as Director of Latin American Studies at BYU (where I established the Rey L. Pratt Center for the Study of Latin America online), served as a senior Fulbright Scholar, and taught at six universities throughout North and Central America. Fellowships, teaching awards, and serving as Joint Historian for the US Department of State and Central Intelligence Agency round out my C.V.

Research fields: Panamanian history, including the barriadas brujas; US-Central American relations.

Teaching fields: Latin American history, US Diplomacy, US history since 1930, the Kennedy assassination, and contemporary world history

Eric E. Tuten

Dr. Eric E. Tuten Eric E. Tuten, Ph.D., University of Utah
303 B Spotts World Culture Building
724.738.4913
eric.tuten@sru.edu

I have been at SRU since 2006. Before arriving at SRU, I taught history and religious courses at Brigham Young University for six years and then worked for the US government as a political analyst focusing on Middle East issues. While with the government, I spent six months in Iraq in 2005. I have also spent time in Israel/Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Spain, and England, and, in summer of 2011, I taught world history and cultures at Kangwon National University, Chuncheon campus, in South Korea.

Areas of Specialty, Courses Taught, & Research Interests: My main area of specialty is modern Middle East history, with an emphasis on the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I also teach courses in Jewish and world history and in Holocaust/Genocide Studies. I teach the following courses on a regular rotation:

Middle East—
- HIST 462 The Contemporary Middle East
- HIST 463 Israel—History, State, and Society (dealing with the modern state of Israel
- Graduate-level courses
  - HIST 585 Modern Middle East
  - HIST 662 The Arabs and Israel
World History/Holocaust and Genocide Studies—
- HIST 152 Early Modern to Contemporary World
- HIST 371 History of the Jews (introductory from ancient to nineteenth century)
- HIST 406 Mass Killing (Massacre) and Genocide in the Modern World
- Graduate-level course (currently developing)
  - HIST 606 Mass Killing (Massacre) and Genocide in the Modern World
Introductory Freshman Courses
- HIST 139 Foundations of Academic Discovery
- HIST 180 Spotlight on the Past: Holocaust

Research fields:land tenure in the Middle East and Palestine/Israel; nationalism in the Middle East, particularly Zionism and Palestinian Arab nationalism; meanings and uses of land in the Israeli-Palestinian experience and in world history.

MESRU and Holocaust Remembrance

I was a founding member of the Center for Middle East Studies at SRU (the MESRU Center) and have served as a member of the Executive Committee ever since, contributing to the Center’s goals by occasionally organizing speakers and participating on panels (see MESRU).

I am also the Director of SRU’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Program (HRP). We bring a speaker to campus in the spring to address the SRU and broader community and local high school students. In spring 2022, we officially named the speaking event The Richard T. Martin Presentation on the Holocaust, in honor of former and, sadly, now deceased, Political Science professor Richard Martin (1950-2019), who directed the program for some 20 plus years during his tenure at SRU.

In recent years, we have expanded the HRP to include Holocaust-related music and film.

Family and Interests

I live with my wife Alexandra (Alex) and one stepson in Slippery Rock, PA. Between us, we have six sons (joined families); I brought two to the mix and Alex brought four. When I’m not at work or spending time with my family and friends, I enjoy

Music: I’m very eclectic, but I’m deeply into jazz in all its varieties (from Dixieland/New Orlean jazz, through swing, bop, cool, hard bop, to fusion, avant-garde, and free jazz); “roots” and “classic” rock; and classical music in all its varieties
Reading broadly, both inside and outside my field; I especially have a layman’s interest in physics and astronomy
Sports (all racquet/paddle sports, but I’m addicted to playing Pickleball; football; baseball; basketball)
Anything that flies (from paper airplanes to RCs).

Carlis C. White

Dr. Carlis C. White Carlis C. White, Ph.D. - University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
303 F Spotts World Culture Building
724.738.4912
carlis.white@sru.edu

Since before he could read, Dr. White developed an interest in ancient civilizations (starting with an obsession for the pictures in a book about Tutankhamun that was in his childhood home). Despite growing up in rural Indiana, he had access to ancient artifacts - including two of three Egyptian mummies in the entire state held at small local museums - that encouraged his interests in antiquities further.

The formal education that he received (BA, Johnson University, MDiv from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, AM and PhD from University of Illinois) allowed him to progress towards his current profession as a historian and educator. He joined the faculty at Slippery Rock University in 2002, following stints as an adjunct professor at University of Illinois and Millikin University. He maintains professional affiliations with the wider scholarly community through his memberships in the Association of Ancient Historians, the Society for the Study of Egyptians Antiquities, and The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies.

Research fields: Ancient Greece and Rome (with particular interest in constitutional development and legal tradition), the Ancient Near East including Egypt, and Biblical studies.

Teaching fields: Ancient and Medieval World, Greece, Rome, Egyptology, History and the Bible, and History and Film

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