EDUCATION

Ph.D. (History) – University of Pittsburgh, December 2002

Dissertation: “From Prayers to Protests: The Impact of Religious-Based Dissent on the

Emergence of Civil Society in Slovakia and the German Democratic

Republic”

M.A. (History) & Certificate of Advanced Study in East European Studies –

University of Pittsburgh, August 1997

B.A. (History) – Valparaiso University, May 1992

TEACHING

Associate Professor, Department of History, Western Oregon University (September 2007-present), teaching load 3-3-3;

Assistant Professor, Department of History, Western Oregon University (September 2003-September 2007):

Undergraduate

World History (HST 104D, 105D & 106D)

Germany: The Nineteenth Century (HST 422D/522)

Germany: 1914-1945 (HST 423D/523)

Postwar German History (HST 424D/524)

Dissent & Opposition in East Central Europe (HST 407D/507)

Interwar East Europe (HST 407D)

Russia to Peter the Great (HST 431D/531)

Imperial Russia (HST 432D/532)

Soviet Russia (HST 433D/533)

Yugoslavia (HST 407D, Fall 2005)

Yugoslavia’s Collapse in Film & Literature (HST 407D/507, Summer 2009, 2012)

Stalin’s Russia (HST 407D/507, Summer 2006)

Revolutions of 1989 (HST 407D/507, Summer 2007)

Nations and Nationalism: The Austrian Empire (HST 407D/507, Fall 2007)

Postwar East Europe (HST 407D/507, Winter 2008)

East European Film and Culture (HST 407/507, Summer 2011)

Nazi Germany: Propaganda & Resistance (HST 407/507, Summer 2012)

Philosophies of History (HST 420W)

Senior Seminar (HST 499W, Spring 2008)

Graduate (600 level):

Politics & Culture of East Central Europe (HST 610)

Nations and Nationalism (HST 600)

Vaclav Havel and Culture of Dissidence (HST 610, summer 2010)

East European Social Movements (HST 600)

Research, Methods and Writing (HST 698)

Visiting Instructor, Department of History, Samford University (August 2002-July 2003):

Cultural Perspectives I & II

War and Peace in 20^th Century Germany (Hist 499W)

Teaching Fellow & Assistant, Department of History, University of Pittsburgh (August 1995-August 2002):

Western Civilization

East European History

Imperial Russia

Soviet Russia

Course Development, Department of History, University of Pittsburgh:

Us and the Other (Spring 1997)

Twentieth-Century Europe (Spring 1997)

European Welfare State in Comparative Perspective (Fall 1996)

PUBLICATIONS

Book review, Jan Bažant, Nina Bažantová and Frances Starn, eds., The Czech Reader: History,

Culture & Politics, (Duke University Press), Journal of World History 24:1

(forthcoming March 2013)

“Constructing Peace in the GDR: Conscientious Objection and Compromise among East German

Christians, 1962-1989 in Christianity and Modernity in Eastern Europe, eds. Bruce R.

Berglund and Brian Porter-Szűcs (Central European University Press, 2010)

“Promoting Peace through Reconciliation: Aktion Sühnezeichen and the Lutheran Church in the

German Democratic Republic,” in Religion and Philosophy: New Developments in East

Central Europe, ed. Thomas Bremer (Palgrave, 2008)

The Bratislava Five, “Announcement of a Protest in Bratislava.” Making the History of 1989,

Item#124 (accessed May 26 2008, 3:46 pm), online at:

http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/124

“The 1985 Pilgrimage at Velehrad: Slovak Catholics and the Creation of a Public Space,”

Slovakia 39, nos. 72-73 (2007): 99-116

Book review, published in the winter 2005 issue of Slovo [journal of the National Czech &

Slovak Museum and Library]: Ján Chryzostom Korec, The Night of the Barbarians:

Memoirs of the Communist Persecution of the Slovak Cardinal (Wauconda, Illinois:

Bolchazy-Carducci, 2002)

“Prayers, Pilgrimages, and Petitions: The Secret Church and the Growth of Civil Society in

Slovakia,” Nationalities Papers 30, no. 2 (June 2002): 215-240

RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP IN PROGRESS

Book Project, From Prayers to Protests: Testing the Boundaries of State Power in Slovakia and

East Germany. This book presents a comparative analysis of grass-roots activity

(dissent) amongst believers in socialist Slovakia and the German Democratic Republic

prior to the collapse of communism in 1989. The finished manuscript is currently under

peer-review by the Central European University Press.

Current Research Project, Conscientious Objectors in East Germany: Constructing Peace and

Building Networks, 1964-1989. This project examines conscientious objectors, specifically the Bausoldaten, in the former East Germany, by focusing on their relationship to the Evangelical Church and grass-roots activities prior to 1989. Research, supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, was conducted at the Federal Archives in Freiburg (military archive) and Berlin (party-state archives) while on sabbatical in fall 2011. The manuscript is being written during sabbatical terms in fall 2012 and fall 2013.

CONFERENCES & PRESENTATIONS

“Pastoral Care for Military Conscripts in East Germany: Party-State Responses to the Church

and Pacifism in the 1960s,” paper presented at the national conference of the Association

for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies, New Orleans, LA, November 16, 2012

“Pacifism in East German Church-State Relations: The Lutheran Church, Military Conscription

and Conscientious Objectors, 1962-1964,” paper presented at the national conference of

the Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies , Los Angeles, CA,

November 20, 2010

“No Longer Secret: Slovak Catholics Twenty Years since the Velvet Revolution,” paper

presented at the national conference of the American Association for the Advancement of

Slavic Studies, Boston, MA, November 13, 2009

“The Catholic Church in Slovakia: From the Underground to the Velvet Revolution,

and 20 Years Later,” presented at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic, Washington,

D.C., October 17, 2009

“Free Spaces and Religion in Slovakia and East Germany” paper presented at the University of

Washington, Seattle, March 8, 2007

“Czech National Identity Today,” paper presented at the Birmingham International Symposium

on Czech Nationalism, Birmingham, Alabama, February 24, 2007

“Conscientious Objectors and the Boundaries of State Power in East Germany, 1962-1990,”

paper presented at the national conference of the American Association for the

Advancement of Slavic Studies, Washington, D.C., November 16, 2006

“Constructing Peace: Conscientious Objectors and the Independent Peace Movement in the

GDR, 1964-1968,” presented at the “East European History of Christianity” conference,

German Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland, June 2006

“Promoting Peace through Reconciliation: Aktion Sühnezeichen and the Lutheran Church in the

German Democratic Republic,” paper presented at the VII World Congress of the

International Council for Central and East European Studies in Berlin, Germany, July 28,

2005

“The East European History of Christianity Project,” workshop participant, at Calvin College,

Grand Rapids, Michigan, June 6-10, 2005

“Pope John Paul II and Slovak Pilgrimages in the 1980s: A Challenge to Communist Power,”

paper presented as the Thomas Kukucka Memorial Lecture at the University of

Pittsburgh, April 10, 2005

“Bicycles, Trees and Peace: Environmental Activism and the Lutheran Church in Leipzig, East

Germany, 1981-1989,” paper presented at the national conference of the

American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Boston, MA, December 4,

2004

“Aktion Sühnezeichen: The Peace Movement, the Political Opposition and the Lutheran Church

in East Germany, 1958-1989,” paper presented at the Rocky Mountain Western Slavic

Association/Western Social Science Association Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah

April 24, 2004

Junior Scholars’ Training Seminar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,Wye

Conference Center, Maryland, August 8-11, 2003

“Bausoldaten for Life: Conscientious Objectors and Independent Peace Initiatives in the German

Democratic Republic, 1964-1989,” paper presented at the Mid-Atlantic Slavic

Conference, Hunter College, March 22, 2003

“Slovak Catholics and the 1985 Pilgrimage to Velehrad,” paper presented at the American

Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies national conference,

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 23, 2002

“Democracy in Slovakia: Straddling the Fast and the Slow Lanes to Consolidation,” roundtable

presentation, Mid-Atlantic Slavic Conference, Cornell University, March 31, 2001

“The Visegrad Countries and the Road to the European Union,” roundtable presentation,

American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies national conference,

Denver, Colorado, November 12, 2000

“A Church in Transition: The Slovak Secret Church, 1948-1998,” paper presented at the

American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies national conference,

Denver, Colorado, November 10, 2000

“Cooperation and Conflict: Slovakia’s Prospects for EU Integration,” roundtable presentation,

Mid-Atlantic Slavic Conference, Princeton University, March 25, 2000

“Civil Society in Slovakia: Emergence, Transformation and Future,” paper presented at the

Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Pittsburgh, January

26, 2000

“The Movement for Civil Freedoms: A New Dissident Strategy and its Impact in Slovakia, 1988

-1989,” paper presented at the Mid-Atlantic Slavic Conference, New York University,

March 20, 1999

“The Emergence of a Civil Society: The Role of the Secret Church,” paper presented at the Mid-

Atlantic Slavic Conference, Temple University, March 21, 1998

“Observations from the Bosnian Municipal Elections, September 1997,” presentation at the

Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Pittsburgh, November 18,

1997

INSTITUTIONAL SERVICE

UNIVERSITY LEVEL:

Faculty Senator, Social Science Division Representative, Western Oregon University, April

2009-present

WOU representative, OUS German Board, Spring 2008-present

Graduate Studies Committee, Social Science Division Representative, Western Oregon

University, September 2008 – June 2009

Faculty Representative, for Western Oregon University at the Faculty Partnership Conference,

Baden-Württemberg, Germany, June 2008

International Education and Services Committee, Social Science Division Representative,

Western Oregon University, September 2004 – Spring 2008

Member, Search Committee for Dean of Library and Media Services, Hamersly Library,

Western Oregon University, summer and fall 2007

Member, WOU International Students Scholarship Committee, April 7, 2006

Member, Fulbright Exam Committee in conjunction with WOU Study Abroad Office, for a

WOU student (Geoffrey Bock), October 18, 2006

Panelist, New Faculty Orientation, Western Oregon University, September 15, 2005

Faculty Panelist, Learning Seminar, sponsored by WOU Office of Academic Advising, Spring

2005

Organizer, “Middle Eastern Film Series,” International Awareness Week, Western Oregon

University, November 15-17, 2004

DEPARTMENTAL:

Chair, Department of History, Western Oregon University, June 2006 – June 2009

Graduate Director, Master of Arts in History Program, Western Oregon University, 2008-2009

academic year

Primary Reader, History Senior Theses:

Jennifer Ross, “Projections of Complicity: Narratives of Rape Survivors in Wartime

Bosnia 1992-1995” (2011-2012 academic year)

David Siewell, “The Riurikid Relationship with the Orthodox Christian Church in Kievan

Rus” (2011-2012 academic year)

Devan Walsh, “In Depth Analysis of Peter the Great’s Social Reforms and the

Justification of the Reactions from the General Public” (20111-2012 academic

year)

Stephen Calkin, “A Marriage of Convenience: The Prewar Relationship Between Nazi

Germany and Soviet Russia” (2012-2011 academic year)

Jonathan Moch, “Women in Nazi Propaganda” (2010-2011 academic year)

Kira Noble, “Nationalism, Human Rights and John Paul II: The First Papal Pilgrimage to

Poland, June 1979” (2009-2010 academic year)

Kristopher Schendel, “Stalin’s Collectivization: From an Idealistic View to Defensive

Stance, 1928-1934” (2009-2010 academic year)

Nolan Kinney,“Positivism in Poland” (2008-2009 academic year)

Michael Myers, “Carl von Clausewitz’s Military Theory: An Examination” (2008-2009

academic year)

Danile Wilson, “The Jewish Question in the New Republic, 1919-1924” (2008-2009

academicyear)

Betsy McDonald, “Museum and National Identity: The Case of the Parthenon

Sculptures” (2008-2009 academic year)

Matthew Bond, “Ivan the Terrible: Centralization in Sixteenth Century Muscovy” (2007

-2008 academic year)

Kelly Gordon, “The Peace of Westphalia and the Origins of Westphalian Sovereignty,”

(2007-2008 academic year)

Erin Fleener, “Peter the Great as a Constructive Revolutionary” (2006-2007 academic

year)

Derick Handley, “Broadcasting a Revolution: Radio Free Europe and the Hungarian

Revolution (2006-2007 academic year)

Francesca Morrison, “Paramilitaries, Propaganda and Pipelines:The NATO Attack on

Serbia and Kosovo, 1999” (2006-2007 academic year)

Samuel Summers, “Leninism: Pathway to Dictatorship?” (2006-2007 academic year)

Scott Seidler, “Unabashed Patriotism: How Thomas Mann Came to Embrace the Weimar

Republic” (2005-2006 academic year)

Jeff Neal, “Muscovy and its Rise to Power” (2005-2006)

Travis Moore, “An American Response to the European Revolutions of 1848: John C.

Calhoun v. the Reformists and Revolutionaries” (2005-2006)

Daniel Van Winkle, “An Examination of the Use of History in the Rise of Ethnic

Nationalism in the Republics of the Former Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia,” (2004-2005)

Katie Lane, “Vikings in the East: Scandinavian Influence in Kievan Rus,” (2004-2005)

Liz Saufley, “Women in the German Democratic Republic: The Discrepancy Between

Socialist Rhetoric and Daily Practice” (2004-2005)

Jenny Cournoyer, “Jews and the Former Habsburg Empire: Joseph Roth, Franz Werfel

and the Concept of Nationalism in Interwar Europe (1918-1938)” (2003-2004)

Secondary Reader, History Senior Theses:

Helen Chaffee, “The Gaucho: Contradictions and the Construction of a New Symbol”

(2010-2011 academic year)

Clara Scillian Kennedy, “Caves, Water and Corn in Ancient Maya Myth” (2010-2011

academic year)

Jaxon Saunders, “Alexander the Great: A Lesson Taught by Roman Historians” (2010

-2011 academic year)

Hannah Marshall, “Voluntary Food Conservation: The United States Home Front in

WWI” (2009-2010 academic year)

Zachary Mintzer, “The Heterogenous Cristero Identity” (2009-2010 academic year)

Samuel Dollarhide, “’In the Name of Almighty God’: Gregory VII and the Investiture

Controversy” (2009-2010 academic year)

Jordan Kasler, “’Say Uncle’: Reagan Doctrine and Nicaragua” (2009-2010

academic year)

Amber Ferris, “Bartolome de Las Casas Revisited” (2008-2009 academic year)

Joe Lovatt, “Sword and Spirit: Bushido in Practice from the Late Sengoku Era through

theEdo Period,” (2008-2009 academic year)

Jeffrey Thompson, “Sic Semper Tyrannis: Justification of Caesar’s Assassination” (2008

-2009 academic year)\

Joshua Woods, “Homeland Insecurity: United States and East German Internal Security

Practices in the Cold War” (2007-2008 academic year)

Sarah Coelho, “Theodoric the Great versus Boethius: The Conflict of 524 A.D.” (2007

-2008 academic year)

Chris Breyer, “Culpability and Concealed Motives: An Analysis of the Parties involved

in the Diversion on the Fourth Crusade” (2006-2007 academic year)

Eli Kem, “The Making of Australian Federation: An Analysis of the Australasian

Convention Debates, 1891, 1897-1898” (2006-2007 academic year)

Emily Holmes, “From Side Eddies to Man Stream: The Rehabilitation Act of 1973

Section 504 Sit-Ins” (2005-2006 academic year)

Kevin Jeffries, “The Propaganda of Augustus Caesar: How Peace, Power, and Stability

was Achieved During the Age of Augustus” (2005-2006)

Mat Leslie, “Augustus Caesar and the City Plebes: How the Commoners of Rome Found

Prosperity under Augustus” (2005-2006)

Andy Erickson, “Fidel Castro and the Economic Dependence Cycle in Cuba” (2005-

2006)

Rob Moore, “Imperialism in the 8^th and 9^th Centuries: An Examination of Charlemagne

and the Frankish Empire” (2005-2006)

Toni Kelly, “’She Left an American’: Hilda Satt Polacheck, Jewish Assimilation and the

Role of the Settlement House,” (2003-2004)

David Shewey, “Athenian Ambitions for the Delian League” (2003-2004)

Honors Thesis adviser for WOU Honors Program:

Ashley Kuehlwein, “The Media Effects on the Perceptions and Foreign Policies

Surrounding the Chechen Fight for Independence between 1985 and 1995”

Betsy McDonald, “Museum and National Identity: The Case of the Parthenon

Sculptures” (2008-2009 academic year)

Daniel Van Winkle, “An Examination of the Use of History in the

Rise of Ethnic Nationalism in the Republics of the Former Socialist Federation of

Yugoslavia,” (2004-2005 academic year)

Member of Graduate Examining Committees for Master of Arts in History students:

Hannah Marshall (Spring 2012)

Toni Rush (Spring 2012)

Samantha Reining (Spring 2011)

Sam Summers (Summer 2010)

Amy Koenemann (Winter 2011)

Jody Lyon (Summer 2010)

Vivian Reed (Spring 2010)

Jonathan Tipton (Spring 2010)

Robert Moore (Spring 2010)

Betsy McDonald (Spring 2010)

Tyler Laughlin (Fall 2009)

Member of Graduate Examining Committees for Master of Science in Education students:

Aaron Haugen, Fall 2011

Brian Storrs, Fall 2010

Ernie Sowards, Winter 2005

Sarah Reed, Spring 2004

Jerald Schierling, Spring 2004

Academic Advisor, student practicum and Hamersly Library exhibit entitled “1936 Olympics in

Berlin,” Winter and Spring 2004

SOCIAL SCIENCE DIVISION:

Chair, Social Science Division Curriculum Development Committee, September 2006 – June

2008 (member of committee since September 2004), Western Oregon University

Advisor for Social Science Division at sessions for incoming WOU students:

Early Bird Registration May 12, 2012

Early Bird Registration, May 14, 2011

Early Bird Registration, May 14, 2010

SOAR session, July 25, 2009

Preview Day, April 12, 2008

SOAR session, July 8, 2006

Early Bird Registration, May 20, 2006

Presenter, “Peace, Reconciliation, and Summer Camps for Youth in East Germany,” WOU

Social Science Symposium series, January 25, 2006

Session facilitator, Eyes on the Prize screening for African American History Month, sponsored

by the Social Science Division, February 8, 2005

Denis Moran Memorial Lecture Series Committee (ad hoc), Western Oregon University, Fall

2003 & Winter 2004

Guest speaker, “The Allied Intervention in Vladivostok, 1918-1920,” Model United Nations,

International Awareness Dinner, Western Oregon University, October 24, 2003

PROFESSIONAL AND PUBLIC SERVICE

Slovak Studies Association:

Vice-President, Spring 2012-present

Officer-At-Large, November 2003-2007

Discussant of Conference Panels:

“Fico’s First Term: The Origins, Achievements and Prospects of the Center-Left in

Slovakia,” at the national conference of the Association for Slavic, East European

& Eurasian Studies, Los Angeles, CA, November 18, 2010

“Christian-Communist Encounters in the Soviet Bloc 1959-1987” at the national

conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Boston, MA, November 12, 2009

“Church and State in East Central Europe in the Communist Era,” at the national

conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 18, 2007

Chair of Conference Panels:

“Church and State in Early Communist Eastern Europe, 1944-1956,” at the national

conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies,

Washington, D.C., November 18, 2006

“Women, Family Formation, and the State in Twentieth-Century East Europe,” at the

national conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic

Studies, Boston, MA, December 7, 2004

External Reviews:

Peer Reviewer, of a textbook entitled World History: Journeys from Past to Present

(Routledge Books), Spring 2011

Grant Reviewer, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York,

November/December 2006 and March 2010

Program Reviewer, proposal to create a new Bachelor of Arts in History at the University

of Washington, Tacoma, September 2009

Peer Reviewer, of chapters for a textbook entitled Journeys in World History (Longman

Publishers), July 2007

Consultant (unpaid) to the organizers of the Birmingham (Alabama) International

Festival “Great Roads: The Czech Republic” project, September 2006-2007

Peer Reviewer, seven chapters of a new world history textbook entitled

Conflicts and Connections (Longman Publishers), spring 2005

Public Presentations:

“Bausoldaten and the Independent Peace Movement in East Germany, 1964-1989,”

Monmouth-Independence Rotary Club, December 4, 2008

“Samizdat Publishing: The Underground Press in Slovakia, 1948-1989,” Slovak

Heritage Festival, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 7, 1999

“Slovakia’s Secret Church Under Communism,” Slovak Heritage Festival, Pittsburgh,

Pennsylvania, November 1, 1998

“The 1997 Bosnian Municipal Elections,” Pleasant Hills Rotary Club, Pittsburgh,

Pennsylvania, November 1997

Current membership in academic associations:

Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies (formerly AAASS)

Slovak Studies Association

Phi Alpha Theta (History Honors)

FELLOWSHIPS, SCHOLARSHIPS & GRANTS

National Endowment for the Humanities, 2011 Summer Stipend, awarded April 2011 to support

two months of archive research in Germany, September 1-October 31, 2011

Faculty Development Grant, Category III, Western Oregon University, awarded winter 2011 to

support archive research in Germany, November 1-30, 2011

Faculty Development Grant, Category III, Western Oregon University, awarded winter 2008 to

support archive research in Berlin, Germany, June 26-August 1, 2008

Faculty Development Grant, Category III, Western Oregon University, awarded winter 2005 to

support archive research in Berlin, Germany, July 3-30, 2005

Junior Scholars’ Training Seminar award, Woodrow Wilson International Center for

Scholars/American Council of Learned Societies, August 8-11, 2003

Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship, 2001-2002

Foreign Language & Area Studies Fellowship, West European Studies, 2001-2002 (declined)

Cho-yun Hsu Fellowship for Summer Research, University of Pittsburgh, 2000

German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), scholarship for intensive language study at the

University of Leipzig, Germany, Summer 1998

Thomas Kukucka Memorial Scholarship, awarded by the Slovak Studies Program, University of

Pittsburgh, 1997 and 1995

Studia Academia Slovaca Scholarship, Slovak Ministry of Culture, 1997 and 1994

Czechoslovak Nationality Room Scholarship, University of Pittsburgh, 1996

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

“1998 Graduate Student Essay Prize,” awarded by the American Association for the

Advancement of Slavic Studies, September 26, 1998

“Best Graduate Student Paper,” awarded by the Mid-Atlantic Slavic Conference, Spring 1998

Certificate of Recognition for commitment and support of students with disabilities at Western

Oregon University, October 2009.

Nominated, by a WOU student with a disability, for contributing significantly to their success,

Office of Disabilities Services, October 26, 2005

Nominated, Outstanding Academic Faculty Advisor of the Year, Western Oregon University,

2004-2005, 2006-2007 and 2008-2009 academic years

OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Elections Supervisor, Organization for Security & Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Bosnian

Municipal Elections, Republika Srpska, Bosnia-Hercegovina, September 4-19, 1997

Editor, Center for West European Studies Newsletter, University of Pittsburgh, January 1996

-April 1998

History & English Teacher, Evanjelicke Gymnazium (Lutheran High School), Tisovec,

(Czecho)Slovakia, September 1992-August 1993

FILMOGRAPHY

“Reference Question,” Director of Photography, 48 Hour Film Project, 2010

“Past-Present,” Director of Photography, 48 Hour Film Project, 2009

“The Decision,” Director of Photography, 48 Hour Film Project, 2008

“8veU,” documentary film, Director and Director of Photography, Willamette Valley Film

Collective, International Documentary Challenge, 2008

“Visual Vitriol,” documentary film, Photography, Willamette Valley Film Collective,

International Documentary Challenge, 2007

“Five Cups of Coffee,” Director of Photography, 2006, [Official entry in the 2007 Mid-Valley

Video Festival]

“Flight Animal,” documentary film, Photography, Willamette Valley Film Collective,

International Documentary Challenge, 2006

LANGUAGES

Slovak, German