Faculty and Staff
Faculty
Molly Michelmore
Department Head, History; Professor of History
- Newcomb Hall 103
- Email: michelmorem@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8779
Michelmore teaches courses on race, class and politics in postwar America, the age of Reagan, the 1960s, and the Cold War. She has researched fiscal policy and welfare state formation, as well as American political development.
Kameliya N. Atanasova
Assistant Professor of Religion
- Tucker Hall 207
- Email: atanasovak@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8797
Atanasova researches the intersection of religion, law and politics by studying the social role of Sufism in the early-modern Ottoman Empire. She teaches Islamic Civilization, Sufism, Islam in America, and Muslims in the Movies.
Henryatta Ballah
Assistant Professor of History
- Newcomb Hall 218
- Email: hballah@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8456
Ballah鈥檚 teaching and research focus on 19th and 20th century Africa. Her book project explores the political activism of Liberian youth from 1950 to 2010.
David Bello
Director of East Asian Studies; Professor of History
Sabbatical for the 2024-2025 Academic Year
- Newcomb Hall 206
- Email: bellod@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8770
Bello teaches courses in Chinese and Japanese history. His research focuses on Qing China and borderland environmental history. He has published a number of notable scholarly works on the subject.
Michelle D. (Mikki) Brock
Professor of History
- Newcomb Hall 219
- Email: brockm@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8780
Brock teaches courses on British and Atlantic history, the Reformation, witchcraft and the devil, and the history of poverty. Her research focuses on the supernatural and religious beliefs and identities in early modern Scotland.
Matthew Chalmers
Visiting Assistant Professor of History
- Newcomb Hall 314
- Email: mchalmers@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8788
Nneka Dennie
Assistant Professor of History
- Newcomb Hall 221
- Email: ndennie@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8963
Professor Dennie is a Black feminist scholar specializing in African American intellectual history. Her courses examine race and gender in the United States and the Caribbean. She is currently writing two books about 19th century Black women thinkers.
Leticia Fern谩ndez-Fontecha
Visiting Assistant Professor of History
- Newcomb Hall 315
- Email: lfernandez-fontecha@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8214
Romina Green
Assistant Professor of History
- Newcomb Hall 205
- Email: rgreen@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8094
Professor Green Rioja鈥檚 research interests include examining structural racism in modern Chilean history and identifying settler-colonial policies that displaced the Indigenous Mapuche.
Alana Holland
Assistant Professor of History
- Newcomb Hall 223
- Email: aholland@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8912
Sarah Horowitz
Professor of History
- Newcomb Hall 306
- Email: horowitzs@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8773
Horowitz teaches courses on modern European history and specializes in French history and the history of gender in Europe. She is writing a book on the politics of gender and sexuality in the Steinheil Affair of 1908-1909.
Barton A. Myers
Class of 1960 Professor of Ethics and History (Term 2019-2022) and Associate Professor of Civil War History
- Newcomb Hall 223
- Email: myersb@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8776
Myers teaches courses on the American Civil War, war and society, the U.S. South, and public history. His research interests are irregular warfare, soldiers and atrocity, and political dissent.
Nicolaas A. Rupke
Johnson Professor of History
- Newcomb Hall 203
- Email: rupken@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8344
Rupke teaches courses in the history of 鈥渟cience, politics and the public good,鈥 dealing with animal behavior as it relates to human morality, with Darwin and his critics, scientists as political leaders, and medical history.
Franklin Sammons
Assistant Professor of History
- Newcomb Hall 211
- Email: fsammons@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8772
Affiliated Faculty
Alison Bell
Professor of Anthropology
- Newcomb Hall 309
- Email: bella@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8638
Bell teaches courses on the anthropology of American history. Her research interests include historical archaeology, material culture, social stratification, and the 18th and 19th century in the eastern United States.
Jonathan Eastwood
Department Head, Sociology and Anthropology; Professor of Sociology
- Newcomb Hall 104
- Email: eastwoodj@wlu.edu
- Phone: 540-458-8777
Professor Eastwood is a social theorist who also has a strong interest in quantitative methods. He teaches seminars on classical and contemporary theory as well as a series of courses that train 91传媒 how to use quantitative and computational tools to answer sociological questions.
Emeritus Faculty
Richard Bidlack
Martin and Brooke Stein Professor of History, Emeritus
Bidlack taught courses on imperial Russia, Soviet Russia, Central Asia, and a study abroad course in Kyrgyzstan. He has researched Russia and Central Asia extensively and is the author of an annually updated textbook.
Roger B. Jeans
Elizabeth Lewis Otey Professor of History, Emeritus
William Patch
Kenan Professor of History
Patch teaches courses on modern Europe, Germany history and international relations. His research focuses on the Weimar Republic, the German Federal Republic and Christian social movements.
Roberta Senechal
Professor of History, Emeritus
Senechal taught courses on the American gilded age, the history of violence in America, the history of women in America, and a seminar on modern terrorism. Her research focuses on social history, theory and violence.
Staff
