History Program Faculty
Department of History, Art History, and Philosophy

 

Teaching Faculty:

Chamberland, Celeste

cchamberland@roosevelt.edu

College of Arts and Sciences
Department of History, Art History & Philosophy
Assistant Professor of History
Chicago phone: 312-341-3726
Chicago room: AUD755

Celeste Chamberland holds a B.A. from the University of New Brunswick, an M.A. from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, and a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Davis. Specializing in early modern European social and cultural history, and the history of science and medicine, her teaching interests include urban history, gender history, the Renaissance and Reformation, and the history of disease and public health. Her research focuses on the social and cultural history of medicine in Tudor-Stuart England. She is currently writing a book on gender and the professional identity of surgeons in early modern London.

Chris Chulos received his B.A. from Loyola University Chicago and M.A. and Ph.D. from The University of Chicago. Between 1994 and 2002, he was a research fellow and faculty member at the Renvall Institute for Area and Cultural Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland, where he remains a permanent faculty member of the Department of History. At Roosevelt he teaches courses on Modern Europe. His publications include Converging Worlds: Religion and Community in Peasant Russia, 1861-1917 (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2003), and many articles about religion and culture in nineteenth century Russia. He has held visiting positions at the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London, St. Petersburg University (Russia), and Joensuu University and Tampere University (both in Finland). He has been a Fulbright scholar and IREX exchangee, as well as a recipient of grants from the European Union, the Finnish Academy of Sciences, and the Russian Academy of Sciences. His current work concentrates on history and memory in late imperial Russia, with an emphasis on early Russian cinema.

 

Frink, Sandra M.
sfrink@roosevelt.edu

College of Arts and Sciences
Department of History, Art History & Philosophy
Assistant Professor of History
Chicago phone: 312-341-6474
Chicago room: AUD802
Schaumburg phone: 847-619-8463

Sandra Frink received her B.A. in History and Women’s Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her M.A. in History from the University of Memphis, and her Ph.D. in History from the University of Texas at Austin. Her dissertation, entitled “Spectacles of the Street: Performance, Power and Public Space in Antebellum New Orleans,” uses New Orleans as a lens through which to examine the multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-national world of the nineteenth-century urban streets. In her research, she is interested in analyzing the relationships between public power, urban landscapes, and community development and conflict. She is currently preparing an article on the development of public squares in New Orleans and their impact on community formation and ethnic and racial identity. She is also preparing an article on religious community in the public spaces of New Orleans, excerpts of which she recently presented at the Organization of American Historian’s Southern Regional conference. Her teaching interests include the study of public space, particularly in urban environments, the history of women, gender and sexuality, the history of immigration and ethnicity, African American history, and the history of popular culture.

 

Gellman, Erik S.
egellman@roosevelt.edu

College of Arts and Sciences
Department of History, Art History & Philosophy
Assistant Professor
Chicago phone: 312-322-7138
Chicago room: AUD701-B

Erik S. Gellman earned his B.A. from Bates College and Ph.D. in History from Northwestern University. His dissertation, titled, "'Death Blow to Jim Crow': The National Negro Congress, 1936-1947," argues that a black-led network of activists, artists, and workers produced a national civil rights movement during this Popular Front era that expanded New Deal policies, organized thousands of workers across racial lines, and demolished many of the underpinnings of America's Jim Crow society. Specializing in the 19th and 20th Century United States, Gellman's research interests include African American and working-class history, social movements, and comparative ethnic and racial studies. His special interest in Chicago's history has led to his work on the staff of the Encyclopedia of Chicago and The Labor Trail map project concerning Chicago's history of working-class life and struggle. His recent publications include articles in Labor and the Journal of Southern History.

 

Rung, Margaret C.
mrung@roosevelt.edu

College of Arts and Sciences
Department of History, Art History & Philosophy
Associate Professor of History
Director of the Center for New Deal Studies
Chicago phone: 312-341-3724
Chicago room: AUD476-A
Schaumburg phone: 847-619-8563
Schaumburg room: SCH600-L

Margaret Rung received her AB from Oberlin College, and her MA and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Before coming to Roosevelt, she taught at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada and during the 2000-2001 academic year she served as a visiting Fulbright lecturer at the University of Latvia in Riga, Latvia. At Roosevelt, she teaches courses on twentieth-century America, urban history, ethnicity in North America, and state building. Author of the book, Servants of the State: Managing Diversity and Democracy in the Federal Civil Service, 1933-1953 (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 2002), her research focuses on politics and political institutions in twentieth-century America. She has also written numerous articles concerning the construction of the civil service, Richard Nixon’s relationship to bureaucracy, and the historiography of the Progressive Era and New Deal. Currently, she is working on a book-length study that compares labor policy in the United States and Canada in the 1930s and 1940s.

 

Administrative (non-teaching) Faculty:

Middleton, Charles R.
cmiddleton@roosevelt.edu

Office of the President
President

Professor of History
Chicago phone: 312-341-3800
Chicago room: AUD814
Schaumburg phone: 847-619-7284
Schaumburg room: SCH130-D

Charles R. “Chuck” Middleton has served as the fifth President of Roosevelt University since July 2002. Dr. Middleton has been a university professor or administrator for 38 years.  Prior to joining Roosevelt, he was vice chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University System of Maryland, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at Bowling Green State University and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder. 

A fellow of Great Britain’s Royal Historical Society, Dr. Middleton’s academic expertise is in modern British history from the late 18th Century to the early 19th Century and he has an interest in the history of sport in America.  He has taught more than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students, written more than 60 scholarly papers and is the author of the book The Administration of British Foreign Policy, 1782-1846.

Dr. Middleton earned an AB degree with honors in history from Florida State University and both an MA and PhD in history from Duke University. Dr. Middleton is active in educational and community organizations.  He is a fellow of the Institute for International Education (Midwest), chair of the Committee on Institutional Effectiveness for the American Council on Education (ACE), chair of the Federation of Illinois Independent Colleges and Universities, and a member of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, American Historical Association and North American Conference on British Studies.

He also serves on the boards of the Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid Committee, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute in Hyde Park, N. Y., the Center on Halsted, the Chicago Loop Alliance, the Chicago Central Area Committee, the Near South Planning Board, the Point Foundation, and the Chicago Historical Museum Community Advisory Council for “Out at CHM.”  He is a member of Rotary One, the Economic Club and the Executives Club. In November 2006, Dr. Middleton was elected to the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame, along side Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.  

In his free time, he enjoys fishing, attending Chicago Cubs and White Sox

baseball games and cooking for friends.

Weiner, Lynn Y.
lweiner@roosevelt.edu

College of Arts and Sciences

Dean
Professor of History

Chicago phone: 312-341-2134
Chicago room: AUD620

Lynn Weiner, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, is also a professor of history at Roosevelt University as well as the Executive Director of the Center for New Deal Studies. She has been at Roosevelt since 1991. Before that, she taught for a year at Northwestern University. Dr. Weiner also previously taught as an adjunct at Roosevelt and elsewhere. From Detroit, she has a B.A. from the University of Michigan in history and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in American Studies from Boston University. Specializing in nineteenth and twentieth century U.S. social history, particularly women's history, she has written a book on the female labor force in the U.S., a prize-winning article on the history of the La Leche League, and numerous other articles and reviews. Her current project is a history of the PTA.

Knerr, Douglas

dknerr@roosevelt.edu

Office of the Provost

Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Administration

Chicago phone: 312-341-2337

Chicago room: AUD 834

 

 

Douglas Knerr, vice-provost for faculty and academic administration, is an associate professor of history and has served on the Roosevelt faculty since 1998.  Before joining the history department in 2007, he taught a variety of courses and seminars in the bachelor of general studies program in the College of Professional Studies.  His research interests include the US housing industry and the history of mid-sized corporations.  His most recent book, Suburban Steel: The Magnificent Failure of the Lustron Corporation (Ohio State University Press, 2005) looks at the intersections of housing technologies and social policy in the mid-20th century.  Additional research interests include domestic culture and the evolution of residential interior spaces.  He has held visiting appointments at several universities, most recently Case Western Reserve where he served as the Beamer-Schneider Fellowin the SAGES program.  Knerr received his B.A. in Political Science and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Cincinnati.

 

Emeritus Faculty:

Kraig, Bruce
bkraig@roosevelt.edu

College of Arts and Sciences
Department of History, Art History & Philosophy
Professor Emeritus of History
Chicago phone: 312-341-6452
Chicago room: AUD650

Schaumburg phone: 847-619-8663
Schaumburg room: SCH600-E

Bruce Kraig holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in history and archeology. Professor Kraig has taught courses in history, prehistory, popular culture, the history of food, world cultures, film and television documentaries and travel and tourism, and continues to teach occasionally at Roosevelt. He has lectured on these subjects in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Australia and has an international reputation as a food historian with special emphasis on the cultural significance of food. He has been the host, writer, and historian for the nationally broadcast Public Television (PBS) documentaries Hidden China, Hidden Mexico, Food for the Ancestors, Hidden India: Ther Kerala Spicelands, and the forthcoming Hidden Turkey and has hosted his own television and radio shows about food. His programs have won numerous awards, including: Silver Apple Award (National Education Media Competition); Gold Apple Award; CHRIS (top award, Columbus International Documentary comp); and several EMMYs. Author of Mexican-American Plain Cooking (Nelson-Hall 1982), The Cuisines of Hidden Mexico (John Wiley 1996) as well numerous articles on food and food history, world cultures and travel, Professor Kraig is currently writing books on the culinary history of Chicago.  Also forthcoming are "Man Bites Dog" and "The Hot Dog," social histories of hot dogs and the iconography of hot dog stands.  He is the founding and continuing president of the Culinary Historians of Chicago.

Reed, Christopher R.
creed@roosevelt.edu

College of Arts and Sciences
Department of History, Philosophy, and Art History
Professor Emeritus of History
Chicago Phone: 312-480-0337

Chicago Room: AUD724

Christopher R. Reed, professor emeritus of history (since September 2007) and former Seymour Logan Chair (1998-2001), is both a Roosevelt alumnus and native Chicagoan who has matched scholarly interest and civic commitment with nativity. Returning to the university in 1987 as associate professor of history, he has served as well as director of the St. Clair Drake Center for African and African American Studies. His research interests include Chicago history, nineteenth and twentieth century Black Chicago history, US Civil War history, and urban politics.  His scholarship includes these books: Black Chicago's First Century, Vol. II, 1901-1933 (2008); Black Chicago's First Century, Vol. I, 1833-1900 (2005); “All The World Is Here”: The Black Presence At White City (2000); and, The Chicago NAACP And The Rise Of Black Professional Leadership, 1910-1966 (1997). Major essays include “African American Life In Antebellum Chicago, 1833-1860,” “Beyond Chicago’s Black Metropolis: A History Of The West Side's First Century, 1837-1940,” "A Reinterpretation of Black Strategies For Change At The Chicago World's Fair, 1933-1934," and Black Chicago's Political Realignment During The Depression And New Deal," all in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. Also, Organized Racial Reform in Chicago During The Progressive Era: The Chicago NAACP, 1910-1920, Michigan Historical Review and Black Chicago Civic Organization Before 1935," Journal of Ethnic Studies.  He earned his BA and MA in history at Roosevelt University in 1963 and 1968 respectively and his PhD from Kent State University in 1982.

 

Stein, Leon
lstein@roosevelt.edu

College of Arts and Sciences
Department of History, Art History & Philosophy
Professor Emeritus of History
Schaumburg phone: 847-619-8564
Schaumburg room: SCH600-E

Dr. Leon Stein received his B.A. in 1962, his M.A. in 1964, and his Ph.D. in 1966 from New York University. He was the first Mansfield Professor of History at Roosevelt University, and he continues to teach select courses at the Schaumburg Campus. His teaching and research fields include History of the Holocaust, History of Ideas, Social Movements, and Nationalism. His many publications include numerous papers and articles on the Holocaust and the History of Nationalism, and a Curriculum on the Holocaust for the Public Schools of the State of Illinois. Dr. Stein also contributed to the Illinois State Law that mandates the teaching about the Holocaust, and has conducted teacher institutes in which 1,500 teachers have been trained over the last twenty years. He has also completed a study comparing the behavior of the Lutheran churches in Germany and Denmark during the Holocaust.

Elizabeth Balanoff

Professor Emerita of History

Ronald Tallman

Professor Emertius of History

History