Meet the UWO Department of History
The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Department of History is home to 11 award-winning,
internationally recognized faculty and staff.

(Back left to right): Michelle Mouton, Margaret Huettl, Steven Sheehan, James Frey
(Front left to right): Kimberly Rivers, Mick Rutz, Stephen Kercher, Gabriel Loiacono, Michelle Kuhl
(Not pictured): Jim Feldman, Chong Moua
Contact Us
UW Oshkosh
Department of History
Sage Hall, Room 3464 and 4461
Email: historyoffice@uwosh.edu
Phone: (920) 424-2456
Faculty
Michael Rutz
Chair & Professor of History
rutz@uwosh.edu
(920) 424-7178
Oshkosh Campus: Sage Hall 3622
Spring ’24 Office Hours: Mon 10:30-11:30am, Thu 3:30-4:30pm and by appointment
About Mick
Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis
Research Interests
19th and 20th Century Great Britain and Empire: religion and politics; history of Christian Missions; Cross-Cultural exchange in the British Empire
Courses
- History 102 Modern Civilizations
- History 318 Modernism and Nationalism in Europe
- History 323 Old Regime, French Revolution and Napoleon, 1763-1815
- History 340 The Scientific Revolution, 1500-1800
- History 343 Religion in Modern Europe
- History 359 Africa: 1800-Present
- History 360 South Africa: 1652-Present
- History 373 Early Modern Britain 1485-1714
- History 374 Modern Britain 1714-Present
- History 412 European History Seminar
- History 413 Non-Western History Seminar
Book
- King Leopold’s Congo and the “Scramble for Africa”: A Short History with Documents, Hackett Publishing Company, 2018.
- The British Zion: Congregationalism, Politics, and Empire, 1790-1850, Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2011.
Articles
- “Joseph Ivimey, Pilgrims of the Nineteenth Century, and Anti-Catholicism in Dissenting Politics,” Nineteenth Century Prose, Vol. 39 (Nos. 1/2) Spring/Fall 2012
- “Dissenters in the Country: London Organizations and Dissenting Opinion in the 1830s,”Journal of the United Reformed Church Historical Society, Vol. 8, No. 8, May 2011.
- “‘Meddling with politics’: the political role of foreign missions in the nineteenth century,”Parliamentary History , Fall 2007.
- “The Problems of Church and State: Dissenting Politics and the London Missionary Society in 1830s Britain,” Journal of Church and State , Vol. 48, Spring 2006.
- “The Politicizing of Evangelical Dissent, 1811-1813,” Parliamentary History, Vol. 20, pt. 2, 2001.
James Feldman
Professor of History and Environmental Studies
feldmanj@uwosh.edu
(920) 424-3235
Oshkosh Campus: Sage Hall 3451
Spring ’24 Office Hours: Thu 8:30-9:30 am; 1:15-2:45pm and by appointment
About James
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin – Madison
Research Interests
American and world environmental history, 20th century U.S., history of wilderness, U.S. West, radioactive waste management policy & history, sustainability.
Current Project
Our Waste, Our Problem: Radioactive Waste and the Discourse of Sustainability
Courses
- ES 101/103 Seminar on Environmental Issues
- ES 282 Environmental Humanities
- History/ES 326 American Environmental History
- History/ES 335 Nuclear America
- History/ES 345 History of American Wilderness
- History/ES 355 Global Environmental History
- ES 320 Topics in Campus Sustainability
- ES 395 Field Studies
- ES 490 Environmental Studies Senior Seminar
James Frey
Associate Professor of History
freyj@uwosh.edu
(920) 424-3477
Oshkosh Campus: Sage Hall 3624
Spring ’24 Office Hours: Tue/Thu 3:00-4:00pm and by appointment
About James
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin – Madison
Research Interests
South Asian History & Culture; Indian Ocean/Maritime History; India during the colonial period (18th-19th centuries)
Courses
- History 101 Early Civilizations
- History 105 Quest I Topics in the History of Early Civilizations
- History 338 Steam Power and Globalization
- History 348 Ancient and Medieval India
- History 349 Modern India
- History 351 Gender in Indian History
- History 383 Traditional Middle East, 330-1789
- History 384 Modern Middle East 1789-1979
Publications
James Frey (2014). “Lascars, the Thames Police Court and the Old Bailey: Crime on the High Seas and the London Courts, 1852-8,” Journal of Maritime Research, 16: 2 (2014), 196-211.
James Frey (2014). “Getting Away with Murder: The Wrongful Deaths of Lascars Aboard the Union in 1802,” International Review of Social History, 59: S22 (2014), 45-68.
James Frey (2013). “The Sepoy Speaks: Discerning the Significance of the Vellore Mutiny,” in Gavin Rand and Crispin Bates, eds., Mutiny at the Margins: New Perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857. Volume 4: Military Aspects of the Indian Uprising, 7 Vols. (New Delhi: Sage, 2013), 4: 1-23.
James Frey (2012). “‘…A Most Valuable Acquisition’ – Penang & the East Indiamen: The Interaction of Ships and a City, 1786-1833,” in Loh Wei Leng, T.N. Harper, and Sunil S, Amrith, eds., Proceedings of the Penang & the Indian Ocean Conference, 2011 (Penang: Think City, 2012), 70-87.
James Frey (2012). “Prickly Pears & Pagodas: The East India Company’s Failure to Establish a Cochineal Industry in Early Colonial India,” The Historian, 74:2 (Summer, 2012), 241-66.
James Frey (2009). “The Indian Saltpeter Trade, the Military Revolution, and the Rise of Britain as a Global Superpower,” The Historian, 71:3 (Fall, 2009), 507-554.
*Published under the surname Hoover. (2007) “Men Without Hats: Dialogue, Discipline and Discontent in the Madras Army, 1806-1807” (New Delhi: Manohar, 2007)
Various peer-reviewed articles; book reviews, etc.Current Book Project
Current Book Project
James Frey, “The Global Moment: The Origins of Modern Globalization, 1866-1867”.
This is a study of the first round-the-world link-up of the world’s commercial transport and communications systems, which occurred in 1866-1867. It is unique in that it explores the emergence of modern global connections by taking readers on a journey around the planet, aboard real steam trains, steamships, and stagecoaches. The study not only proves that the necessary connections could be made but examines, for each segment of the route, the political and business interests that brought that created and operated that part of the transport system.
This project is in the final revision stage prior to being submitted for publication.
Major Grants & Awards
Wisconsin Teaching Fellow – 2011
Faculty Development Grant – 2011 Ships of the East India Trade
Faculty Development Grant – 2015 Round the World in 125 Days
Margaret Huettl
Assistant Professor of History
huettlm@uwosh.edu
(920) 424-7186
Oshkosh Campus: Sage 3630
Spring ’24 Office Hours: Tue/Thu 9:00-11:00am and by appointment
About Margaret
Ph.D., University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Research Interests
Ojibwe/Anishinaabe sovereignty and treaty rights, Indigenous Studies, North American West, Indigenous sustainability and resilience, digital humanities
Publications
- “Retracing the Oregon Trail,” with William J. Bauer and Katrina Phillips, California History (2022) 99(2)
- “Nation to Nation: Understanding Treaties and Sovereignty” in Kristofer Ray and Brady DeSanti, eds., Understanding and Teaching Native American History (Madison: Unveristy of Wisconsin Press, 2022)
- “Treaty Stories: Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Treaty Rights and the Struggle for Sovereignty, Ethnohistory (Spring 2021) 68(2): 215-236. (winner of the Robert F. Heizer Article Award, American Society of Ethnohistory, 2022)
- “Re/creating the Past: Anishinaabe History in the Novels of Louise Erdrich.” Critical Insights: Louise Erdrich. Edited by P. Jane Hafen (Ipswitch: EBSCO Publishing, October 2012).
Michelle Kuhl
Professor of History
Chief Reader: Advanced Placement (AP) United States History exam
kuhlm@uwosh.edu
(920) 424-7442
Oshkosh Campus: Sage Hall 3626
Spring ’24 Office Hours: Mon/Wed 12:00-1:00pm and by appointment
About Michelle
Ph.D., Binghamton University
Research Interests
Professor Kuhl has published articles on Du Bois’s short stories, the silencing of sexual assault against black women in the anti-lynching movement, black intellectual concerns about the defeat of the Plains Indians, the work/life balance for female academics, and a scholarly review of Gilded Age women’s history. She is currently updating a manuscript on the anti-lynching movement titled Manly Martyrs: African Americans and the Anti-Lynching Battle.
Courses
- History 201 U.S. History to 1877
- History 205 Quest I Topics in the Early History of the United States: History of Pirates
- History 315 Historical Methods and Writing
- History 385 African American History
- History 386 Women in the United States
- History 368 The Gilded Age and Progressive Era, United States
- History 411 American History Seminar: American Slavery
- African American Studies 100 Introduction to African American Studies
Student Evaluations of Teaching
Why wander the internets looking for student opinions? Here are the official student surveys of Professor Kuhl’s classes. In the Qualitative A=strengths and B=weaknesses.
- US History to 1877 Quantitative and Qualitative
- History of Pirates Quantitative and Qualitative
- African American History Quantitative and Qualitative
- U.S. Women’s History Quantitative and Qualitative
- Gilded Age and Progressive Era Quantitative and Qualitative
- Historical Methods and Writing Quantitative and Qualitative
Service
- Chief Reader for the Advanced Placement United States History exam
- Member of the African American Studies Advising Committee
- Teaching Faculty in Women and Gender Studies
- Coordinator for Career Advisement
- Coordinator of Alumni Contacts
Professor Kuhl has given public lectures in the Fox Valley on Emancipation, Midwest Immigration, the historical context of the Ferguson uprising, and the Civil War homefront. Her areas of expertise include 19th century U.S. history, Women’s History, and African American history. And, increasingly, Pirate History. She is willing to consider opportunities for public outreach.
“I would only add that when one begins a poem, a hymn, a short story, or even a history, one must be optimistic about its completion and about what it seeks to teach. If one believes in the power of his own words and in the words of others, one must also hope and believe that the world will be a better place by our having spoken or written those words.” John Hope Franklin
Stephen Kercher
Professor of History
kercher@uwosh.edu
(920) 424-7158
Oshkosh Campus: Sage Hall 3619
Spring ’24 Office Hours: Mon 4:45-5:45pm and by appointment
About Stephen
Ph.D., Indiana University
Research Interests
Twentieth-century U.S. history; post-war American intellectual and cultural life; the history of American advertising.
Dr. Kercher is currently working on a history of black student demonstrations and the inception of Black Studies during the late 1960s. He directs the Black Thursday Oral History Project, funded by the Wisconsin Humanities Council.
Author of Revel With a Cause: Liberal Satire in Postwar America, University of Chicago Press, 2006.
Courses
- History 202 Modern United States History Since 1877
- History 311 The American Left: From Abolitionism to “Feel the Bern”
- History 336 Study Abroad: The Civil Rights Movement in the South
- History 357 The United States 1919-1945: Modernity, Crisis, and War
- History 369 America Since World War II
- History 385 African American History
- History 393 Modern U.S. Cultural and Intellectual History
- History 396 America in the Sixties
- History 411 American History Seminar
Gabriel Loiacono
Associate Professor of History
loiacong@uwosh.edu
(920) 424-1409
Oshkosh Campus: Sage Hall 3615
Spring ’24 Office Hours: Mon/Wed/Fri 11:30-11:50am (Sage 3615); Tue/Thu 11:00am-12:00pm (Swart 230) and by appointment
About Gabe
For more on Gabriel’s research and writing visit:
Regularly Taught Courses
- History 110Q2: Alexander Hamilton’s World
- History 201: United States History to 1877
- History 205Q1: Ben Franklin’s World
- History 215Q3: Charity and Memory, 1066-Present
- History 315: Historical Methods and Writing
- History/Environmental Studies 339: Public History
- History 341: History of Wisconsin
- History 361: Colonial North America
- History 362: American Revolution
- History 363: Indigenous North American histories, 1491-now
- History 364: The Early American Republic, 1787-1828
- History 411: American History Seminar: Reading American Newspapers, 1740-1840
Chong Moua
Assistant Professor of History and Hmong Studies
mouac@uwosh.edu
(920) 424-1288
Oshkosh Campus: Sage Hall 3442
Spring ’24 Office Hours: Mon 12:30-2:00pm and by appointment
About Chong
Research Interests
The question of how immigration, race, gender, citizenship, and U.S. empire produce discourses of cultural and national belonging in 20th century U.S. history.
Courses
- Anthropology 103 Introduction to Hmong/American Studies
- Hmong Studies 230 Memory and Trauma
- History 210 Vietnam War Culture
Chong is completing her doctorate in the History Department at UW Madison, with a dissertation entitled “Refugee Cosmopolitanism: Hmong Refugees and a Critical Stateless Perspective.”
Michelle Mouton
Professor of History
mouton@uwosh.edu
(920) 424-7157
Oshkosh Campus: age Hall 3621
Spring ’24 Office Hours: In-person Tue/Thu 9:40-11:10am; virtually Mon/Wed 11:00am-12:00pm and by appointment
About Michelle
Ph.D., Minnesota
Research Interests
Twentieth-century Germany, family policy in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany.
Courses
- History 102 Modern Civilization
- History 216 Honors Special Topics: The 2nd World War Through the Eyes of Children
- History 319 Europe Since 1914
- History 331 Germany from WWI to the Present
- History 332 The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
- History 333 The Holocaust: Destruction of European Jews
- History 334 Women in Modern European History
- History 344 Postwar Europe 1945 – Present
- History 412 European History Seminar
Kimberly Rivers
Professor of History
rivers@uwosh.edu
(920) 424-2451
Oshkosh Campus: Sage Hall 3628
Spring ’24 Office Hours: Mon 3:00-4:00pm, Fri 8:30-10:00am and by appointment
About Kimberly
Ph.D., University of Toronto
Research Interests
Late-medieval intellectual history; memory and mnemonics in late-medieval preaching and religious devotion.
Courses
- History 101 Early Civilizations
- History 215 Quest III Charity and Memory: Medieval England to USA
- History 304 Early Middle Ages, 300-1050
- History 305 The Later Middle Ages, 1050-1450
- History 306 The Crusades
- History 309 The Viking Age
- History 310 Reformation Europe
- History 372 Medieval Britain to 1485
- History 412 European History Seminar
European Studies Minor
History majors and minors may have already completed most of the work necessary to get a european studies minor. Check out the requirements at http://www.uwosh.edu/europeanstudies/
Publications
- Doležalová, Lucie, and Kimberly Rivers, eds. Medieval Manuscript Miscellanies: Composition, Authorship, Use. Krems: Medium Aevum Quotidianum, 2013.
- “Creating the Memory of God in a Medieval Miscellany: Melk Ms 1075, Jean De Hesdin (Fl. 1350-1370), and Late Medieval Monastic Reform.” In Medieval Manuscript Miscellanies: Composition, Authorship, Use, edited by Lucie Doležalová and Kimberly Rivers, 112-38.Krems: Medium Aevum Quotidianum, 2013.
- Preaching the Memory of Virtue and Vice: Memory, Images, and Preaching in the Late Middle Ages (Turnhout: Brepols Press, 2010).
- “Writing the Memory of the Virtues and Vices in Johannes Sintram’s (d. 1450) Preaching Aids.” In Medieval Memories: Case Studies, Definitions, Contexts, edited by Lucie Doležalová, 31-48. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010.
- “Another Look at the Career of Pierre Bersuire, O.S.B.,” Revue benedictine 116, no. 1 (2006): 92-100.
- “The Dangers of the Imagination: Mental Images in Mnemonic Texts, 1300-1700,” in Image Makers and Image Breakers: Proceedings of a St. Michael’s College Symposium (1-2 March 2002), edited by Jennifer A. Harris, 93-107 (New York, Ottawa, Toronto: Legas, 2003).
- “The Fear of Divine Vengeance: Mnemonic Images as a Guide to Conscience in the Late Middle Ages,” in Fear and Its Representations in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, edited by Anne Scott and Cynthia Kosso, 66-91 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002).
- Francesc Eiximenis, “On the Two Kinds of Order that Aid Understanding and Memory,” translated by Kimberly A. Rivers, in The Medieval Craft of Memory: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, ed. by Mary Carruthers and Jan Ziolkowski, 189-204 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.
- “Memory and Medieval Preaching: Mnemonic Advice in the Ars praedicandi of Francesc Eiximenis (c..1327-1409),” Viator 30 (1999): 253-84.
- “Memory, Division, and the Organization of Knowledge in the Middle Ages,” in Pre-modern Encyclopaedic Texts, edited by Peter Binkley, 147-158 (Leiden: Brill, 1997).
- “The Magisterium of the Paris Faculty of Theology in the Early Sixteenth Century: The Case of Lefиvre d’Etaples’ Scriptural Translations.” Scintilla 8 (1991): 45-69.
Learned Societies
- Medieval Academy of America
- Society for the Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages
- International Medieval Sermon Studies Society, councilor (http://imsss.net).
Steven Sheehan
Associate Professor of History
sheehans@uwosh.edu
(920) 832-2642
Fox Cities Campus: M1506
Spring ’24 Office Hours: Mon/Wed 10:30am-12:00pm and by appointment
About Steve
Ph.D., Indiana University
Interests
Classes Taught
- History of U.S. from the Era of Columbian Exchange to the Civil War
- History of the U.S. from the Era of the Civil War to the Present
- Origins and History of World War I
- Civil War and Reconstruction
- U.S. History, 1945-Present
- Work and Workers in U.S. History
- Recent American History 1917-1945
- Interpreting the Origins of 9/11
Memberships
Academic Staff
About Jeff
M.A., James Madison University
Research Interests
Modern American social and political history; postwar social movements; American labor and urban history.
Courses
- History 201 United States History to 1877
- History 202 Modern United States History Since 1877
- History 210 Quest I & II Oral History of WI Farming, Oral History of the University
- History 301 America in the Great Depression
- History 311 Special Topics: American Urban History
- History 315 Historical Methods and Writing
- History 357 The United States, 1919-1945
- History 368 The Gilded Age and Progressive Era United States
- History 369 America Since WWII
- History 401 Historiography and Historical Methods
Emeritus Faculty & Staff
About Paisley
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
J.D. University of Washington
Research Interests
Women’s history, African American history, cultural and legal history
Classes Taught
- HIS 101 US History to the Civil War
- HIS 102 US History Since the Civil War
- HIS 208 Film as Social History
- HIS 278 Minorities in US History
- HIS 279 Women in US History
- HIS 285 US History 1917-1945
- HIS 286 US History 1945-present
- GSW 101 Introduction to Gender Sexuality and Women’s Studies
About Ana Maria
Ph.D., the University of Illinois at Chicago
Research Interests
Modern Mexican and Latin American History. Gender and medicine in 19th Century Mexico.
Courses
- History 101 Early Civilizations
- History 102 Modern Civilizations
- History 347 Mexico: From Pre-Hispanic Times to the 20th Century
- History 367 Women and Gender Relations in Latin American History
- History 381 Latin America to 1825
- History 382 Modern Latin American
- History 413 Non-Western History Seminar
About Karl
Ph.D., Duke University
Interests
Study Abroad in Russia and Estonia
Classes Taught
- History 101 Early Civilizations
- History 312 Special Topics: Dissent in East Europe and the Soviet Union
- History 312 Special Topics: The Soviet Union and Beyond
- History 312 Special Topics: Soviet Culture
- History 336 Study Abroad: The Holocaust
- History 350 Modern East Europe
- History 370 Early Russian History
- History 371 Modern Russian History
- History 412 European History Seminar: The Revolutions of 1917 or the Khrushchev Era
Interesting Links
About Tom
Ph.D., George Washington University
Research Interests
Professor Rowland’s research focuses on the nineteenth-century United States, especially the Civil War and Gilded Age. He has published a monograph, George B. McClellan and Civil War History: In the Shadow of Grant and Sherman (Kent State University Press, 1998).
He has also published 3 presidential biographies on Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and Ulysses Grant. He is currently preparing a manuscript on Irish-American Catholics and The Coming of the Great War.
He has published articles in Civil War History, The Journal of American Ethnic History, Catholic Historical Review, and Eire-Ireland.
Courses
- History 201 United States History to 1877
- History 202 Modern United States History Since 1877
- History 341 History of Wisconsin
- History 367 The Civil War Era
- History 368 The Gilded Age and Progressive Era U.S.
- History 395 War, the American Military & U.S. Foreign Relations, 1600-1918
UWO Department of History
Sage Hall, Room 3464 and 4461
Email: historyoffice@uwosh.edu
Phone: (920) 424-2456
