History Department Faculty and Staff
Thomas Prasch (WU 1997- )
Professor and Chair
BA 1974 University of Nebraska; MA 1977 University of Nebraska; PhD 1995 Indiana University
Teaching fields: Europe, Victorian Britain, World Survey
Research fields: Victorian England
Department Office/Phone: HC 311-A: (785) 670-1892
E-mail: tom.prasch@washburn.edu
- "All the Strange Facts": Alfred Russell Wallace's Spiritualism & Evolutionary Thought (excerpt from "Perplext in Faith" Essays on Victorian Beliefs and Doubts)
- A Strange Incongruity: The Imaginary India of the International Exhibitions
- Eating the World: London in 1851
- Ethnicity as Marker in Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor (from "Fear, Loathing, and Victorian Xenophobia)
- "Oy, Have You Got the Wrong Vampire" Dislocation, Comic Distancing, and Political Critique in Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killer (1967) [from The Laughing Dead]
- "Radiation's Rising, But One Mustn't Grumble Too Much" Nuclear Apocalypse Played as Farce in Richard Lester's The Bed Sitting Room (1969) [from The Apocalypse in Film
Kim Morse (WU 2003- )
Professor
BA University of Kansas; MA 1995 Indiana University; PhD 2000 University of Texas, Austin
Teaching fields: Latin American history, Latin American Indigenous and Religious history, Borderlands, World survey
Research fields: 19th-century Venezuela
Department Office/Phone: HC 311-B; (785) 670-2059
E-mail: kim.morse@washburn.edu
Alan Bearman (WU 2003- )
Professor and Dean of University Libraries
BA 1998 Murray State University; BS 1999 University of Kentucky; MA Murray State 2000; PhD 2005 Kansas State University
Teaching fields: Colonial and Revolutionary America, History of Christianity, American Religious History, Reformation
Research fields: Anglo-American Christianity, Colonial America
Department Office/phone: HC 311C; (785) 670-1855
Webpage: https://www.washburn.edu/faculty/abearman/
E-mail: alan.bearman@washburn.edu
Kerry Wynn (WU 2006- )
Professor
BA 1998 Bradley University; PhD 2005, University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana)
Teaching fields: Women, Native-American, U.S. Survey
Research fields: Women & Gender
Department Office/Phone: HC 311-P; (785) 670-2062
E-mail: kerry.wynn@washburn.edu
Bruce Mactavish (WU 1998- )
Assistant Professor
BA 1983, Furman University; MA 1988, PhD 1993; University of Mississippi
Teaching fields: Civil War, African-American, US survey
Research fields: 19th-century South, rural communities
Department Office/Phone: HC 311-F; (785) 670-2063
E-mail: bruce.mactavish@washburn.edu
Kelly Erby (WU 2011- )
Professor and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
BA 2004 The Ohio State University; MA 2007 Emory University; PhD 2010 Emory University
Teaching fields: colonial and revolutionary North America; early-national U.S., social and cultural history; race and ethnicity; gender; American foodways
Research fields: eighteenth- and nineteenth-century social and cultural history
Department Office/Phone: HC 311-O; (785) 670-2018
E-mail: kelly.erby@washburn.edu
Anthony Silvestri (WU 2008- )
Lecturer
BA 1987 Loyola Marymount University; MA 1992 University of Southern California; PhD 1995 University of Southern California
Teaching fields: World history survey, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, Traditional Japan
Research fields: Medieval Manuscripts, Intellectual History, Ancient Religions
Department Office/Phone: HC 311-C; (785) 670-1862
E-mail: tony.silvestri@washburn.edu
Department staff
Robin Shrimplin
Senior Administrative Assistant
Department Location/Phone: HC 311 main office; (785) 670-2060
E-mail: robin.shrimplin@washburn.edu
Adjunct Faculty
Dr. Joel Gillaspie - E-mail joel.gillaspie@washburn.edu
Jennifer Wiard - E-mail jennifer.wiard@washburn.edu
Emeriti Faculty
William Wagnon (WU 1968-2008)
Professor Emeritus
E-mail: bill.wagnon@washburn.edu
Kennett Cott (WU 1969-2003)
Professor Emeritus
E-mail: ken.cott@washburn.edu
Rachel Goossen (WU 2000-2022)
Professor Emerita
BA Bethel College; MA University of California (Santa Barbara); PhD University of Kansas
Teaching fields: Modern US History, US Women, Vietnam War
Research fields: U.S. Women's History; Peace History, Conscientious Objection; Mennonite History
E-mail: rachel.goossen@washburn.edu
Sara Tucker (WU 1975-2009)
Professor Emerita
AB 1968 Oberlin College; MA 1975; PhD 1982 Indiana University (Bloomington)
Teaching fields: China, Middle East, Women, World Survey.
Research fields: 19th-20th century women; teaching and computer technology
E-mail preferred sara.tucker@washburn.edu
