Dr. Michelle M. Morgan

Details

Education

• PhD, History, 2007, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• MA, History, 2000, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• BA, 1996, Carleton College

Teaching

• HST 122: United States since 1877
• HST 314: American Expansion and Empire
• HST 390: Introduction to Historiography
• HST 418: Methods of Teaching Secondary Social Studies
• HST 422: Supervised Teaching (Secondary Social Studies)
• HST 423: Seminar in Supervised Teaching
• HST 537/637: History of the American West
• HST 787: History of American Education, The Use and Understanding of Sources

Research and professional interests

Dr. Morgan’s research focuses on the history of American education, the American West, and American empire. Her work explores the roles schools have played in the inculcation of “American” values in newly acquired territories, emphasizing the participation of teachers as cultural agents. She is currently finishing a manuscript entitled Empire’s Teachers: Educators and Reform in the Urban Far West, 1890-1930.

These research interests originated from her own experiences growing up and teaching secondary social studies in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. After completing her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Morgan worked for three years as the Academic Director of a Teaching American History Grant partnership between the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and the Madison Metropolitan School District. As the Program Coordinator for MSU’s BSED-History Program, she is passionate about the importance of developing thoughtful, skilled social studies teachers prepared to foster learning in diverse environments.

Selected publications

• “‘More Than Mere Book-Learning’: Democracy and Vocational Education in the Territory of Hawai‘i,” chapter in Educating a Working Society: Vocationalism, the Smith-Hughes Act, and Modern America (Information Age Publishing, forthcoming 2017).
• “A Touch of ‘Risquity’: Teachers, Perception, and Popular Culture in the Progressive Era,” chapter in Sevan Terzian, ed., American Education in Popular Media: From the Blackboard to the Silver Screen, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
• “Americanizing the Teachers: Identity, Citizenship, and the Teaching Corps in Hawai‘i, 1900-1941,” Western Historical Quarterly, No. 45 (Summer 2014): 147-167.
• “A Field of Great Promise: The Migration of Teachers to the Urban Far West, 1890-1930.” History of Education Quarterly (February 2014): 70-97.

Awards and honors