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Department ofHistory

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Department Office

Ingo Heidbrink

Ingo Heidbrink

Brett Bebber Ph.D.

Brett Bebber Ph.D.

    Associate Professor, Graduate Program Director and University Professor
    BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS RM 8020
  • NORFOLK, VA 23529
  • 757-683-3949
  • bbebber@odu.edu

Robert Del Corso

Robert Del Corso

    Senior Lecturer
    8042 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS
  • NORFOLK, VA 23529
  • 757-683-3949
  • rdelcors@odu.edu
Sharon Anderson

Sharon Anderson

    Office Manager (Dept Of Hist
    8000A BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS
  • NORFOLK, VA 23529
  • 757-683-3931
  • sdanders@odu.edu



Full-Time Faculty


Nicholas Abbott

NICHOLAS ABBOTT, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

8010 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.4819 | nabbott@odu.edu


Dr. Nicholas Abbott is Assistant Professor of History. He is a historian of early modern and colonial South Asia whose interests include concepts of statehood and sovereignty, gender and early modern political culture, and household and family formation.


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BRETT BEBBER, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR & GRADUATE PROGRAM DIRECTOR

8020 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.3949 | bbebber@odu.edu


Dr. Brett Bebber is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director for the M.A. in History. He is a social and cultural historian of Britain and the British Empire, with an emphasis on the twentieth century. His research explores race and racisms, migration and immigration, civil and human rights, integration and anti-racism studies, Anglo-American exchanges, and sport and leisure history.


Michael Carhart

MICHAEL CARHART, PROFESSOR

8032 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.3950 | mcarhart@odu.edu


Michael C. Carhart is a historian of early modern and modern Europe. He offers courses in intellectual, cultural, and political history and the history of science. His research addresses Europe's understanding of its own origins and civilization in the mirror of the outside world, particularly the development of disciplinary sciences of ethnology, linguistics, and geology.


Marvin Chiles

MARVIN CHILES, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

8014 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.4374 | mchiles@odu.edu


Professor Marvin Chiles is a historian of African American history and culture with research interests in urban history, inter-ethnic relations, and social inequality and education, and with particular attention to the history of Richmond, Virginia.


Bob Del Corso

ROBERT DEL CORSO, SENIOR LECTURER & CHIEF DEPARTMENTAL ADVISOR

8042 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.3949 | rdelcors@odu.edu


Mr. Robert Del Corso is a Senior Lecturer and Chief Departmental Advisor for the History Department. He teaches Honors European and European survey courses and World History to 1500. His academic interests are the history of Christianity, and military history.


Annette Finley-Crosswhite

ANNETTE FINLEY-CROSWHITE, PROFESSOR & DIRECTOR OF CENTER FOR FACULTY DEVELOPMENT

8030 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.3949 | acroswhi@odu.edu


Dr. Annette Finley Croswhite is Professor, University Professor and Director of the Center for Faculty Development. She is a political and cultural historian of early modern and modern Europe with an emphasis on France. Her publications focus on the history of religious violence, political legitimacy, right-wing terrorism, gender-based violence, and the Holocaust. She also publishes in the field of the history of medicine.


Elizabeth Fretwell

ELIZABETH FRETWELL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

8016 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.3936| efretwel@odu.edu


Dr. Elizabeth Ann Fretwell is Assistant Professor of History and teaches all periods and regions of African history. Her research interests include visual and material culture, work and leisure, gender, urban history, and (post)colonialisms in francophone West Africa.


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QIU HAILSTORK, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

8000 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.3949 | qjin@odu.edu


Dr. Qiu Jin Hailstork is Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of Asian Studies and China Center. She is an East Asian historian with research interests in modern Chinese history and the Chinese Cultural Revolution.


Ingo Heidbrink

INGO HEIDBRINK, PROFESSOR & CHAIR

8000 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.3949 | iheidbri@odu.edu


Dr. Ingo Heidbrink is Professor of History and a maritime, economic and social historian who focuses on fisheries, whaling, the polar regions, and European inland waterways. His research explores maritime technology, fisheries management, industrial food, Antarctic tourism, industrial archaeology, and maritime museums. He is Secretary General of the International Maritime History Association (IMHA) and an Expert Member of the International Polar Heritage Committee.


Austin Jersild

AUSTIN JERSILD, PROFESSOR

8000 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.3953 | ajersild@odu.edu


Austin Jersild is a historian of modern Russia, the Cold War, and international relations. He has published on the expansion and formation of the Russian empire in the nineteenth century, and Sino-Soviet relations in the twentieth century.


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CAROLYN LAWES, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

8040 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.6022 | clawes@odu.edu


Dr. Carolyn J. Lawes is Associate Professor of History, and is a social historian of the United States with a particular interest in the early nineteenth century and in women's history. Her academic publications include studies of women and reform, religion and reform, American popular culture, and online teaching.


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MEGAN NUTZMAN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

8012 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.3942 | mnutzman@odu.edu


Dr. Megan Nutzman is an ancient historian and classicist who teaches courses on Greece and Rome. Her research focuses on religion in the ancient Mediterranean world, and in particular on the intersection of Greek and Roman religion, ancient Judaism, and early Christianity. Her current work looks at ritual healing and identity formation in Roman and Late Antique Palestine.


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TIMOTHY ORR, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

8000 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.3949 | torr@odu.edu


Timothy J. Orr is Associate Professor of History. He is an historian of U.S. military history with specializations in the American Civil War and the Second World War. For eight years, he worked as a seasonal ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park.


John Weber

JOHN WEBER, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

8000 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.3949| jwweber@odu.edu


Dr. John Weber is Associate Professor of History. He is a labor and immigration historian who specializes in the history of the US-Mexico border region and the history of the twentieth century United States.


Miller Wright

MILLER WRIGHT, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

8044 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.3345 | m1wright@odu.edu


Dr. Miller S. Wright is an Assistant Professor of history and specializes in the Native American slave trade in North America and Brazil in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He is interested in how Native captivity practices and the Native slave trade influenced conceptions of race, bondage, and indigeneity in the Atlantic Slave trade. Some of Dr. Wright's previous work focuses on how Creek matrilineages and women developed their own understandings of racialized slavery and property traditions in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He teaches courses on Native America, Cultural Change, Colonial America, and US History.


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ELIZABETH ZANONI, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

8000 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS | 757.683.3949 | ezanoni@odu.edu


Dr. Elizabeth Zanoni is Associate Professor of History and co-editor of the journal Global Food History. She is a historian of the United States with an focus on global, transnational, and comparative approaches. Her research and teaching interests center on U.S. and global migration, food, gender, and consumer culture.




Faculty Emeriti

Anita Fellman Professor Emerita of History afellman@odu.edu
Douglas Greene Professor Emeritus of History dgreene@odu.edu
Robert Holden Professor Emeritus of History rholden@odu.edu
Harold Wilson Professor Emeritus of History
James Sweeney Associate Professor Emeritus of History jsweeney@odu.edu
John Kuehl Associate Professor Emeritus of History
Kathy Pearson University Professor Emerita & Associate Professor Emerita of History
Lorraine Lees University Professor Emerita & Professor Emerita of History llees@odu.edu
Jane T. Merritt Professor Emerita of History jmerritt@odu.edu
Norman Pollock Associate Professor Emeritus of History
Peter Stewart Associate Professor Emeritus of History pstewart@odu.edu
Richard Rutyna Associate Professor Emeritus of History
Carl Boyd Eminent Scholar Emeritus & Louis I. Jaffe Professor Emeritus of History oshi1936@gmail.com
Chandra de Silva Professor Emeritus of History cdesilva@odu.edu

Adjunct Faculty


  • Erica Barron
  • James Boland
  • Christina Campbell-Westmont
  • Roseanne Delparto
  • Eileen Huey
  • Robert Kennedy
  • Emily Moore
  • Janet Mullis
  • Christopher Pearcy
  • Christopher Poutier
  • Kathryn Rokitski
  • William Rodner
  • Genna Swartz
  • Leanne White
  • Matthew Whitlock

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