Faculty & Staff

Katherine Aiken
Dean of the College of Letters, Arts & Social Sciences and Professor of History
Katherine Aiken, Dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences is a professor of history with an emphasis in social and cultural history, women and labor.
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Ian Chambers, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Ian Chambers is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History, and a faculty member of American Indian Studies, American Studies, and Women Studies programs.
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Dale Graden, Ph.D.
Professor
Dale Graden is a professor of history. His research interests are Latin America, film history, the transtlantic slave trade and international street art.
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Rebecca Jager, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Rebecca Jager is an assistant professor of history. Her research areas are: Modern American, U.S. West, and Gender. Her current research endeavor is a social history through the lens of sports (Olympic, collegiate,and professional).
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Ellen Kittell, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Ellen Kittell is an associate professor of history. Her research interests are Medieval Women, Medieval Flanders, Medieval Bureaucracy.
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Rosanna Lauriola, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Classics
Rosanna Lauriola is an assistant professor of classics in the University of Idaho History Department. She specializes in the classics. Her research focuses Greek Literature with specific interest in Hesiod, Sophocles and Aristophanes.
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Sean Quinlan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Sean Quinlan is an associate professor of history. His research areas are eighteenth-century studies, science and medicine in Europe, gender and sexuality in the west, European cultural and intellectual history, 1650–present, modern France.
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Adam Sowards, Ph.D.
Associate Professor; Director, Institute for Pacific Northwest Studies
Adam M. Sowards is an environmental historian who focuses on North America, especially the West, and is adjunct faculty with Environmental Science, Water Resources and American Studies.
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Richard Spence, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Dr. Richard “Rick” Spence is a Professor of History and the department chair. He specializes in Russian, intelligence and military history, and his course offerings include Modern Espionage, Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, History of Secret Societies and the Occult in History.
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Pingchao Zhu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Pingchao Zhu is an associate professor in the Department of History. She earned her Ph.D. in History from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. She specializes in East Asian History, U.S.- China relations, and U.S. Diplomatic History.
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Erin Buurkarl
Administrative Assistant II
Erin's role in the department of history is that of support staff for the students and faculty. Her responsibilities include managing the day-to-day business functions and general inquires for the department's main office, to provide administrative support for the faculty members, and to provide customer service for the students.
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