About the History Department

All faculty members of the History Department have doctorate degrees and have a passion for teaching. Their broad range of research interests include: Modern China, East Asian, Asian-American, European, Nazi Germany, Middle Eastern, 20th Century African-American, United States, and Women’s history.

Classes are small enough for professors and students to know each other well and to develop individual programs of coursework, field experience, seminars, study abroad, and independent research designed to meet the interests and goals of each student.

The History Club provides leadership and co-curricular opportunities, including its annual History Club Distinguished Lecture Series.

Faculty News

Dr. Andrew Witt

Dr. Andrew Witt is currently exploring the Civil Rights Movement during World War I. He received a grant for this research, and was able to travel to the Library of Congress in Washington DC and the Schomburg Area Research Center in New York to further his research. Recently, Dr. Witt was interviewed on Wisconsin Public Radio, and gave a presentation at Marquette University’s Art Museum about the Black Panther Party. At Edgewood, Dr. Witt served on the CME Advisory Board, as well as the Faculty Affairs Committee. He is also the new chair of the History Department.

Dr. Jay Hatheway

For the past 20 years, Dr. Jay Hatheway has served as a Professor of History for Edgewood College. Recently, Dr. Hatheway began working on a documentary in conjunction with Wisconsin Public Television about Mildred Harnack Fish, the only American woman to be executed on the orders of Adolf Hitler. He has also begun research for a new book exploring the relationship between American and European expatriots who lived in the oil fields of southern Iran and the local tribal populations during the 1950s and 1960s. This research is being conducted partially with the University of Warwick, United Kingdom archives.

Dr. Jinxing Chen

We would like to congratulate Dr. Jinxing Chen on his promotion to the status of Full Professor. Recently Dr. Chen published an article in Chinese for Modern Chinese History Studies, called “Harold Isaacs and the China League for Civil Rights: With an Analysis of the Relationship between the League and the Chinese Communist Party.” He also gave a presentation at the 20th annual World History Association conference in Beijing in July 2011. This presentation was on his paper, “A Self- Commissioned Advisor: Frank Glass and the Chinese Trotskyist Movement.”