Dr. Norman J. Wilson
Professor of History and Chair of the History Department
Messiah College, P.O. Box 3051, One College Avenue, Grantham, PA 17027
(717) 766-2511 ext 2047
E-mail: nwilson@messiah.edu
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in History, U.C.L.A. (September 1994)
Dissertation: Implicit meanings and self-representations in official correspondence and accounting: Regensburg, 1467-1561
Dissertation Committee: Claus-Peter Clasen (co-chair), David Sabean (co-chair), Robert Brenner, and Jeffrey Alexander
M.A. in History, U.C.L.A. (June 1987)
Master's Papers:
Conceptions of poor relief in sixteenth-century Strasbourg (for David Sabean)
Recent literature on German urban history (for Claus-Peter Clasen)
Presuppositions in history (for Peter H. Reill)
B.A. in English, August 1981, and in French, June 1985, University of Wisconsin-Madison
BOOKS
Second Edition of History in Crisis? Recent Directions in Historiography, New York: Prentice Hall, 2005.
History in Crisis? Recent Directions in Historiography, New York: Prentice Hall, 1999.
The European Renaissance and Reformation (1350-1600), volume one of World Eras, Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Volume Editor.
Authored: Editor’s Introduction
Geography (Chapter 2)
Communication, Transportation and Exploration (Chapter 4)
Co-authored: Politics, Law, and the Military (Chapter 6)
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
“Politics, Law, and the Military” (co-author of Chapter 6) in Medieval Europe (814-1350), volume four of World Eras, Detroit: Gale Group, 2002, pp. 187-244.
"Conceptions of Poor Relief in Sixteenth-Century Strasbourg" in the UCLA Historical Journal, Volume 8, 1987, pp. 4-25.
RESEARCH IN PROGRESS
Contested Meanings of Community in Early-Modern Germany: Citizenship, the 1519 Expulsion of the Jews, and the 1542 Adoption of Lutheranism in the Free Imperial City of Regensburg.
Historical Methodology in the Age of World History a manuscript outline that is being developed for Prentice Hall (with support and input from Charles Cavaliere, senior history editor at Prentice Hall)
SPECIALIZATION
European History: European History from the Renaissance-Reformation Era through the twentieth century, Historiography, and Western Civilization
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2007- Professor of History, Messiah College
2003-2007 Associate Professor of History, Messiah College
2001-2003 Associate Professor of History, Methodist College
1998-2001 Assistant Professor of History, Methodist College
1992-1998 Assistant Professor of History, Xavier University
1991-1992 and 1986-1988 UCLA Teaching Assistant
AWARDS
2004 Recipient of a Messiah College Vocation Grant
2003 Methodist College Professor of the Year
2002 Winner of an Editors’ Choice Award from Booklist. The editors of Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association, awarded Editors’ Choice Awards to a total of 154 books published in 2001. Awards were given to outstanding books in seven different categories. My volume of World Eras, European Renaissance and Reformation was one of twenty-nine books under the Reference category.
2002 The series World Eras, of which my book European Renaissance and Reformation was the first volume, was named as one of the “Twenty Best Bets for Student Researchers” by Booklist (American Library Association).
1996 Recipient of a Fall Semester Research Sabbatical from Xavier University
1995 Xavier University Nominee for NEH Summer Stipend
1991-92 Nominee for a UCLA Teaching Award
1991-92 UCLA Teaching Fellow
1990-91 UCLA University Fellowship
1988-90 DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service Dissertation Scholarship)
1987-88 Nominee for a UCLA Teaching Award
1987 Theodore Saloutos Award (outstanding graduate student publication)
1986-88 UCLA Teaching Assistant
1985-86 UCLA University Fellowship
1985 National Finalist for a Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities
1983 DAAD Summer Scholarship (German Academic Exchange Service)
PRESENTATIONS
Moderator and Commentator for Award-Winning Student/Graduate Student Papers on 20th Century Europe panel at the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Socieity’s 2006 Biennial Convention (Philadelphia, January 2006)
Bürgerschaft and Bürgerrecht in the Free Imperial City of Regensburg, Frühe Neuzeit Interdisziplinär (The Conference Group for Early Modern German Studies) Fourth International Interdisciplinary Conference on Orthodoxies and Diversities in Early Modern German-Speaking Europe (Duke University, April 2005)
Responses to European History and the Postmodern Turn, Conference on Faith and History (Hope College, October 2004)
Commentary on Edward B. Davis’s paper Is There a Christian History of Science? Faith in the Academy Conference (Messiah College, September 2004)
Postcolonialism and the Future of History (Messiah College, April 2004)
The Curtailment of Lutheranism in Bavaria, American Society of Church History Spring Meeting (Harrisburg, PA, March 2004)
History in Crisis? Fayetteville State University (November 1999)
Religious Resistance from Above: The 1542-1546 Economic Embargo Against the Free Imperial City of Regensburg, Sixteenth Century Studies Conference (Toronto, October 1998)
Late-Medieval Communalism Reconsidered, American Society of Church History Spring Meeting (Vanderbilt Divinity School, April 1997)
Private Interest, Civic Virtue, and the Communal Ideal, Cincinnati Seminar on the City co-sponsored by the Cincinnati Historical Society and the University of Cincinnati History Department (March 1997)
Political Vicissitudes and the Ideal of Community: The Attribution of Political and Financial Responsibility during a Fifteenth-Century Feud, Ohio Academy of History Annual Meeting (Ohio Wesleyan University, April 1996)
Regensburg's Anti-Jewish Politics, 1470-1519, Midwest Association of Medieval Studies' 34th Annual Meeting (Northern Illinois University, October 1995)
Chair of "Late Medieval Apocalypticism and Popular Piety," Midwest Association of Medieval Studies' 33rd Annual Meeting (Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, October 1994)
The Myth of Ritual Murder, Faculty Research Forum (Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 1994)
Round-table discussant at "Exploring the Early Modern City" an NEH funded conference held at The William Andrews Clark Memorial Library in Los Angeles (October 1993)
FOREIGN RESEARCH AND STUDY
Director of Xavier University's Summer Program in Strobl, Austria (1996 and 1997) escorted 5-10 students through German-speaking areas and made personal archival visits to Regensburg, Innsbruck, and Augsburg
University of Regensburg, Germany (1988-1990 and 1983-1984)
Archival research in Regensburg, Munich, and Vienna funded by a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) dissertation scholarship under the supervision of Professor Heinz Angermeier of the University of Regensburg (September 1988 - August 1989 and April 1990 - August 1990)
General Studies in the Departments of History and German (1983-1984)
University of Oulu, Finland (September 1989 - March 1990)
Studied Finnish and Linguistics in the Departments of Finnish and German
University of Helsinki, Finland (language courses, summer 1986 and 1987)
Institute d'Études Françaises de Touraine (under the direction of the University of Tours), Tours, France (summer 1980)
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Chair, Department of History, Messiah College (2006-present)
Member of the Executive Board of the Center for Public Humanities, Messiah College (2004- present)
Member of the Messiah College General Education Committee (2004- present) and Community of Educators Senate (2005-2008).
Adviser for Kappa Nu, the Messiah College chapter of Phi Alpha Theta [International Honor Society in History] (2003-present)
Chair, Department of History, Methodist College (2001-2003)
Founding Adviser of the Methodist College chapter of Phi Alpha Theta [International Honor Society in History] (2003)
Secretary of the Cumberland Road Elementary School Parent Teacher Association (2002-2003) and coach of Fayetteville Youth Soccer (1999-2003)
Coordinator of the International Studies Program at Methodist College (1998-2001)
Member of Methodist College Program Planning Committee (1999-2003), Affirmative Action Committee (2001-2002), and Publications Committee (1999-2000)
Member of Methodist College Search Committee for a World History Historian (Summer 2000 and Spring 2001) and Modern European Historian (Spring 1999)
Coordinator of Xavier University's 1996 United Way Campaign and Assistant Coordinator of 1995 United Way Campaign
Adviser for Kappa Nu, the Xavier University chapter of Phi Alpha Theta [International Honor Society in History] (1994-1997), instituted an annual Phi Alpha Theta Student Colloquia (since 1994) and an annual Recognition Ceremony for Graduating Seniors (since 1993)
Member of Xavier University’s Search Committees for African/Asian Historian (1997), U.S. Women's Historian (1995), and Modern France Historian (1993)
Member of the Xavier University Commencement Committee (1995-1997)
Member of the Xavier University "President's Task Force on Student Athletes" (1994-1995), chaired Group #3 of the "President's Task Force" and participated in a 1996 video concerning Xavier's "Strategic Plan for Academic/Athletic Advising"
Executive Council "Member at Large" of the Xavier University chapter of the American Association of University Professors (1994-1996), and member (1993-1997)
Research Assistant for Prof. Geoffrey Symcox, UCLA (1991-1992)
Research Assistant for Prof. David Sabean, UCLA (1985-1986)
Research Assistant for Prof. Jonathan Zophy, Carthage College (1984-1985), assisted in the compilation of An Annotated Bibliography of the Holy Roman Empire, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1986
Special Bibliographer for the Historical Textbook Collection of the School of Education Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison (1985), catalogued a French and German Collection
Program Assistant ("Betreuer") for the German Academic Exchange Service's (DAAD) "Summer Course in German Language, History, and Culture" at the University of Regensburg, Germany (1984)
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
American Historical Association (since 1991)
Phi Alpha Theta, International Honor Society in History (since 1994)
American Society of Church History (since 1996)
Sixteenth Century Studies (since 1996)
Ohio Academy of History (1992-1998)
Midwest Association of Medieval Studies (1993-1998)
Member of the Cincinnati Seminar on the City (1992-1997)