faculty
Meet our faculty
Core Faculty
Heather Bailey 
Associate Professor of History
Ph.D. Modern European History, University of Minnesota (2001)
Teaching Concentration: 19th-century Russian intellectual and cultural history
Email: bailey.heather@uis.edu
Phone: (217) 206-7189
Office: UHB 3061
Research Interests: Dr. Heather Bailey joined the History faculty in 2002, and teaches broadly in modern European history. She is the author of Orthodoxy, Modernity, and Authenticity: The Reception of Ernest Renan's "Life of Jesus" in Russia (2008). Her research interests include the cultural ties between Imperial Russia and the West and relations between the Orthodox Church and society in late-imperial Russia.
Before coming to UIS, Dr. Heather Bailey taught as a Visiting Professor at Gustavus Adolphus College.
Terry Bodenhorn 
Assistant Professor of History; Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Ph.D. Modern Chinese History, University of Michigan (1997)
Teaching Concentration: Chinese and Japanese History
Email: tbode1@uis.edu
Phone: (217) 206-7246
Office: LRH 101/UHB 3059
Research Interests: water pollution and public health in the Taipei Basin in northern Taiwan
Before coming to UIS, Dr. Terry Bodenhorn taught as an Assistant Professor of History and East Asian Studies at the University of Findlay. In the spring of 2000, he served as an invited visiting Assistant Professor of Chinese History at the University of Michigan.
David Bertaina
Assistant Professor of History
Ph.D. Semitic Languages and Literatures, Catholic University of America (2007)
Email: dbert3@uis.edu
Phone:(217) 206-8412
Office: UHB 3059
David Bertaina is an Assistant Professor of Comparative Religion in the History Department at the University of Illinois at Springfield. He obtained his doctorate in Semitic Languages and Literatures from The Catholic University of America. He taught at California State University, Chico before coming to the University of Illinois at Springfield in 2007. His areas of interest include the intellectual, social and religious history of the late antique and medieval Middle East.
Bertaina is specifically interested in medieval encounters between Muslims and Christians, especially in Arabic and Syriac dialogue literature and the how these texts framed the construction of identity during the Umayyad and Abbasid Empires. In this area, he has published the article “Melkites, Mutakallimūn and al-Ma’mūn: Depicting the Religious Other in Medieval Arabic Dialogues” and a book chapter “The Development of Testimony Collections in Early Christian Apologetics with Islam.” Also, he is preparing a book project entitled: Christian and Muslim Dialogues: Identity and Religious Encounter from the Qur’an to the Abbasid Period.
Bertaina has taught courses on Christian-Muslim Encounters, Islamic History, Islamic Historiography, Eastern Christianity, Late Antiquity, Early Christian Historiography, Judaism-Christianity-Islam, World Religions, Introduction to Islam, and Historical Methods.
Michael Burlingame
Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair 
in Lincoln Studies
Ph.D. History, Johns Hopkins University
Teaching Concentration:
Professor Burlingame
devotes his scholarly energies to investigating
the life and times of Lincoln, about whom he has
published twelve books.
Email: mburl2@uis.edu
Phone: (217) 206-6779
Office: UHB 3050
Professor Burlingame is the author of Abraham Lincoln: A Life (2 vols.; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008) and The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994). In addition, he has edited the several volumes of Lincoln primary source materials: An Oral History of Abraham Lincoln: John G. Nicolay's Interviews and Essays (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1996); Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997) – co-edited with John R. Turner Ettlinger; Lincoln Observed: Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998); Lincoln's Journalist: John Hay's Anonymous Writings for the Press, 1860-1864 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998): A Reporter's Lincoln by Walter B. Stevens (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998); With Lincoln in the White House: Letters, Memoranda, and Other Writings of John G. Nicolay, 1860-1865 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000); At Lincoln's Side: John Hay's Civil War Correspondence and Selected Writings (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000); Inside the White House in War Times: Memoirs and Reports of Lincoln's Secretary by William O. Stoddard (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000); Dispatches from Lincoln's White House: The Anonymous Civil War Journalism of Presidential Secretary William O. Stoddard (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002); The Real Lincoln: A Portrait by Jesse W. Weik (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002); "Lincoln's Humor" and Other Essays by Benjamin P. Thomas (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002); and Abraham Lincoln: The Observations of John G. Nicolay and John Hay (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2007).
He has received the Abraham Lincoln Association Book Prize (1996), the Lincoln Diploma of Honor from Lincoln Memorial University (1998), Honorable Mention for the Lincoln Prize, Gettsyburg College (2001), and was inducted into the Lincoln Academy of Illinois in 2009.
Cecilia Stiles Cornell 
Associate Professor of History; Director, Whitney M. Young Graduate Fellowship Program
Ph.D. History, Vanderbilt University
Teaching Concentration: 20th-century U.S. history, U.S. foreign relations, and policy history
Email: cornell.cecilia@uis.edu
Phone: (217) 206-7430
Office: UHB 3055
Research Interests: the early years of the Cold War and the transition on the home front from World War II to the postwar era
Dr. Cecilia Stiles Cornell currently serves as the faculty advisor for the History Club at UIS.
Elizabeth Kosmetatou
Assistant Professor of History
Ph.D. Classics, University of Cincinnati (1993)
Teaching Concentration: Greek (Classical and
Hellenistic) and Roman history & archaeology,
cultural studies, historiographical theory,
ancient religion, epigraphy, numismatics,
political psychology
Email: ekosm2@uis.edu
Phone: (217) 206-7428
Office: UHB 3052
Research interests: Dr. Elizabeth Kosmetatou joined the History faculty in 2008 and teaches a wide range of courses in Greek and Roman history. She is the recipient of several awards, including Fulbright and Alexander for Humboldt fellowships, author of numerous articles, especially on Hellenistic history, epigraphy, and numismatics, and co-editor of Labored in Papyrus Leaves. Perspectives on an Epigram Collection Attributed to Posidippus (Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass. 2004; with Benjamin Acosta-Hughes and Manuel Baumbach). She has also participated in archaeological excavations in Greece and Turkey including Epidaurus, Vergina, Midea, and Sagalassos. Her research interests include Classical and Hellenistic Greek history and archaeology, early Rome, Greek and Latin epigraphy and numismatics, cultural studies, and political theory. Her forthcoming book is entitled The Votives in the Delian Artemision and is mainly based on her study of the inventory lists of votives that were kept in temples of Apollo’s sanctuary on Delos.
Before coming to UIS, Dr. Elizabeth Kosmetatou taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Tulane University.
Deborah Kuhn McGregor 
Associate Professor, History, Women's Studies, and African-American Studies
Ph.D. History, Binghamton University
Teaching Concentration: United States history—especially 19th-century history—but also United States women's history, history of the family, history of childhood, oral history
Email: mcgregor.deborah@uis.edu
Phone: (217) 206-7439
Office: UHB 3063
Research Interests: women, health and healing; the history of medicine; and the history of childbirth
Dr. McGregor has written on the history of gynecology and obstetrics, and is the author of the book From Midwives to Medicine. She enjoys working with students on a one-on-one basis and in the classroom. She has taught at UIS since 1986.
Robert K. McGregor 
Professor of History
Ph.D. American History (Environmental Issues) (1984)
Teaching Concentration: Early American History, Environmental History, and History of England
Email: mcgregor.robert@uis.edu
Phone: (217) 206-7442
Office: UHB 3053
Research Interests: Henry David Thoreau, English history, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Lord Peter Wimsey
Dr. Robert McGregor is the author of several books including: A Wider View of the Universe: Henry Thoreau's Study of Nature and Conundrums for the Long Week-End: England, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Lord Peter Wimsey. He has served in the History Department since 1986.
Cindy Nimchuk 
Adjunct Instructor, History
Ph.D. Ancient Studies (Akkadian Language and Literature), University of Toronto
Teaching Concentration:
Email: cnimc2@uis.edu
Research Interests: Ancient civilizations and cultures, especially in the Middle and Near East; Latin, classical history, and archaeology; classical studies
Before coming to UIS, Dr. Cindy Nimchuk was at Stanford University as a teaching fellow in humanities focusing on ancient empires, and a co-instructor in the Special Languages Program focusing on Old Persian language and history. Her language facilities include Akkadian, Greek, Latin, Old Persian, and Aramaic. She has also worked as site supervisor at an archaeological excavation in Turkey.
Peter Shapinsky 
Assistant Professor of History
Ph.D. History, University of Michigan (2005)
Email: pshap2@uis.edu
Phone: (217) 206-6595
Office: UHB 3064
Research Interests: Global systems of exchange and interaction; maritime exchange in premodern East Asia; social history of Japan and East Asia, especially the premodern period; social history of pirates and outlawry in East Asian and comparative contexts; gender history in Japan and East Asia; cartography and conceptualizations of space.
Teaching interests: Premodern and Modern East Asia (China, Japan, Korea), Premodern Japan, From Vikings to Hackers: A Pirate’s World History, Gender in Chinese and Japanese history, Samurai in history and romance, historiography.
Recent Publications:
"Polyvocal Portolans: Nautical Charts and Hybrid Maritime Cultures in Early Modern East Asia,"Early Modern Japan, XIV (2006), 4-26.
"With the Sea as their Domain: Pirates and Maritime Lordship in Medieval Japan," in Seascapes, Littoral Cultures and Trans-Oceanic Exchanges ed., Jerry Bentley, Kären Wigen, and Renate Bridenthal (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007), 221-238.
William H. Siles 
Associate Professor of American History; History Department Chair
Ph.D. University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Teaching Concentration: Public history; American Westward Expansion; and American Religious, Urban, and Agricultural History
Email: siles.william@uis.edu
Phone: (217) 206-7432
Office: UHB 3057
Research Interests: American frontier settlement and community development; 19th-century American material life
Emeriti Faculty
Cullom Davis
Emeritus Professor of History
Phone: (217) 206-7437
Office: CBM 47
Larry Shiner 
Emeritus Professor
Ph.D. Phenomenology and Existential Philosoph, Université de Strasbourg
Teaching Concentration: Modern European History, Art History, the Enlightenment, Greek Philosophy, Cultural History
Email: lshin1@uis.edu
Phone: (217) 206-7194
Office: TBA
Research Interests: Philosophy of art, philosophy of history, later French philosophy (especially the work of Paul Ricoeur and Michel Foucault), philosophy of religion,
Dr. Shiner has taught at UIS since 1971. He has published a number of articles, including "Primitive Fakes, Tourist Art, and the Ideology of Authenticity" (Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 52, 1994). He has published two books in philosophy, one related to the philosophy of history (The Secret Mirror: Literary Form and History in Tocqueville's "Recollections" Cornell University Press, 1988) and one related to the philosophy of art (The Invention of Art: A Cultural History, University of Chicago Press, 2001).
