Retired college history professor

Jane C.

I retired in 2025 from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota after 30+ years teaching history and interdisciplinary humanities courses, including US history, women's history, British and Irish history, Minnesota history, the history of slavery, civil rights, the US Constitution, Native American history, the history of the French Revolution and the Haitian slave revolution, and two study abroad courses in England and New Zealand.

I also have extensive experience in teaching writing, historical research methods and historical interpretations (historiography). I am a published author of two books and numerous history journal articles. I have emphasized writing and revising essays and papers in all my courses. My teaching relied most heavily on reading, discussion of reading, and critical analysis of texts (both history and fiction) as well as occasional films (documentary and feature films) to help students synthesize and master the historical context, consequently helping students retain historical information.

Ultimately, history is comprised of stories of the human condition in varied places, times and contexts and that is how I try to engage students in learning it. I earned my BA history in 1980 from the College of St. Catherine and received my PhD in 1991 from the University of Minnesota. I have also worked as a public historian for the federal government.