History Faculty & Staff

Anna Sigrídur Arnar is a Professor of Art History in the School of Visual Arts as well as ...

Anna Sigrídur Arnar is a Professor of Art History in the School of Visual Arts as well as a Graduate Faculty Member and Affiliated Faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies Program at MSUM. She teaches upper level courses in 19th- and 20th-Century Art, Women and Art, Contemporary Art, Design, and Theory (a senior capstone seminar), as well as special topics courses “The Book: History, Culture, and Art”, and “Modernism/Postmodernism: Narratives of the 20th Century.” In 2011 she published The Book as Instrument. Stéphane Mallarmé, The Artist’s Book, and the Transformation of Print Culture with the University of Chicago Press and was awarded the Robert Motherwell Book Award for outstanding publication in the history and criticism of modernism from the Dedalus Foundation in New York. Her current project is called “Social Spaces of the Book” analyzing artists’ books and sculptural bookworks at perennial exhibitions of contemporary art.

Annette Kleinkauf Morrow, Ph.D. specializes in Ancient and Medieval European History. Her ...

Annette Kleinkauf Morrow, Ph.D. specializes in Ancient and Medieval European History. Her research interests include Ancient Rome, the Medieval World, Church History, and Gender History. She grew up in Texas and received her BA in History from Texas Tech University. She earned her MA and Ph.D. from University of Arkansas. Dr. Morrow teaches in the History Program, in the Women's and Gender Studies Program, and in the Honors Program. She has led the Eurospring program, and has led numerous student tours to Italy, Turkey, and Macedonia. If you are interested in a study-abroad course, just ask.

I have always loved history. I grew up in New England surrounded by Colonial and Early Ame...

I have always loved history. I grew up in New England surrounded by Colonial and Early American history—several of the houses on my street were built in the 18th century! I went off to Luther College in Iowa as a biology major and after graduation I lived in Norway for three years. Returning to the United States I worked at the U of Minnesota Hospitals in a research lab before deciding to apply to graduate school in history at Northern Illinois University outside Chicago where I wrote my dissertation on the yellow fever epidemics in the new nation’s capital in the 1790s. At MSUM I teach all our courses up through the Civil War as well as a history of disease and medicine course. I strongly believe the purpose of higher education is to equip students with the skill set necessary to succeed in today’s world. My own experience tells me preparing students to engage in life of learning is much more important than filling heads with facts and figures in the classroom. In my classroom you will learn to think critically about the past so you may use it to inform your future—that is the most important skill higher education can give you help you on your way.