Mike Milligan
Alumni Outreach and Internship Coordinator
Head of Undergraduate History Intern Program
Teaching Professor of History
204 Weaver Building 212 Curtin Road
University Park, PA 16802
Curriculum Vitae:
Education:
Ph.D., University of Virginia, 1994
M.A., University of Virginia, 1985
B.A., University of Toronto, 1982
Biography:
My graduate training is in latter 19th century and 20th century American intellectual history with a focus on the post-Civil War South. My dissertation examines the writings and correspondence of a noted Southern sociologist, folklorist, regionalist, and race relations leader (Howard Odum) who taught at the University of North Carolina from the 1920s through the early 1950s. A second major in college was economics, consequently I greatly enjoy the study of United States economic and business history (which includes the study of large corporations and business regulation in America). On numerous occasions at Penn State I have taught a seminar on monopolies and the history of antitrust; I also regularly teach the Department’s 100-level course in United States Business History [History 155] and the Departments 400- level course in United States Constitutional History since 1877 [History 450]. In addition, I developed a lower-level course in the history of Penn State—and History 148 has been a regular course offering by the History Department since 2018. I also serve as the undergraduate internship coordinator for the History Department. So if you are interested in doing an internship, I would welcome meeting/ corresponding with you.
Recent Publications:
“Paul Blank ’94: Changing Wal-Mart, and Changing America” [An Interview with Paul Blank, 1st Director of Wake Up Wal-Mart], The Exeter Bulletin, Fall 2008, pp. 23-26.
“A Conversation with Khrushchev,” The Exeter Bulletin, Summer 2003, p. 4.
“The ‘Universal Constant in A World of Societal Variables’: Howard Odum’s Use of the Folk Concept in Folk Sociology, 1930-1953, ”The Folklore Historian, Volume 8 (1991), pp. 5-25.
“The Question of Black Labor and Planter Immigration Ideology, 1865-1910,” Essays in History, Department of History, University of Virginia, Volume 28 (1984), pp. 81-110.
Recent Undergraduate Courses:
HIST020 – American Civilization to 1877
HIST155 – American Business History
HIST302W – Undergraduate Seminar
HIST450 – Constitutional History of the United States Since 1877