Social Sciences

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Paul Nienkamp Visiting Assistant Professor Ph.D. History, Iowa State University 2008 M.A. History, Iowa State University 2004 M.S. Physics, Creighton University 1999 Department of Social Sciences Office Location: 213 Academic Offices Office Phone: 906.487.359 FAX: 906.487.2468 Email: nienkamp@mtu.edu Curriculum Vitae Word Format

Paul is currently a visiting assistant professor at Michigan Technological University in the Department of Social Sciences and teaches the American Experience, Modern American History, History of American Technology, Technology in Western Civilization, and a section of Perspectives on Inquiry which focuses on Engineers in Western Civilization.

In the summer of 2008, he successfully defended his dissertation, titled “A Culture of Technical Knowledge: Professionalizing Science and Engineering Education in Late-Nineteenth Century America.” His dissertation examined the intellectual, cultural, and practical approaches to science and engineering education as a part of the land-grant college movement in the Midwest between the 1850s and early 1900s. These land-grant institutions began and grew within unique frontier societies that both cherished self-reliance and diligently worked to make themselves part of the larger national experience. Combining the humanities, sciences, and practical skills that they believed uniquely suited student needs, pioneering land-grant administrators and educators formulated new curricula and training programs that advanced both the knowledge and the social standing of America’s agricultural and mechanical working classes.

Paul will present a paper at the Midwest History of Education Society Conference in Chicago in Fall of 2008, titled “Land-Grant Colleges and American Engineers: The Transition Period Between Technical Training and Professional Knowledge, 1890-1900.” He is also working on a short book chapter dealing with how American inventors have approached learning and work in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.