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: 227 Academic Offices Office Phone: 906.487.2459 FAX: 906.487.2468 Email: nienkamp@mtu.edu Curriculum Vitae Word Format

Paul Nienkamp has been a visiting assistant professor at Michigan Technological University in the Department of Social Sciences since Fall 2008. He has taught the American Experience, Modern American History, History of American Technology, Themes in Western Civilization, Military History of the United States, a section of Perspectives on Inquiry which focused on Engineers in Western Civilization, and Institutions in Modern American History.

Paul’s 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.