Are you looking for something different to bring into your history classroom?

Penn State Altoona history faculty are armed with engaging and exciting presentations for high school learning environments. They’re ready to spur civic-mindedness and rich discussions about the past with your students. These free lectures or activities are particularly well suited for Advanced Placement courses.

You are invited to contact our faculty, listed here with their contact information and areas of expertise, who can bring new perspectives to your classroom.

Dr. Steven C. Andrews
Associate Teaching Professor of History
[email protected]

  • Legends of the Holy Grail
  • Aliens, Monsters, and the Supernatural
  • Paracelsus: Alchemy and the Four Pillars of Medicine

Dr. Brian C. Black
Distinguished Professor of History and Environmental Studies
[email protected] | 814-949-5244

  • Gettysburg Contested: The History of America’s Most Cherished Landscape
  • It’s a Gas! Petroleum in American History
  • Energy Revolutions: Organizing the Human Past
  • Road Trip: How Ike’s 1919 Convoy Blazed America’s Energy Transition

Iwona Dorabiala
Lecturer in History
[email protected]

  • Who Built the Egyptian Pyramids and Why?
  • Egyptian Mummies: Death and the Afterlife
  • The Cradle of Civilization: Early Societies of Mesopotamia
  • Nothing Impossible: The Legacy of Alexander the Great
  • Vikings: The Hidden Development of Russia
  • The Last Dynasty: The Fate of the Romanovs

Dr. John Eicher
Assistant Professor of History
[email protected]

  • The 19th Century Industrial Revolutions: A Vast, Uncontrolled, and Unscientific Experiment (or The Reason Why You Brush Your Teeth, Know the Time, and Don’t Know Who Made Everything You Own)
  • Understanding History: An Interactive Lecture Session
  • Defining Nationalism: An Invented Tradition of Imagined Communities
  • Fears on Film: The Cultural History of Horror Movies (1920-2020)
  • Building an Empire/Fighting an Empire: A Treaty Classroom Activity

Dr. Sam Findley
Associate Teaching Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies
[email protected] | 814-949-5811

  • Gods and Goddesses: The History of Greek and Roman Myth
  • A Historical Guide to Falconry: An Interactive Demonstration

Jared Frederick
Assistant Teaching Professor of History
[email protected] | 814-949-5531

  • Dispatches of D-Day: Learning with Primary Sources
  • Hardtack and Coffee: The Life of the Civil War Soldier
  • Yanks: The American GI in World War II
  • Fight for the Right: African Americans and the Civil War
  • Gettysburg 101: Understanding America’s Biggest Battle
  • Living Rangerously: My Adventures with the National Park Service
  • Custom topics in Pennsylvania, Military, American, and Film History

Dr. Lindsay Keiter
Assistant Professor of History
[email protected] | 814-949-5890

  • American Marriage: Tales and Customs of 19th Century Matrimony
  • Fires of Freedom: Women and the Civil
  • Rights Movement
  • Living in the Past: A Historian’s Work at Colonial Williamsburg
  • What’s Love Got to do with It? Marriage in Historical Perspective

Joseph Labriola
Lecturer in History
[email protected]

  • Understanding Juvenile Law: A Historian’s Approach to the Juvenile Justice System in Pennsylvania

Dr. Mark McNicholas
Associate Professor of History
[email protected] | 814-949-5200

  • Oracle Bones: Fortune-telling in Ancient China
  • The Great Wall of China: A Meandering History
  • Palace Memorials: The Qing Emperors’ Secret Communications
  • Medieval Medicine: Prescriptions from Europe and East Asia

Dr. Doug Page
Teaching Professor of History
[email protected]

  • The History of Madness: An Examination of Mental Illness and Psychiatry

Dr. Elizabeth Seymour
Teaching Professor of Anthropology, Communications, History, and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
[email protected] | 814-949-5335

  • Ancient Egypt
  • The Middle East
  • North African History
  • The History of Native Americans