[ History ]

Faculty

The faculty historians of Elmhurst College are top-notch professionals with wide-ranging areas of expertise, representing an excellent cross-section of diverse fields of study. Our varied faculty includes specialists in America, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Approachable and energetic, these top-flight professionals love to teach—in a friendly environment where they can work with their students as individuals. Our small classes and our family atmosphere guarantee that you will get the personal attention you need to develop your talents.

Want to know more? Check our faculty profiles, below. Or, contact a professor directly.

Full-time Faculty
Walter E. Burdick
Robert W. Butler
David C. Johnson

Adjunct Faculty
JoAnn Scurlock

Walter E. Burdick
Professor
Ph.D., Northern Illinois University
Dr. Burdick has done work in American social and intellectual history and the role of elitism in America. He has also studied political issues and personalities, with a primary focus on political and foreign policy issues in the 20th century. He was one of the first college professors to offer a course on the War in Vietnam. In the run-up to the War in Iraq, Dr. Burdick debated a former candidate for the U.S. Senate on whether the United States should go to war. The debate was televised on cable. An Americanist who also teaches Russian and Far Eastern history, Dr. Burdick lived in Germany while serving in the Army Intelligence Corps.

Robert W. Butler
Associate Professor and Department Chair
Ph.D., The Ohio State University
Dr. Butler specializes in the life and work of British economist Alfred Marshall. His work on Marshall led him to introduce a course on economic history to the Elmhurst curriculum. He has numerous research interests and has completed work on the Nazi threat, the concept of evil in history, and a number of topics related to British history and the Victorian era.

David C. Johnson
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Texas Christian University
Dr. Johnson's research centers on the international coffee trade. Recent and upcoming publications on this topic include an article about the globalization of coffee, an article about trade and commerce, and an article in Latin American Perspectives about the production of coffee in Guatamala. Dr. Johnson's teaching interests include globalization, Mesoamerica, Latin American-U.S. Diplomatic Relations, and history of commodities (coffee, sugar, bananas, and guano) in Latin America. Prior to earning his doctorate, Dr. Johnson worked as a ship's officer in the Merchant Marine.

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JoAnn Scurlock
Adjunct Professor
Ph.D., University of Chicago
Dr. Scurlock is the author of two books, Diagnosis in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine and Magico-Medical Means of Treating Ghost Induced Illnesses in Ancient Mesopotamia. She is also the author of more than 50 articles on various aspects of Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian, Israelite, Egyptian, and Greek civilizations. She has traveled widely in the Islamic world and in Europe. She lectures on ancient history, Islamic history and politics, European history, and the history of magic. Dr. Scurlock has been teaching at Elmhurst since 1984.