Profile for Kenneth Shonk
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Kenneth Shonk
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Professor
History
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Kenneth Shonk Pronouns: He/Him/His
Professor
History
Specialty area(s)
Modern Ireland/Northern Ireland, Modern Europe, British and French Empires, Fascism, History of Rock 'n' Roll, Modern Africa, World History
Brief biography
Though a historian of 20th century Ireland, I do consider myself to be more of a world historian. My dissertation research focused on the formation of the Republic of Ireland as a construct of the republican party dubbed Fianna Fáil. My current research examines Ireland’s significance as both an imaginary and physical space in which nations were able to justify and negotiate independence in the years following the formation of the Irish Republic in 1937. So far, my research on the topic has included visits to Ireland by such nationalist figures as Eak Tai Ahn, Ernesto Guevara, Kwame Nkrumah, Jarawahal Nehru, Tom Mboya, Col. Ojukwu, and D.S. Adegbenro, among others. This preliminary round of research will be published in Ireland’s Imperial Cultures and my article is entitled “The Shadow Metropole—the Varieties of Anticolonial Discourse in Ireland, 1937-1968.” Apart from Irish history and social studies education, I have teaching interests in the global history of sport, modern Britain and western Europe, Empire and decolonization, rock and roll, fascism, and cinema and history.
My career in history began in the California public school system, where I taught the entire curriculum of secondary social science, as well as Advanced Placement World History and SDAIE courses in world and US History. Regarding the art and craft of teaching, I am most interested in addressing the relevance and value of teaching social studies/science in the 21st century. This is a question that is a response to the increased marginalization of social studies education in America, and is very much informed by my own struggles as a classroom teacher to justify the importance of social studies curriculum in our schools. Building off my experiences as a Fellow for the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Learning, my goal as researcher, historian, and educator is to demonstrate the value and importance of social studies education, especially as they relate to the skills and habits and minds endemic to such fields as history, political science, economics, psychology, and sociology, among others.
Current courses at UWL
2024-2025: Sabbatical
Education
2010: Ph.D. Irish History, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
2005: M.A. History, California State University, Fullerton, Fullerton, California
2002: M.A.T. Education/California State Teaching Certification/CLAAD Certification, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, California
1996: B.A. History, California Polytechnic University, Humboldt, Arcata, California
Career
Teaching history
Spring 2024:
HIS 397: African Nationalism
HIS 402: Secondary Content Methods for Teaching English Language Learners
Fall 2023:
HIS 403: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment in Social Studies Education
HIS 359: Gender and Sexuality in Modern Europe
Spring 2023:
HIS 352: Germany, 1848-Present
HIS 402: Secondary Content Methods for Teaching English Language Learners
Fall 2022:
HIS 403: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment in Social Studies Education
HIS 407: State and Society--Northern Ireland from the Troubles to Brexit
Spring 2022:
HIS 402: Secondary Content Methods for Teaching English Language Learners
Fall 2021:
HIS 420: Global Fascisms
HIS 403: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment in Social Studies Education
Spring 2021:
HIS 110: Global Sport in the Long 20th Century.
Fall 2020:
HIS 110: Global Sport in the Long 20th Century.
HIS 351: France and the French Empire
Spring 2020
HIS 110: Global Sport in the Long 20th Century.
HIS 414: Ireland and the World 1500-Present
Spring 2019:
HIS 398: Colonial Africa
HIS 408: Teaching and Learning in the Secondary Social Studies Classroom
EDS 492: Student Teaching Seminar
Fall 2018:
HIS 408: Teaching and Learning in the Secondary Social Studies Classroom
HIS 407: European Fascisms
EDS 492: Student Teaching Seminar
Spring 2018:
HIS 408: Teaching and Learning in the Secondary Social Studies Classroom
HIS 300: Decolonization and Postcolonialism in Africa
EDS 492: Student Teaching Seminar
Fall 2017:
HIS 408: Teaching and Learning in the Secondary Social Studies Classroom
HIS 414: A Global History of Ireland
EDS 492: Student Teaching Seminar
Professional history
2024-: Book Review Editor, Journal of British Studies
2023-: Treasurer, American Conference for Irish Studies
2021-2024: Chair, Department of History
2013-Present: Assistant/Associate Professor/Professor, World History, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
2010-2013: Assistant Professor, History and Broadfield Social Studies Education, University of Wisconsin-Superior, Superior, WI.
2009: Research Fellow, Institute for Learning, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.
2005-2008: Teaching Assistant, Teaching Fellow, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI.
1997-2005, 2006: Social Science Teacher/Department Chair, Arroyo High School, El Monte, CA.
Research and publishing
'A New Form of Beauty: Irish postpunk and the liberalization of Ireland, 1977-1991.' New Hibernia Review 26, no. 1 (Spring/Earrach 2022).
'Help, given in a disinterested manner--Emerging Nationhood and Extraversion in Ireland, 1950-1979'. Radical History Review 143 (May 2022).
Ireland’s New Traditionalists—Fianna Fáil republicanism and gender, 1926-1938. Cork, Éire: Cork University Press, 2021.
'The Shadow Metropole: Global anti-colonialism and the legacy of Ireland’s Revolution', History Ireland, 2019.
History and Theory Through Popular Music—Those are the New Saints. London: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2017. Co-authored with Daniel R. McClure.
"The Shadow Metropole: The Varieties of Anticolonial Rhetoric in Twentieth Century Ireland, in eds. Timothy McMahon, Paul Townend, Michael de Nie, Ireland in an Imperial World: Citizenship, Opportunism, and Subversion (Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series). London: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2017.
“Fashion’s Latest Whims Need Not Alarm Us: Fianna Fáil, Femininity and the Conspicuous Consumption of Republican Nationalism, 1931-1937.” The New Hibernia Review (Fall 2015).
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