Full-Time Faculty

Dr. Douglas Askman holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.  He teaches courses in: Modern European History, Hawaiian History, and Spanish Civil War.  His research interests include Spanish Carlism and the late monarchy period of Hawai'i.  He is currently working on the politics of the late 19th century Hawaiian nationalist, Robert Wilcox.

Askman, Douglas Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History

Office Location:
1166 Fort Street Mall, Suite 305
Office Phone: (808) 544-9391
Office Fax: (808) 544-9306

Email: daskman@hpu.edu
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

Dr. Pierre Asselin  holds a Ph.D. from University of Hawaii at Manoa, and is the author of A Bitter Peace: Washington, Hanoi, and the Making of the Paris Agreement (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002).  He is currently working on a second manuscript on North Vietnamese revolutionary strategy in the period 1954 to 1965.  Recent works include “Choosing Peace: Hanoi and the Geneva Agreement on Vietnam, 1954-1955” in Journal of Cold War Studies; “Le Duan and the Creation of an Independent Vietnamese State” in Journal of American-East Asian Relations; and several book reviews.  A paper entitled “The Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the 1954 Geneva Conference: New Evidence and Perspectives” is forthcoming in Cold War Studies.  Dr. Asselin is a specialist on East and Southeast Asian Diplomatic History.  He teaches courses in U.S Diplomatic History, the Middle East, International History of the Cold war, and Theory and Practice of Diplomacy.

Asselin, Pierre, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History

Office Location:
1188 Fort Street Mall, Suite 409
Office Phone: (808) 544-1479
Office Fax: (808) 544-9306

Email: passelin@hpu.edu
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

Brenden Bliss, M.A.
Instructor of History
 
Office Location:
Office Phone: (808) 566-2459
Office Fax: (808) 566-2454

Email: bbliss@hpu.edu
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

Dr. Jon Davidann is a graduate of University of Minnesota.  Currently he teaches courses in U.S., Japanese, and World History including the History of Oil and the History of Economic Crisis.  Dr. Davidann’s research specialty is U.S.-Japanese relations and world history.  He is the author several books on U.S.-Japanese relations and most recently co-authored a textbook called Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern World History, published by Pearson in April 2012.

Here are his other books:

Edited Book, Hawai`i at the Crossroads of the U.S. and Japan before the Pacific War, edited by Jon Davidann, University of Hawai`i Press, September 2008. 

Book, Cultural Diplomacy in U.S.- Japanese Relations, 1919-1941, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, December 2007.

Edited Book, TransPacific Relations: America, Europe, and Asia in the Twentieth Century, edited by Jon Davidann, Richard Jensen, and Yone Sugita, Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2003.

Book, A World of Crisis and Progress: The American YMCA in Japan, 1890-1930, Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press and Associated University Presses, April 1998.

He regularly does book and manuscript reviews for the Journal of American History and the Pacific Historical Review.

He has done expert interviews on Hawaii Public Radio, TV Sweden, and Thinktech Hawaii on oil issues.  He has also spoken on recent Japanese elections and on the Pacific War.   He regularly serves as discussion leader for the HPU film series Viewpoints.

Davidann, Jon Ph.D.
Professor of History and Humanities
Director, International Exchange and Study Abroad Program
Office Location:
1164 Bishop Street, Suite 800
Office Phone: (808) 544-0811
Office Fax: (808) 543-8065
Email: jdavidann@hpu.edu
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

 Dr. Marc Gilbert holds a Ph.D. from University of California at Los Angeles.  In 1995, HPU was awarded a $575,000 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) challenge grant.  The fund underwrites the University’s first NEH endowed chair in world history. Dr. Gilbert plans to develop new courses in world history at HPU and build bridges between the University and the local community.  Dr. Gilbert has published extensively as an academic author, co-author, and editor, including World Civilizations: The Global Experience (now in its fifth edition) and several works on the intersection of Vietnamese and American history. In 1999, Gilbert won a “Silver Telly” Award for a documentary on homeless Vietnam era combat veterans titled Lost Warriors, which he co-wrote and co-produced.

Gilbert, Marc Ph.D.
Professor of History

NEH Endowed Chair of World History

Office Location:
1166 Fort Street Mall, Suite 207
Office Phone: (808) 544-1169
Office Fax: (808) 544-9306

Email: mgilbert@hpu.edu
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

 Dr. Allison Gough holds a Ph.D. from Ohio State University.  She currently teaches courses in U.S. history, African-American history, Race, Sex and Gender, and the Atlantic World.  Dr. Gough’s research interests include anti-slavery and civil rights movements.  She is currently studying African-American troops in the WWII U.S. Military.  Her publications include Messing Up Another Country’s Customs: The Exportation of American Racism in World War Two. 

Gough, Allison Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History

Office Location:
1166 Fort Street Mall, Suite 213
Office Phone: (808) 544-1109
Office Fax: (808) 544-9306

Email: agough@hpu.edu
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

 
Dr. Russell Hart earned his PhD in History from Ohio State University. He is the author of Clash of Arms: How the Allies Won in Normandy, 1944 (Boulder, Colorado, 2001) and Guderian: Panzer Pioneer or Mythmaker? (Dulles, Virginia, 2006) and is the co-author of four additional works. He has published articles on topics ranging from armored warfare, coalition command, combat effectiveness, and reconstruction of wartime memory. Dr. Hart’s research interests include modern history, military history, diplomatic history, and genocide studies. Dr. Hart teaches U.S. Military History, History of Military Thought, the Second World War, History of Genocide, Modern European Diplomatic History and Research Methods.

Hart, Russell Ph.D.
Chair, Department of History

Professor of History
Program Chair for Diplomacy and Military Studies

 
Office Location:
1166 Fort Street Mall, Suite 208
Office Phone: (808) 543-8043
Office Fax: (808) 544-9306

Email: rhart@hpu.edu
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

Sunny Kang earned his M.A. degree in History and is currently a Ph.D candidate at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.  His fields of study include: Race and Politics in Early America, The Black Radical Tradition and Critical Theory, Recent American and Popular Culture, and European Intellectual History.  He teaches courses in World Civilizations, U.S. History, Play and Leisure in World History, Race and Ethnicity in America.  His research interests include the semiotics of body scarification and tattooing.

Kang, Sung “Sunny”
Instructor of History

Office Location:
1188 Fort Street Mall, Suite 405
Office Phone: (808) 544-0204
Office Fax: (808) 544-9306

Email: skang@hpu.edu
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

 Dr. Linda Lierheimer earned her Ph.D. from Princeton University.  She currently teaches courses in Renaissance and reformation history, early modern France and gender studies.  Dr. Lierheimer’s research is in women and religion on the Reformation era.  She has a book in progress titled Women of Eloquence: Ursuline Nuns in Seventeenth Century France.  Among her published articles are “Preaching or Teaching?  Defining the Ursuline Mission in Seventeenth-Century France.”

Lierheimer, Linda Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Humanities

Office Location:
1132 Bishop Street, Suite 510B2
Office Phone: (808) 544-0810
Office Fax: (808) 544-0835

Email: llierheimer@hpu.edu

Schuster, Carl, Captain (USN, Retired)
Visiting Assistant Professor of History

Office Location:
1166 Fort Street Mall, Suite 213
Office Phone: (808) 677-7025
Office Fax: (808) 544-9306
Email: cschuster@hpu.edu

Dr. Justin Vance teaches primarily in support of HPU’s Military Campus Programs.  He earned a BA History from Boise State University, an MA in Diplomacy and Military Studies from Hawaii Pacific University, and a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Southern California.  His research interests are teaching History via distance learning settings, the American Civil War, and WW II in the Pacific.  In the past, he taught History at Wayland Baptist University, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, conducted battlefield tours of Hawaii’s World War II military sites for Home of the Brave Tours, and has worked at bringing history to life at the Battleship Missouri Memorial and Bishop Museum. Dr. Vance is the 2010 winner of the Golden Apple Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching at HPU.

Vance, Justin, Ed.D.
Assistant Professor of History
Assistant Dean, Military Campus Programs (Academics)     

Office Location:
1164 Bishop Street, Suite 800
 Honolulu, HI 96813    
Office Phone: (808)- 543-8096
Office Fax: (808) 566-2454

Email: jvance@hpu.edu
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

 
Dr. William Zanella is Associate Professor of Asian History at Hawai’i Pacific College, teaching courses related to World Civilizations, Japanese and Chinese history, plus Chinese language. He earned an undergraduate degree in history magna cum laude from King’s College in Pennsylvania and received an East-West Center grant to do a master’s in history at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, where he also received the doctoral degree. He has been on the faculty of HPU since 1975 and previously served as Associate Dean of International Exchange Programs.

Zanella, William Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Asian History

Office Location:
1166 Fort Street Mall, Suite 305
Office Phone: (808) 544-1171
Office Fax: (808) 544-9306

Email: wzanella@hpu.edu
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)