Urban and Metropolitan History, Race and Ethnicity, Cultural Geography, Metropolitan Political Economy 20th Century United States Social and Cultural History, Politics of Popular Culture
Presentations and Projects
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Rethinking Sub/Urbanity: Historical Connections of Metropolitan Places (Panel Organized and Accepted), Reconsidering the City (Department of History), SUNY-Fredonia, April 23-24, 2010
"Public Benefits from Public Choice"? Place, Ideology, and Equity in Southern California. October 23, 2009. The Diverse Suburb: History, Politics, and Prospects (National Center for Suburban Studies, Hofstra University), Hempstead, NY
Place, Ideology, and the Prospects of Regionalism in Postwar California. October 17, 2009. National Conference on Planning History (Society for American City and Regional Planning History), Oakland, CA
Holding the Center: The Centripetal Dynamic of Local Television in Suburbanizing Los Angeles. October 17, 2008. American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM
Reconsidering the Relationship of Television and Suburbanization: Lessons from the Local in Los Angeles. August 8, 2008. Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association, Pasadena, CA Producing the Boundaries of Black Los Angeles: Place Entrepreneurialism and the Consolidation of Watts to Los Angeles. August 5, 2006. Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association, Palo Alto, CA
“Real American Heroes”: Attacking Multiculturalism through the Discourse of Heroic Sacrifice—A Brief Cultural History. June 7, 2006. Netherlands American Studies Association, Roosevelt Study Center, Middelburg, Netherlands
Black Place Entrepreneurs and the Consolidation of Watts to Los Angeles, USC-Huntington Institute for California and the West, University of Southern California, April 25, 2006. Invited Speaker
The Whiteness of Heroism: Hollywood’s Influence on Post-9/11 Attacks on Multiculturalism. March 4, 2006. Conference on Ethnic Studies in California, University of Southern California
“Laboring” the Social Landscape of Black Los Angeles, 1935-1941. March 15, 2003, First Annual Conference on Ethnic Studies in California, University of Southern California
Affiliations
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American Studies Association
Organization of American Historians
American Historical Association
Appointments
Duration
Rank
Department / School
College / Office
University / Company
2008-present
Assistant Professor
School of Urban and Public Affairs
Interdisciplinary Studies Program
University of Texas at Arlington
2008
Graduate Assistant
Office of Graduate Programs
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
University of Southern California
2007
Teaching Assistant
Anthropology
University of Southern California
2006
Teaching Assistant
History
University of Southern California
2005
Teaching Assistant
History
University of Southern California
2005
Teaching Assistant
American Studies and Ethnicity
University of Southern California
2004
Teaching Assistant
History
University of Southern California
2003
Teaching Assistant
History
University of Southern California
Synergistic Activities
ACADEMIC SERVICE
Chair, Faculty Search Committee (Director of Interdisciplinary Studies Program), School of Urban and Public Affairs, November 2009-Present.
Faculty Executive Committee, School of Urban and Public Affairs, September 2009-Present
Undergraduate Admissions Committee, Interdisciplinary Studies Program, School of Urban and Public Affairs
Working Group on Curriculum, Reseach, and Community Engagement (CRCE), President's Sustainability Committee, October 2009-Present
This course examines interdisciplinary theory, the concept of disciplinary perspective, and the defining elements of a discipline (phenomena, data, assumptions, epistemology, theories, and methods), and explains how these inform the interdisciplinary research process. This process is applied to a broad topic--the DFW area as a livable, sustainable, and equitable place—as students will identify and research a related problem of their own choosing that is appropriate to the scale and timing of an undergraduate course. The topic may relate to the student’s interests, degree objectives, or both. An active learning approach is used. The last part of the course involves students applying the interdisciplinary research model to develop understandings of or propose interdisciplinary solutions to some aspect of the central course problem.These will be based chiefly in published scholarly insights (secondary sources) though advanced students will be supported in the pursuit of primary source research.The written products of this course will be a series of short assignments and exercises that prepare students to identify, assess, and integrate disciplinary insights on the course problem and express that learning in written form, as well as a series of web-based quizzes that will assess student comprehension of the steps of the research process. Students will also produce a proposal for an interdisciplinary research problem to be pursued in INTS 4391.
Download Syllabus (159.28KB. This syllabus was uploaded Wednesday 26th, August 2009 10:38:17 AM and is subject to change.)
Contact Information University Hall, #520 Phone: 817-272-3130 Email: michan@uta.edu
Can the environmental movement help metropolitan residents create better relations with their fellow humans and their whole environment?
Most Americans recognize a general need for environmental protection, but there is no clear agreement on how people should participate in achieving that goal. Who will decide what should be done, and whose ideas and values will govern decisions?
Most Americans now live in metropolitan areas—cities and suburbs—and environmental hazards affect metropolitan communities in particular ways.“Acting locally” means understanding how environmental issues and movements relate to diverse and socially complex metropolitan communities. Can the environmental movement help metropolitan residents create better relations with their fellow humans and their whole environment?
Students in this course will use an interdisciplinary approach to understand how sustainability connects to other social issues, and how people experience these in their daily environments. Students will read and discuss scholarly research and primary sources related to environmental movements and metropolitan conditions, analyze messages in popular culture about the environment and metropolitan areas, and complete a series of short written assignments including response papers and an essay that applies different disciplinary perspectives to a particular metropolitan environmental problem.
Download Syllabus (237.42KB. This syllabus was uploaded Tuesday 03rd, November 2009 12:34:46 PM and is subject to change.)
Contact Information Phone: 817-272-3130 Email: michan@uta.edu
John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, 2006-2007 University of Southern California Urban Initiative Dissertation Fellowship, 2005 Haynes Foundation Short-Term Dissertation Research Fellowship, Residency at Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, June-July 2005 Graduate Fellow, Center For Interdisciplinary Research, University of Southern`California, Space and Culture Colloquium Series, 2004-5 Haynes Foundation Intermediate Fellowship, August 2002-May 2003 Haynes Foundation First Year Graduate Fellowship, August 2001-May 2002
Important Disclaimer: The responsibility for the accuracy of the information contained on these pages lies with the authors and user providing such information.
Faculty Profile
601 S. Nedderman Drive, Arlington, TX 76019 
Mail Box: 19419 
817-272-3130 
817-272-3156 
