Noeleen McIlvenna, Ph.D. 2004

Professor, Wright State University – Dayton OH

2004 Ph.D., History

How has being a History graduate from Duke helped shape you personally and/or professionally?

"Professionally, I had the expected route. I completed the dissertation without applying for jobs, so spent the year following graduation adjuncting full-time at Guilford College in Greensboro while applying for jobs. I got hired tenure-track at Wright State U in 2005, where I have been working ever since. I got tenured in five years, based on the publication of my first book, "A Very Mutinous People" with UNC Press in 2009. I got promoted to Full, five years later, based on the publication of my second book, "The Short Life of Free Georgia" also with UNC Press. Since then, I have published a third, "Early American Rebels," again with UNC Press. All of this is possible because I had fantastic teachers at Duke, who taught me writing skills beyond the content of the coursework. Personally, of course I made lifelong friends, but I suppose I would have done that wherever I studied. From professors like Larry Goodwyn and fellow students like Paul Ortiz, I learned how to be an organizer. I have been a union officer at WSU, chair of our Strike Committee and winner of the Marilyn Sternberg Award from AAUP. The feeling of success for creating better working conditions for my colleagues rivals any satisfaction at publishing books."

What advice would you give students in Duke's History programs? 

"Try to stand back from the day-to-day struggles of completing class assignments and look at the bigger picture of your intellectual experience while it is happening -- it is truly fantastic to have the opportunity to have your brain challenged and enriched and your skills honed by top-notch faculty. Do not listen to those who would nay-say your choice as a History major. You will find any kind of job you want and you will earn a comfortable living, even if that does not begin the first day after graduation. You will live another six decades and the stuff you have learned in those classrooms and books and from the feedback on your assignments will continuously feed your appreciation and understanding of the world around you."

Noeleen McIlvenna