Full-Time Faculty
Dr. Timothy Kovalcik bleeds blue. He graduated from Millikin in 1996, where he received departmental honors and the Albert T. Mills history student of the year award. He returned to Millikin in 2001 as an adjunct for the History and Religion departments, and was hired full time in 2005. In all, Dr. Kovalcik has spent 11 years at Millikin University. His qualifications include a Master of Arts in Theology from Asbury Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from the University of Bristol, in the United Kingdom. At the University of Bristol Dr. Kovalcik was the only American to receive the distinguished Overseas Research Scholarship. His academic interests include medieval anti-Semitism, Holocaust and genocide studies, modern European studies and African history. He teaches a wide variety of subjects, including Historiography, Modern Church History and Global Christianity. He is also currently serving as the supervisor for history/social science secondary education majors.
Teaching and research at Millikin are really hobbies. Dr. Kovalcik’s full-time job is helping his wife Helene (also a Millikin graduate) take care of four beautiful children--Kaley, Emmery, Isaiah and Sara Beth. When there is time, Dr. Kovalcik loves sports, especially Steelers football, and he maintains a ten handicap in golf.
Dr. Dan Monroe earned a doctorate in history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he worked with Professor Robert W. Johannsen. He received the Heiligenstein Award for Teaching Excellence and was a fellow at the Virginia Historical Society and Lincoln Legal Papers. Monroe is the author of three books: The Republican Vision of John Tyler (2003), At Home with Illinois’ Governors: A Social History of the Illinois Executive Mansion (2002), and Shapers of the Great Debate on the Civil War: A Biographical Dictionary (2005), with co-author Dr. Bruce Tap. He is currently working on his fourth book, a study of every day life in the antebellum U.S.
He teaches a variety of courses, including his new course, "Abraham Lincoln in History and Film," offered in the January and May immersion format.
Dr. Brian Mullgardt earned his BA and MA in History from Southern Illinois University, and his PhD in History from the University of Connecticut. He specializes in Cold War society and culture, with special attention to the 1960s. Dr. Mullgardt has taught at both the university and high school levels, experiences he brings to Millikin as Coordinator of the Social Science Secondary Education Major program. He has received teaching awards from the University of Chicago and the The Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation and the Joseph B.Whitehead Foundation, and has published articles in the Journal of Illinois History and Independent Teacher. He is currently working on a manuscript about the impact of the 1968 Democratic National Convention on the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago.
Adjunct Faculty
Dr. William Keagle comes to Millikin with a varied background. Born in Denver, he grew up in Wyoming, worked as a cowboy, a mechanic, a truck and bus driver, learned to fly, and has been involved in music and the theater since childhood. He has two degrees in religion and two degrees in History, including a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. As an ordained Presbyterian minister, Dr. Keagle was a pastor for many years. He also has clinical training in counseling and served a professional counselor. He has been married for over forty years, has two grown daughters and one grandchild. Dr. Keagle has traveled extensively, including all fifty states and more than forty countries. He continues to teach at Millikin because he loves it and thoroughly enjoys interacting with students.
Dr. Elisheva A. Perelman has been teaching courses on East Asian and Pacific history and the history of medicine at Millikin since 2011. Her research specialty is the social, cultural, and medical history of early 20th century and Taisho era Japan.
A Wisconsin native, she received her B.A. in history from Mount Holyoke College and spent time at Trinity College, Dublin. She taught English in Japan for a year before returning to the States to complete her M.A. and Ph.D. in Japanese history from the University of California, Berkeley. She returned to Japan three more times to research, where her work garnered fellowships from a variety of sources, including the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science in 2010, where she served as a visiting researcher at Nagoya University.