Professor Eissinger's Academic Website
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Welcome to my on-line home. I'm Michael Eissinger, Ph.D. I am currently a lecturer in Anthropology at California State University Fresno and in History at Fresno City College. I teach a wide array of History, Anthropology, and Ethnic Studies courses, both lower and upper division. I have also taught at UC Merced, Merced College, West Hills Community College Lemoore, Clovis Community College, and several campuses of Brandman and Chapman Universities. I earned my World Cultures and History Ph.D. at the University of California, Merced, in May 2017.

Since March 1, 2017, I have been hosting a weekly talk show on KFCF 88.1 (local Pacifica associate station in Fresno, CA). For more information about the show, please click on the "The STRUGGLE" tab, above.


RESEARCH INTERESTS

For the last several years, I have been re-collecting the history of a number of Historically African American Rural Settlements throughout the San Joaquin Valley. This research has two distinct (but, intertwined) foci. Historically, I want to reconstruct the history of these communities before it's lost to the mists of the Tule Fog; essentially removing them from our past. I want to contribute to the process of re-positioning them back into their rightful place as part of the history of the region, the state, the nation, and the world. Secondly, I am interested in the ways in which social memory, history, and individual and collective identity help to define the present and the ways in which they can be used to re-envision and shape the future.

CURRICULUM VITAE

EDUCATION

University of California, Merced
Ph.D. in World Cultures & History:
Interdisciplinary: History/Anthropology

California State University, Fresno
M.A. in History: May 2009
        Graduated With Distinction (4.0 GPA)
B.A. in Anthropology: May 2007
B.A. in History: May 2007
        Summa cum laude graduate

CONTACT

 (click on any of the following to email the professor)

University of California, Merced email
  • meissinger@ucmerced.edu
Fresno City College email
  • michael.eissinger@fresnocitycollege.edu
California State University, Fresno email
  • meissinger@csufresno.edu

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Lecturer/Adjunct Professor/Instructor

California State University, Fresno (2015-present)
  • U.S. History to 1877
  • Introduction to Historical Skills
  • ​Anthropology of Religion (upper division, on-line, and face-to-face)
  • Applied Anthropology (upper division, on-line, and face-to-face)
  • Ethnic Relations and Culture (upper division)
  • History and Theory of Anthropology (upper division)

Fresno City College (2009-present)
  • California History
  • Comparative World History from 1500 to present
  • ​Comparative World History to 1500
  • U.S. History from 1877 to the present
  • U.S. History to 1877​
  • ​Western Civilization: The Modern World

University of California, Merced (2012-2015)
  • Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology
  • The Other California: Central Valley (upper division)
  • United States History: The 20th Century
  • African American History (upper division)

Brandman (Chapman) University (upper division) (2009-present)
  • Social Movements of the Sixties
  • History of World War II
  • California History
  • History of the Ancient World

West Hills Community College Lemoore  (2008-09)
  • Introduction to Black Studies
  • Contemporary Native American Topics
  • Cultural History of the Chicano
  • Intro to Western Culture

​Merced College (2015)
  • U.S. History to 1877

Clovis Community College (formerly Willow International) (2014)
  • U.S. History to 1877
Teaching Assistant

University of California, Merced (2010-2014)
  • 20th Century U.S. History
  • Anthropological History and Thought
  • Anthropology of Social Memory
  • Ethnographic Methods
  • Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology
  • Introduction to Sociology

California State University, Fresno
  • United States History to 1877
  • Applied Anthropology
  • Tutor: History Writing Lab
  • Internship: Archeological Field School

FIELD SCHOOLS / RESEARCH PROJECTS

Keep on Pushin': A Black Okie Success Story
West of the West foundation, funded, in part, by a California Humanities Grant 2016-17. Multi-media exhibit featuring the work of myself, Mark Arax, Joel Pickford, and Ernest Lowe. Currently booking colleges and not-for-profit partners for the traveling exhibit.

San Joaquin Valley Historically African American Rural Settlement History/Ethnography Project (2011-15): Primary Investigator
University of California, Merced School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Art. Funded, in part, by University of California, Merced’s Graduate Research Council’s Summer Research Fellowship 2011

University of California Working Group on the Humanities: Changing Conceptions of Work, 2012-13
University of California Humanities Network (UCHN) joint project of faculty from U Davis and U C Merced. Funded, in part, by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Cooskeyville Oral History Project: 2007-2008
Central Valley Institute for Regional & Historical Studies

Central Valley Applied Anthropology Network: Researcher: 2007-2008
California State University, Fresno

Archeological Field School: Summer 2006 and Summer 2007
California State University, Fresno

AWARDS/HONORS/SCHOLARSHIPS

University of California, Merced
  • Community Engaged Scholarship Grad Award for Spring 2015
    UC Merced Resource Center for Community Engaged Scholarship
  • World Cultures Graduate Bobcat Award 2013-14
    School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Art
  • Working Groups on the Humanities: Changing Conceptions of Work Graduate Student Researcher, funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
  • Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award: 2012: Graduate Division
  • Graduate Division General Fellowship: 2012: Graduate Division
  • Summer Research Fellowship: 2011: Graduate and Research Council
  • Intern Honorarium: 2011: Center for Research on Teaching Excellence

California Council for the Promotion of History

  • Stipend Award: 29th Annual CCPH Conference, Monterey, October 2009

California State University, Fresno
  • Provost’s Graduate Scholarship: 2007-08, 2008-09
  • Henry Chen Scholarship: Department of History, February 2007

PROFESSIONAL & ACADEMIC AFFILIATIONS

American Anthropological Association (AAA)
American Society for Ethnohistory (ASE)
California Council for the Promotion of History (CCPH)
Central Valley Applied Anthropology Network (CVAAN)
Organization of American Historians (OAH)
Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association (PCBAHA)
Southwestern Anthropological Association (SWAA)
            Executive Board Grad Student Member 2014-2016
            Executive Board Member at Large 2016-2018

Southwestern Oral History Association (SOHA)

History Graduate Student Association (CSU Fresno) Vice President 2008
Alpha Kappa Beta Chapter (CSU Fresno) of Phi Alpha Theta (History Honor Society)
Phi Theta Kappa (Honor Society)
Pi Gamma Mu (Honor Society)

OTHER BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Academia is my third full career.

From the late 1970s until 1990, I worked as a professional broadcaster, using the air-name of Allan Michaels at radio stations on California's Central Coast and throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Although, for most of that time I worked at stations designated as Album Oriented Rock (AOR) stations, I did my time on several adult contemporary and country stations (to pay the bills). The rock stations (at the time) where I spent most of my time were KIOO in Porterville, KBOS in Tulare, and KKDJ (best AOR station, ever) and KCLQ (then, Classic Rock), in Fresno. I spent much of about seven years, at KKDJ. I was the last jock to broadcast from the old studios at 3636 North First, manning the old studio for the transition to the new studio on Shaw.

Overlapping with the end of my radio career, was a two decades long career in computers. I worked as a programmer for several software companies, writing business software for a variety of industries ranging from petrochemical companies to the poultry industry. I worked freelance for several years programming out of my home office, after having spent six years as a programmer/analyst at the University of California, Los Angeles. For a number of years, having reached the end of my interest in coding and software design, I operated an on-line radio station: radioNUR.

It was at the end of my computer career, in 2004, when I decided to return to school and pursue an academic career. Since that time, I have completed a second AA, two BAs (History & Anthropology), an MA (History), and I am currently finishing my Ph.D. in World Cultures and History at UC Merced.
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