History

Education

• Ph.D., Bowling Green State University
• MS, Eastern Michigan University
• MA, Bowling Green State University
• BA, University of Toledo

Interests and Expertise

John Wegner is a specialist in U.S. social and political history of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (c. 1877–1917). Other fields of specialization include state and local history, particularly within Michigan. He has taught primarily introductory courses in U.S. history at EMU, but has recently drawn on past teaching experience and graduate study to teach courses dealing in antiquity and the Middle Ages. Other courses taught include: Early Western Civilization, Early World Civilization, U.S. to 1877, U.S. from 1877 and Michigan History.

Dr. Wegner has degrees in four fields and worked as a journalist and television producer prior to becoming a professional historian. He began teaching as an adjunct instructor at EMU in 2001 and became a full-time lecturer in 2003. Dr. Wegner recently took a degree in Urban and Regional Planning, with special emphasis on Historic Preservation.

Nominated four times by students for the Outstanding Lecturer Award, Dr. Wegner has also contributed articles to scholarly journals in a variety of fields and delivered papers at conferences. He is a popular "after dinner" speaker at service organizations in the Toledo, Ohio area. He is a member of the Ohio Academy of History and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He also currently serves as a Trustee of the EMU chapter of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

Courses

• HIST 101 Western Civilization to 1648
• HIST 123 The United States to 1877
• HIST 124 The United States, 1877 to the Present
• HIST 313 Michigan History

Publications and Presentations

• "Urban Street Systems in Nineteenth Century Ohio Towns: An Analysis of Diffusion." Geographical Bulletin 46 (November 2004): 87– 105.
• “Partisanship in the Ohio House of Representatives, 1900–1911: An Analysis of Roll Call Voting,” Ohio History 106 (1997): 146–170.
• “Remembering the ‘Rag Baby’: Toledo and the Greenback-National Movement of the 1870s,” Northwest Ohio Quarterly 67 (1995): 118–145.
• “Home Interactive Media: An Analysis of Potential Abuses of Privacy.” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 29 (1985): 51–62.