History Department Alumni Profiles

Alumni of the Department of History have achieved success in a wide variety of professional fields. The following profiles provide a brief glimpse into the career paths of just a few of our distinguished alumni.

Jan Bulman
After receiving her B.A. in History at Oakland in 1995, Jan Bulman went on to complete the Ph.D. degree in medieval history at Michigan State University in 2003. She is currently Associate Professor of History at Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama. Her first book, The Court Book of Mende and the Secular Lordship of the Bishop: Recollecting the Past in Thirteenth-Century Gévaudan, was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2008.

Robert Douglas Cope
R. Douglas Cope is currently Associate Professor of History at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He completed his B.A. in History at OU before pursuing graduate study at the University of Wisconsin, where he received his Ph.D. in 1987. Professor Cope is the author of numerous works on Latin American history, including The Limits of Racial Domination: Plebeian Society in Colonial Mexico City, 1660-1720 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994).

Garry J. Gilbert
Garry Gilbert received both his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the History Department at OU, writing his M.A. thesis under the direction of Professors Roy Kotynek, Carl Osthaus, and Karen Miller. From 1998 to 2006 he served as Executive Editor of the largest daily newspaper in Oakland County, the Oakland Press, serving also as President of the Michigan Associated Press Editors Association. He then taught journalism at Michigan State University before returning to his alma mater in 2007. He is currently Interim Director of the Journalism Program at OU and serves on the board of the Oakland University Alumni Association. He was named the winner of the Oakland University Distinguished Alumni Award in 2000.

Michael K. Honey
Michael Honey is one of the foremost historians of the civil rights movement in America. He received his B.A. in History from OU, his M.A degree from Howard University, and his Ph.D. from Northern Illinois University. He is currently the Fred T. and Dorothy G. Haley Endowed Professor of Humanities and History at the University of Washington in Tacoma. His first book, Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights: Organizing Memphis Workers (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993), won the James A. Rowley Prize from the Organization of American Historians (OAH), the Southern Historical Association's Charles Snydor Prize, and the Herbert Gutman Award from the University of Illinois Press. His second book, Black Workers Remember: An Oral History of Segregation, Unionism, and the Freedom Struggle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), received the Southern Historical Association's H.L. Mitchell Award and the Southern Regional Council's Lillian Smith Award. His most recent book, Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign (New York: W.W. Norton, 2007), received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award from the RFK Foundation, the OAH's Liberty Legacy Award, and the Southern Historical Association's H.L. Mitchell Award. Going Down Jericho Road has also received significant media coverage, including features in the Washington Post and on NPR's Fresh Air. Professor Honey returned to speak at Oakland University in February 2006 as an OAH Distinguished Lecturer.

Steve Lehto
After completing his B.A. in History at OU, Steve Lehto received his Juris Doctorate (J.D.) degree from the Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, California. He currently practices law in Royal Oak, Michigan, and has taught Michigan History at the University of Detroit Mercy, as well teaching as consumer protection and trial practice at the University of Detroit Mercy Law School. He is also a prolific author. Among his most notable publications are Death's Door: The Truth Behind Michigan's Largest Mass Murder (Momentum Books, 2006) and Michigan's Columbus: The Life of Douglass Houghton (Momentum Books, 2009), both of which were named Michigan Notable Books. His latest book, Chrysler's Turbine Car: The Rise and Fall of Detroit's Coolest Creation, was published in October 2010 by Chicago Review Books and has received a significant amount of media attention and praise. The foreword to the book was written by NBC late-night television host (and noted car enthusiast) Jay Leno.

John Stoll
John Stoll was a member of the OU chapter of the history honor society Phi Alpha Theta as an undergraduate student, receiving his B.A. in History in 2000. He worked as a Staff Reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires for several years, covering issues related to Detroit and the auto industry. In January 2010 he was appointed Manager of Global Corporate News by the Ford Motor Company and currently oversees Ford's financial news communications around the world.

Robert E. Sullivan
After completing his B.A. in History summa cum laude, Robert Sullivan proceeded to graduate school at Harvard University, where he received both the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in European History. He is currently Associate Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, where he has also served as Director of the Erasmus Institute and as Associate Vice President for Academic Mission Support. Professor Sullivan is the author of numerous scholarly works, including John Toland and the Deist Controversy: A Study in Adaptations (Harvard University Press, 1982), Higher Learning and Catholic Traditions (University of Notre Dame Press, 2001) and, most recently, Macaulay: The Tragedy of Power (Harvard University Press, 2009).