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- Title:
- Michael Allen interview
- Interviewee:
- Allen, Michael, 1950-
- Interviewer:
- Williams, Charles Thomas
- Date Created:
- 2018-02-21
- Role:
- Faculty
- Department:
- Liberal Studies; School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Science
- Subjects:
- Mississippi River Vietnam War Jack Keating core curriculum interdisciplinary education diversity Washington State Historical Society Bill Gerberding Grand Valley State University Evergreen State College curriculum planning
- Biography:
- Michael Allen (b. 1950) was born and raised in Ellensburg, Washington. His mother was Jewish and taught high school English literature. His father had left the Mormon church in Pocatello, Idaho, and owned an ice cream shop, which adjoined Michael Allen's childhood home. Allen graduated from Ellensburg High School in 1968 and served with the U.S. Marines Corps in Vietnam. He returned to his hometown to study history at Central Washington University (then Central Washington State College), earning his bachelor's degree in 1974. He subsequently moved to Missoula and completed his MA in history at the University of Montana in 1977. He then spent three years working on the Mississippi River as a towboat deckhand, oil tankerman, and cook. This experience framed his specialization in the Mississippi Valley as a historian and planted seeds for his PhD thesis and first book, Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse, which was published in 1990. He returned to the Pacific Northwest to work on his PhD at University of Washington and earned his degree in 1985. Prior to joining the founding faculty of University of Washington Tacoma in 1990, he had taught history at Eastern Montana College in Billings, Deep Springs College in California, and Tennessee Technological University. He has written a number of books and co-authored A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror (2004), which became a New York Times Bestseller. He inherited an ardent interest in rodeo from his father and established the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1997, serving as its founding president for seven years. In addition, Allen has continued his enthusiasm for magic--a childhood passion--and performed magic shows on the UW Tacoma campus.
- Description:
- In this interview, Michael Allen describes what it was like to be a faculty member at University of Washington Tacoma at the founding of the campus. He remarks on how the interdisciplinary bent--which is less pronounced in today's more-structured curriculum--reflected an intellectual goal shared among the initial faculty members. He explains the freedom and flexibility this allowed, citing fondly his experience conducting scholarship at the intersection of history, folklore, music, and rodeo. The interview then shifts to UW Tacoma's relationship with the local community. Allen points out the issue of fairness, noting that Tacoma was the largest metropolitan area on the Pacific coast that did not have a state college, and therefore, he says, the community embraced the arrival of UW Tacoma, which offered essentially open admission and a pathway to higher education. He recalls a preference for faculty candidates' investment in the community in earlier recruitments, when whether or not they lived locally in the South Sound was important. In the concluding section of the interview, Allen traces the trajectory of UW Tacoma, projecting that it will become increasing similar to regional state schools. He attributes this to democracy, the forces of politics, and the fact that most Americans are more interested in applied degrees than liberal arts. He welcomes this future and intends to create, as much excellence as possible, while broadening access.
- Location:
- United States--Washington (State)--Tacoma United States--Washington (State)--Seattle United States--Washington--Ellensburg
- Type:
- Sound; Text; StillImage
- Format:
- cpd
- Preferred Citation:
- University of Washington Libraries, University of Washington Tacoma Library, UWTOH201802