Employee Directory
Julie Backous
Julie Backous
Senior Secretary
Technology Center 358
- 605-626-2601
Ms. Backous graduated from Northern State University with a BS in psychology. In 2013 she joined Northern as senior secretary for the Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and department secretary for History and Social Sciences. Recently, she added the department of English, Communication and Global Languages to her responsibilities. Ms. Backous has more than 20 years of experience as an administrative assistant and 16 years working with children in residential behavioral settings in South Dakota and Colorado. She is delighted to be back at Northern working with students and satisfying her love of Excel spreadsheets.
Kristi Brownfield
Kristi Brownfield
Associate Professor of Sociology/Director of Assessment
Technology Center 350
- 605-626-7797
Ph.D., Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
Dr. Brownfield joined the NSU faculty in 2015. Her current research looks at deviance and “bad behavior” in online forums devoted to support networks. She recently has published articles on depictions of prisons in film and rural policing on television.
Research Interests/Areas of Expertise
Popular culture
New media research methods
Online phenomena
Race/class/gender
Social psychology, identity, narrative, and deviance
Ric Dias
Ric Dias
Professor of History, Faculty Mentoring Program Coordinator
Technology Center 370
- 605-626-7795
David Grettler
David Grettler
Professor of History
Technology Center 364
- 605-626-7798
Dr. David Grettler specializes in early American and environmental history. He is also a historical archaeologist interested in public history and teaches courses in museums, archives, and material culture studies. Dr. Grettler received NSU's Outstanding Faculty Member Award in 1996, the NSU Honors Program Outstanding Teaching Award in 1999 and 2002, and NSU Student Organization Advisor of the Year Award in 2002. He is co-advisor to the NSU History Club and is researching Native American missionaries in South Dakota.
Art Marmorstein
Art Marmorstein
Professor of History
Technology Center 363
- 605-626-2608
Dr. Marmorstein has been teaching at Northern since the fall 1988 semester and is the current mace-bearer, the distinction given the longest-serving Northern faculty member. He uses the handle "Ancient Art" because he's a specialist in ancient history and the most ancient of the NSU faculty members. He teaches lower division Western survey classes and upper division classes in ancient history, covering ancient Rome, ancient Greece, early church, and world religions.
Dr. Marmorstein did his undergraduate work at Stanford, earning his B.A. in drama (1974). After several years teaching high school English and drama, he returned to graduate school, eventually earning a Ph.D. in history at the University of California, Davis (1988).
NSU and Community Involvement
Dr. Marmorstein is the advisor to the NSU Chess Club, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and CRU. He is a frequent guest lecturer for various on-campus and off-campus groups, speaking on topics like Men, Women, and Other Mythological Creatures and The Death of Love. He also writes regular colums for the Aberdeen American News.
Courses Taught
Surveys
History 121 Western Civilization to 1600
History 122 Western Civilization 1600--
History 152 U.S. History 1877--Present
Upper Division Classes
History 413 Ancient Israel
History 424 Early Church
History 422 Ancient Rome
History 440 Ancient Greece
REL 492 Christian Apologetics
HIST/REL 492 World Religions
Other classes
IDL 190 College Success
INED 411 South Dakota Native American
SEED 415/615 Social Science Methods
Publications and Presentations
“Eschatological Inconsistency in the Ante-Nicene Fathers?” Andrews University Seminary Studies, Spring 2001.
“God within the Shadow: The Biblical Framework of Shakespearian Theater.” Northern Great Plains Early British Literature Conference, Spring 2001.
“Why Johnny Can’t Translate: The 1611 Versions and Their Modern Equivalents.” Northern Great Plains Early British Literature Conference, Spring 2002.
“Gluing Students to Their Seats and Other Fun Activities” Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT), March 2006.
“Classrooms Fall of Stars: Theater Games in the Social Studies Classroom.” Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT, March 2006
“The Tragedy of the Common Demagogue: Jonson’s Catiline and Its Sources.” Northern Great Plains Early British Literature Conference, Spring 2012.
“The Tragedy of the Common Cuckold: Richards’ Messalina and Its Sources.” Northern Great Plains Early British Literature Conference, Spring 2013.
“To Rectify Man’s Ways to Man: Milton, Hobbes, Locke and the Paradox of Tolerance.” Northern Great Plains Early British Literature Conference, Spring 2015.
“Charging Toward Armageddon: Bull Moose Eschatology and the 1912 Election.” Iowa Conference on Presidential Politics, Fall 2015).
“The Tragedy of the Common Madman; Nathaniel Lee’s Nero and Its Sources.” Northern Great Plains Early British Literature Conference, Spring 2016.
“We’re Still Here: Congregation B’Nai Israel and the Jewish Diaspora of Northeastern South Dakota.” Dakota Conference on the Northern Plains, April 2017.
Coauthor “Fewer Rabbis than U.S. Senators: Jewish Political Activism in 20th Century South Dakota.” In The Plains Political Tradition: Essays on South Dakota Political Culture, Volume 3. South Dakota State Historical Society Press, September 2018.
“Correct Me if I am Wrong: The Perils of Higher Education Gobbledygook,” Great Plains Sociological Association Annual Conference, Fall 2018.
“The Tragedy of the Common Patriot: Nathaniel Lee’s Brutus and Its Sources.” 27th Annual Northern Plains Conference on Early British Literature, Spring 2019.
“Many a Truth: Jester Candidates and the Common Good.” Iowa Conference on Presidential Politics, Fall 2019.
Personal Interests
Dr. Marmorstein and his wife, Donna, have six kids and 12 (soon to be 13) grandchildren.
Pamela Monaghan-Geernaert
Pamela Monaghan-Geernaert
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Technology Center 361
- 605-626-2929
Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University, 2002
M.A., Idaho State University, 1993
B.A., University of Calgary, 1989
Dr. Pamela Monaghan-Geerneart has been a member of the faculty in the department of history and social sciences at Northern State University since the fall of 2019.
Courses Taught
SOC 100 Introduction to Sociology
Soc 261 Human Sexuality
Soc 423 Social Stratification
Soc 491 Medical Sociology
Soc 350 Race and Ethnic Relations
INDG 404 Contemporary Issues in Native and Indigenous Communities
INED 411/511 South Dakota Indian Studies
Research Interests
Home health care
Culturally congruent health care
Health care access
Native American student retention
Higher education pedagogy
Recent Publications
Monaghan-Geernaert, P.G. ( in press) Home health care – Paid Family or something else. In Advances in Gender Research. Demos and Segal Ed. Emerald Press.
Monaghan-Geernaert, P.G. ( 2019) Flipping the Classroom to Teach the Evaluation of Research Articles and the Development of Scientific Literacy Journal of Instructional Research Vol 8 (1) 62-70. 2019
Monaghan- Geernaert, P.G. Teaching in Times of Crisis. Newsletter Article: in Teaching and Learning Sociology, American Sociological Association. Spring, 2019
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Christopher Near
Christopher Near
Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice
Technology Center 355
- 605-626-7793
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Michigan, 2016
B.A., Sociology, Indiana University, 2010
Dr. Christopher Near joined Northern State University in 2020 as an assistant professor. He taught previously at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Courses Taught
CJUS 201 Introduction to Criminal Justice
CJUS 203 Policing in a Free Society (online)
CJUS 380 Research/Data Analysis in Criminal Justice
CJUS 401 Law and Society (online)
CJUS 433 Criminal Procedure (online)
SOC 351 Criminology
SOC 455 Juvenile Delinquency (online)
Research Interests and Recent Publications
Professor of Government/Director of the Center for Public History and Civic Engagement
- 605-626-2356
Jon Schaff
Jon Schaff
Professor of Government/Director of the Center for Public History and Civic Engagement
Technology Center 356
- 605-626-2356
Steven A Usitalo
Steven A Usitalo
Professor of History/Department Chair
Technology Center 369
- 605-626-3224
PH.D. McGill University, 2003
M.A. Carleton University, 1991
Master's Program/Certificate, University of Helsinki, 1990
B.A. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, 1988
Steven Usitalo is a specialist in Russian and Soviet history, modern genocide studies, and Roma studies. A recipient of numerous research grants, he has co-edited an anthology on Russian and Soviet history and published a monograph on the Russian polymath Mikhail Lomonosov. In fall 2023 he completed a revised Russian translation of his Lomonosov book. His present research focuses on the history of the Roma in the Soviet Union. He is at work on a book-length study of the genocide of the Roma people on Soviet territory during the Second World War.
He received a B.A. in history from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, a master’s certificate in political history from the University of Helsinki, an M.A. in Soviet and East European studies from Carleton University, and a Ph.D. in history from McGill University. In his spare time, he’s driven by a love for travel. Even when life gets busy, his passion for exploring the world never slows down. More and more, however, he can be found wandering, silently, through Nothern Minnesota or any forest in Finland, with his family by his side—including a wonderful Labrador companion. Always moving forward, always seeking new adventures—there’s no looking back!
Courses Taught
HIST 122 Western Civilization II
HIST 256 Modern World History
HIST 313 The Middle East
HIST 329 The French Revolution and Napoleon
HIST 330 Nineteenth Century Europe
HIST 420 Twentieth Century Europe
HIST 443 Imperial Russia
HIST 444 Twentieth Century Russia
HIST 470 The Second World War
HIST 485 History of Genocide in the Modern Era
HIST 492 Amerika through Soviet Eyes
HIST 492 Introduction to Japanese Film
HIST 492: The Genocide of the Roma
HIST 492 The Ottoman Empire and the Caucasus
HIST 492 War, Nationalism, and Terrorism
HIST 492 The Roma in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union
HIST 492 The First World War
HIST 492 Stalin and Stalinist Civilization