Eric J. Morser

Eric Morser earned his PhD in United States History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2003 and began teaching at Skidmore in 2009. In 2011, he published Hinterland Dreams: The Political Economy of a Midwestern City, which was nominated for the Kenneth Jackson Award for Best Book in North American Urban History and the Book Award of Merit from the Wisconsin Historical Society. His second book, The Fires of New England: A Story of Protest and Rebellion in Antebellum America, hit the shelves in 2017. He has also published numerous articles and reviews and is currently hard at work on his next big project, Dreaming America: The Story of the Audacious Utopians Who Imagined New Worlds and Changed a Nation, which explores the rich and twisting tale of utopian thought in American history from the colonial era to the present. He is an award-winning teacher who has worked extensively with public school educators around the country.

At Skidmore, he teaches course on early America, the American West, indigenous people, labor and working-class culture, environmental history, gender and manhood, and radicalism in American life. He is currently Faculty Director of Civic Engagement and has directed the Bridge Experience, a new general education requirement that encourages students to explore diversity in contemporary American and share what they’ve learned in the course with an audience beyond the classroom. He loves fantasy and sci-fi novels, creative non-fiction, the Beatles, REM, Star Wars, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. He lives in upstate New York with his wife and son and continues to root for his beloved Green Bay Packers.