Portrait of David Seim

David L. Seim

Associate Professor/Minor Advisor

Phone 715-232-1406
Office 445D Harvey Hall

Brief Biography: I was born in Boston in the fall. Since then, I had the good fortune to be drawn into the history of social science by a series of wonderful advisors, both informally and formally - thank you to John Muth, Arlen W. Langvardt, Cass Sunstein, J. Ron Stanfield, David B. Wilson, and Hamilton Cravens. I owe to each of you my ongoing effort to serve the best that historians of social science can achieve for all humankind.

Teaching Interests: I suppose my teaching philosophy is this: that every one of us, students and myself, have more potential in us than we yet recognize, or perhaps can even begin to believe. This supposition is why I teach. I teach in the hope that each student - even if they might not immediately know it - may find their life is made more meaningful through some idea that came through engagement with my course. I hope as well to contribute to raising our collective critical engagement with the greatest experiment in the history of social science: that we give from each according to his or her ability, to all of us in our shared experience in self-government.

Roles/Responsibilities: I am an Associate Professor of History, in the College of Arts & Humanities, Communication, and Social Sciences. My current teaching responsibilities include: Hist-210, Modern World History; Hist-240/Pols-240, History and Politics of Africa; Hist-390, History of Science & Technology; Hist-391, History of Social Science & Race; Hist-392, History of Mad Science; Pols-250, History of Race, Politics, and Technology; Pols-260, Problems of U.S. Foreign Policy; Educ-211, Fab Lab & Society; Hist-120, Early U.S. History; Hist-121, Modern U.S. History; APSS-301 Qualitative Research Methods. In addition, I have taught numerous other courses over the last ten years, including Birth of the Republic, History of American Technology, European Thought and Culture, History of Texas, Social Science and the History of Africa, Western Civilization I, and Western Civilization II.