Curriculum Vitae
David A. Harrisville
david.harrisville@gmail.com
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS:
Social, cultural and intellectual history of modern Germany and Europe; Third Reich and Holocaust; global Second World War; morality, ethics and religion; military history; war crimes; history of masculinity; minorities and migration in European history
EDUCATION:
Ph.D. History. University of Wisconsin-Madison, May 2017
Defended May 2016
Title: “Unrighteous Cause: The Moral World of the German Soldier on the Eastern Front and the Wartime Origins of the Wehrmacht Myth, 1941-1944”
Committee Members: Rudy Koshar, Laird Boswell, Mary Louise Roberts, John Hall, William Reese
M.A. History. University of Wisconsin, Madison, May 2012
Title: “Shepherds of Wolves: Wehrmacht Chaplains, the Second World War, German Colonialism, and Nazi Ideology, 1941-1945”
B.A. History. Carleton College, Northfield, MN, 2009, with departmental distinction
POSITIONS HELD:
Brown University
Learning Designer, June, 2022-present
Legal Services Corporation
Information Technology Learning Specialist, August, 2019-May, 2022
Furman University
Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Fall, 2018-present
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Postdoctoral Fellow and Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Historian in Residence, June, 2017-July, 2018
Graduate Student Lecturer, Fall 2016
Teaching Assistant, Fall and Spring 2010; Spring 2012
BOOKS:
The Virtuous Wehrmacht: Crafting the Myth of the German Soldier on the Eastern Front, 1941- 1944. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2021.
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS:
Forthcoming: Co-authored with Jeff Rutherford. “The Ostheer.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Nazi-Soviet War 1941-1945. Cambridge University Press.
Forthcoming: “Morality as a Weapon in the Wehrmacht's Arsenal.” In The German-Soviet War, 1941–1945, edited by Robert von Maier and Jeff Rutherford. Cornell University Press, 2024.
“Morality, Nazi Ideology, and the Individual in the Third Reich: The Example of the Wehrmacht.” In Mosse’s Europe, edited by Skye Doney and Sunny Yudkoff. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2022.
“Unholy Crusaders: The Wehrmacht and the Reestablishment of Soviet Churches during Operation Barbarossa.” Central European History 52, no. 4 (2019), 620-649.
“‘We No Longer Pay Heed to Humanitarian Considerations’: Narratives of Perpetration in the Wehrmacht, 1941-1944,” in Perpetrators. Dynamics, Motivations and Concepts for Participating in Mass Violence. Timothy Williams and Susanne Buckley-Zistel, eds. Routledge Studies in Genocide and Crimes against Humanity. NY: Routledge, 2018.
Contributor to Guide to Byzantine Historical Writing, Leonora Neville, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
DIGITAL PUBLICATIONS:
“New Maps Shed Light on German Soldiers’ Lives,” Edge Effects (Dec. 20, 2016)
<http://edgeeffects.net/mapping-german-soldiers-lives/>
“Justifying a War of Extermination: Identity and Image in Hitler's Army,” EuropeNow! (Fall, 2016)
“Moral Idealism and Mass-Murder,” for The Library of Social Sciences Newsletter (November 12, 2014)
“The Berlin Airlift.” TRACES Center for History and Culture. August, 2009.
<http://www.traces.org/BerlinAirlift.html>
“The Berlin Airlift: Midwest Connections.” TRACES Center for History and Culture. August, 2009. <http://www.traces.org/Berlin%20Airlift/BerlinAirliftMidwestConnections.html>
BOOK REVIEWS:
Review of Stefan Kurt Treiber, Helden oder Feiglinge? Deserteure der Wehrmacht im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Campus Verlag, 2021), German History
Review of Moritz Föllmer, Culture in the Third Reich (Oxford, 2020), The Mosse Program Blog (September, 2021) <https://mosseprogram.wisc.edu/2021/09/14/harrisville/>
Review of Bryce Sait, The Indoctrination of the Wehrmacht: Nazi Ideology and the War Crimes of the German Military (Berghahn, 2019), EuropeNow, Vol. 33 (April, 2020)
Review of Raffael Scheck, French Colonial Soldiers in German Captivity during World War II (Cambridge, 2014), Focus on German Studies, Vol. 22 (2015)
HONORS, AWARDS, AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
February, 2017. Honorable Mention, Society for Military History Edward M. Coffman First Manuscript Award
May 25-28, 2016. Transatlantic Doctoral Seminar in German History, German Historical Institute, Washington, D.C.
May 2015-June 2016. Mellon-CES (Council for European Studies) Dissertation Completion Fellowship
June 2015-August 2015. Mellon-Wisconsin Summer Fellowship
Feb. 2015. Russell F. Weigley Graduate Student Travel Grant, Society for Military History
Spring, 2015. Departmental Dissertator Fellowship, UW-Madison History Department
July 21-August 1, 2014. MCAHS Summer Research Workshop, “Complicity and Collaboration: Definitions, Distinctions, and Debate,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Oct 2013-July 2014. Fellow, Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, Free University, Berlin
March 2013. Fulbright IIE Award for dissertation research in Germany (declined)
August 2012-July 2013. George L. Mosse Graduate Exchange Fellowship for study at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Summer, 2012. Dissertation Research Travel Grant, UW-Madison History Department
June 2012. German Historical Institute Summer Seminar in Archival and Paleographic Studies
Fall, 2011. Departmental Pre-Dissertator Fellowship, UW-Madison History Department
July-August 2011. German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Language Scholarship for Intensive 8-Week Language Course at Goethe-Institut, Berlin
Summer, 2009. Minnesota Association of Museums Internship Scholarship
TEACHING:
Spring, 2019. History 213: Nation and Race in Modern Europe, Furman University
Spring, 2019. History 211: Twentieth Century Germany, Furman University
Spring, 2019. History 104: Modern Europe, Furman University
Fall, 2018. History 104: Modern Europe (three sections), Furman University
Fall, 2017. History 600: Recovering America's World War II MIAs, University of Wisconsin-Madison (undergraduate capstone seminar)
Fall, 2016. History 357: The Second World War, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Spring, 2012. Teaching Assistant for History 313: Introduction to Byzantine History and Civilization, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Fall, 2010. Teaching Assistant for History 359: Europe since 1945, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Spring, 2010. Teaching Assistant for History 120: Europe and the Modern World 1815 to the Present, University of Wisconsin-Madison
SENIOR THESIS ADVISOR TO:
Samantha Zinnen, University of Wisconsin-Madison (spring 2018)
Colton Wickland, University of Wisconsin-Madison (spring 2018)
GRADING:
June, 2012. Grader for Religious Studies 271: Religion in History and Culture: The West, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Fall, 2011. Grader for Religious Studies 271: Religion in History and Culture: The West, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Summer, 2011. Grader for History 410: Modern Germany, 1871-Present, University of Wisconsin-Madison
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AND SERVICE:
September 5, 2023. First Readings Facilitator, Brown University
Summer, 2019-Spring, 2020. Society for Military History 2020 Program Committee
Fall, 2016-Fall, 2019. Review Editor for H-German
June, 2017-July, 2018. UW-Madison Recovery and Identification Project
• Helped coordinate UW’s efforts to recover the remains of MIA servicemen
Spring, 2017. Teaching Assistant in the History Lab, University of Wisconsin-Madison History Department
• Provided one-on-one tutoring to assist undergraduates with their academic writing
Spring, 2017. Project Assistant for the George Mosse Program, University of Wisconsin- Madison
Summer, 2016. Project Assistant for Prof. Leonora Neville
• Research in German, French, and English for an encyclopedia of Byzantine historians; extensive writing and editing; bibliographic management
Fall, 2015-Spring, 2016. Translation assistant (German) for Prof. Leonora Neville
Fall, 2015-May, 2017. History Department Colloquium planning committee
Spring, 2015-Fall, 2016. Volunteer Tutor for UW-Madison Greater University Tutoring Service, Conversational English and German
Spring, 2011. Archival Assistant, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison WI
Fall, 2009. Assistant to the Volunteer and Events Coordinator, Wisconsin Historical Museum
Summer, 2009. Research Intern, TRACES Center for History and Culture, St. Paul, MN
PRESENTATIONS AND INVITED TALKS:
“How Nazi was the German Soldier? Revisiting an Old Debate,” Society for Military History (April, 2024)
“Antisemitism and Self-Image in the Wehrmacht,” Western Galilee College (December 5, 2023)
Guest lecturer. “Morality, Ideology, and War on the Eastern Front,” Fascism, Then and Now, University of Wisconsin-Madison (October 24, 2023)
“Mobilizing Virtue in the Service of Barbarism,” University of Wisconsin-Madison (April 7, 2022)
“Morality, Nazi Ideology, and the Individual in the Third Reich,” The Mosse Lectures, Humboldt University, Berlin (June, 2019)
Panel Chair, “The German Army and Occupation in the Soviet Union: Between Ideology and Pragmatism,” Society for Military History, Columbus, OH (May, 2019)
Presenter, JCOTA Digital Teaching Workshop, University of Wisconsin-Madison (April 18, 2018)
Panel Chair, “Poland and the First World War,” World War 100: A Centennial Symposium, University of Wisconsin-Madison (October 28, 2017)
Guest Lecturer, “Crimes of the Wehrmacht,” History 357, University of Wisconsin-Madison (October 9, 2017)
“Discourses of Terror and Decency in the Wehrmacht,” German Studies Association Annual Conference, San Diego (October 2, 2016)
Panel Organizer, “The ‘Liberators:’ Image and Reality in the Wehrmacht’s Invasion of the Soviet Union,” 23rd International Conference of Europeanists, Philadelphia, PA, (April 16, 2016)
Panel Organizer, “Writing Home from the Eastern Front: Narration and Identity in Hitler’s Army,” 8th Annual NIU History Graduate Student Conference, DeKalb, IL (November 6, 2015)
Seminar participant, “Religion in Germany during an Era of Extreme Violence: The Churches, Religious Communities and Popular Piety, 1900-1960,” German Studies Association Annual Conference, Washington, D.C. (October, 2015)
“For God and Führer: The Third Reich’s ‘Holy War’ with the Soviet Union,” Society for Military History Annual Conference, Montgomery, AL (April, 2015)
“Justifying a War of Extermination: Toward a Moral History of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front,” 18th Annual Brian Bertoti Innovative Perspectives in History Graduate Conference, Blacksburg, VA (March, 2015)
“Conquerors in a Strange Land: German Soldiers Imagining and Encountering Civilians in the Soviet Union,” 57th Annual Missouri Conference on History, Chesterfield, MO (March, 2015)
“Holding the Hands of Dying Men: Wehrmacht Chaplains on the Eastern Front,” A Burdick-Vary lecture co-sponsored by the George L. Mosse Program in History and the Alice D. Mortenson/Petrovich Chair in Russian History, part of the “War and Intimacy” series, Institute for Research in the Humanities, UW-Madison (Dec. 11, 2014)
“Unternehmen Barbarossa als Kreuzzug: Wehrmachtssoldaten und die sowjetischen Kirchen,” Forschungskolloquium of Prof. Oliver Janz, Free University, Berlin (May 20, 2014)
PUBLIC BOOK TALKS:
Interview with Tom Thorpe, Combat Morale Podcast (July 19, 2022)
Interview with Stephen Satkiewicz, New Books Network (March 10, 2022)
https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-virtuous-wehrmacht
“The Virtuous Wehrmacht Book Launch,” chaired by Professor Chad S.A. Gibbs, comment by Professor Thomas Kühne, sponsored by George L. Mosse Program in History, UW-Madison Center for European Studies, UW-Madison History Department, Zucker/Goldberg Center for Holocaust Studies at the College of Charleston, and Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program at the College of Charleston, Virtual Event (Feb. 24, 2022)
“Morality in Wartime,” interview with Daniel Hummel, The UpWords Podcast by Upper House (February 7, 2022)
“The Virtuous Wehrmacht,” WW2TV, moderated by Paul Woodadge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cuxqtmt3Gc (Nov 18, 2021)
“Lunch and Learn,” Legal Services Corporation, Virtual Event (Nov. 16, 2021)
LANGUAGE QUALIFICATIONS:
French: 6 years formal study, including 1 semester college; reading level rated “Advanced” by UW-Madison Language Evaluation Services
German: 4 semesters college; extensive translation work for Master’s thesis and dissertation; 8-week intensive language program at Goethe-Institut Berlin in summer 2011 with a rating of “good;” passed Goethe-Institut B2 Examination July, 2011
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS (PAST AND PRESENT):
H-German
Member, German Studies Association
Member, Society for Military History
Member, Central European History Society
UW-Madison Digital Humanities Research Network
Informal Career Adviser, Carleton College