Erik Huneke, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
About
Erik G. Huneke is an Assistant Professor of History in the Department of History and Geography at the University of Central Oklahoma. He earned a Ph.D. in history at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Before arriving at the University of Central Oklahoma, he was the David H. Burton Postdoctoral Fellow at Saint Joseph’s University and a visiting instructor at Kalamazoo College.
As the advisor of the Rho Lambda chapter of the Phi Alpha Theta history honor society, Huneke co-organized the 2018 Phi Alpha Theta/Oklahoma Association of Professional Historians Conference at the University of Central Oklahoma. He also serves as the director of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Minor and the Russian Studies Minor.
Classes Taught
HIST 1013: World History I
HIST 1023: World History II
HIST 1263: Modern Europe
HIST 3113: Historical Research
HIST 3123: Race, Class, Gender
HIST 3263: Intersectionality and Feminism
HIST 4103/5103: Europe, 1919 to 1945
HIST 4133/5910: Europe since 1945
HIST 4343/5343: Russian History since 1917
HIST 4773/5773: Modern Germany History
HIST 4910/5910: Disability Studies in Historical Perspective
HIST 4910/5910: Nazi Germany and Global Fascism
HIST 4910/5910: The Beatles and Beyond
HIST 5033: Global LGBTQ+ History
Education and Certifications
Ph.D. in History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Dissertation Title: “Morality, Law, and the Socialist Sexual Self in the German Democratic Republic, 1945-1972”
B.A. in History with High Honors, Swarthmore College
Elected to Phi Beta Kappa
Office Hours
Fall 2020 Office Hours
Monday and Wednesday, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Tuesday, 3:30-5:30 p.m.
Research, Published Work, and Scholarly Activities
Huneke’s research focuses on legal, scientific, and societal conceptions of sexual morality in East and West Germany since the end of the Second World War. He is working on a book manuscript titled The Cold War Sexual Imaginary: Reform and Reaction in a Divided Germany. He published “Sex, Sentiment, and Socialism: Relationship Counseling in the GDR in the Wake of the 1965 Family Law Code,” in After The History of Sexuality: German Genealogies With and Beyond Foucault (edited by Scott Spector, Helmut Puff, and Dagmar Herzog). He has delivered lectures and conference papers at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting, the German Studies Association Conference, the European Social Science History Conference (Valencia, Spain), Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic), L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales (Paris, France), the Free University of Berlin, the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., Swarthmore College, the University of Michigan, Saint Joseph’s University, the University of Oklahoma, Wichita State University, and the University of Central Oklahoma.
Teaching Philosophy
In his teaching, Huneke makes use of mock trials, debates, games, video projects, and interactive lectures to convey that the study of history can best be understood as a multivocal and ever-changing matrix of perspectives created by historical actors and students of history alike. He has served on the committees for numerous master’s theses and is always eager to work with undergraduate and graduate students in pursuing innovative historical projects.
The views expressed by UCO faculty and staff on their personal websites and social media pages do not necessarily reflect the positions of the University of Central Oklahoma. UCO faculty and staff are advised to follow the university’s social media guidelines and are expected to conduct themselves in accordance with policies outlined in UCO’s Employee Handbook and/or Faculty Handbook.