Hello
Steven Miller is a public historian and educator based in Chicago. He is a doctoral researcher in Human Centered Design at the School of Design at DePaul University, where his work centers on archival collection methods and their interpretation in public and institutional contexts.
Prior to DePaul, Steven pursued a PhD in history at the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, focusing on the social movements and political transformations of the 1960s and 1970s. His research examined how demonstrations and protest movements of the Vietnam War era altered public consciousness and ultimately culminated in the political crises surrounding the Nixon administration and Watergate.
During his doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota, Steven taught a freshman-level history course on 1960s United States social and political history. After transferring to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he held a fellowship in the UW–Madison archives, where he worked extensively with primary sources and contributed to collection development and access initiatives. Beyond academia, he has engaged professionally with nonprofit and institutional archives, focusing on organizational memory, preservation strategy, and the long-term stewardship of historical records.
Beyond academia, I have a passion for skateboarding, exploring hiking trails, fountain pens, urban photography, and studying Gregg shorthand. I also enjoy traveling and visiting historical sites, which adds valuable dimension to my life and work.
Courses Taught
HIST 1811 THE SIXTIES: HISTORY AND MEMORIES
This course traces the development of the 1960s and the first four years of the 1970s in United States politics and society. With a focus on civil rights, presidential politics, the Vietnam War, and a special focus on the Nixon Administration and Watergate, students in this course will learn about emerging themes of the period which culminate in the Watergate Scandal and the downfall of the Nixon Administration.
This 3 credit course was taught by Steven Miller at University of Minnesota in Fall 2023 and Spring 2024.
STUDENT REFLECTIONS
Very passionate and engaging lecturer. Was able to tell moments in history like stories rather than reading off of slides, which made this class very interesting. -S.F., 2023
Steven has been a very great lecturer for this class. He made the course more interesting than it had been before, by explaining the history with more than just reading off notes, but by talking about the events with passion making you feel as if you were at the events he was talking about. As someone who is not very familiar with history, his method of lecturing has been the most beneficial for me when it comes to understanding the material that he is teaching as he makes it both informative and very interesting to listen to. His lecturing makes me actually interested in a class that I wasn’t overall very interested in prior to the class. Overall, very great lecture. -M.R., 2023
His passion for the material shows and he makes us think critically about how different events may have impacted one another in a very creative and experimental way that gets everyone very engaged and involved. -B.L., 2023
Steven presented the material in a way that kept me engaged and I felt like I left with a good understanding of the topics we discussed. He interacted with the class and asked our opinions which I felt not only kept us engaged but helped us comprehend the material in a way that made sense as opposed to just taking in information. -K.K., 2023
I enjoyed his passion about the information and energy in prompting students to engage with it. The assignments were interesting and the grading was lenient as long as you put in effort. Overall a great experience. -S.T., 2023
LISTEN
Below is a brief excerpt from a recorded lecture delivered as part of my HIST 1811 course. This excerpt illustrates my pedagogical approach to teaching 20th-century U.S. political history. I use a modified Socratic method to promote discussion, analytical reasoning, and close engagement with historical sources and interpretations.
Dissertation
My dissertation, “Designing Interpretation: Interactive Archives and the Public Understanding of Vietnam-Era Protest and Nixonian Governance,” examines how archival records and materials are interpreted when they are presented through interactive archival systems. Focusing on documents, photographs, audio, and other primary source materials related to Vietnam War–era demonstrations and their culmination in Watergate and the downfall of the Nixon administration, the project explores how design decisions—such as selection, organization, navigation, and contextual framing—shape engagement with these records. I argue that the design of interactive archives plays a significant role in how people understand historical causality, responsibility, and institutional trust, and examines how interactive archival design mediates public engagement with politically sensitive historical records