Professor
Department of History
Weber State University
1299 Edvalson St.
Ogden, UT  84408-1205
Office: 801-626-6706
vikkideakin@weber.edu

Education

Ph.D. in History; University of Missouri-Columbia, August 2002
            --supervised by Dr. John L. Bullion 

M.A. in History; University of Missouri-Columbia, May 1996
            --thesis entitled “The Origins of the Religious Beliefs of Thomas Paine”

B.A. in History; University of Missouri-Columbia, December 1993

Teaching

Teaching Experience

Weber State University, 2005-present

Assistant Professor of History, Middle Tennessee State University, 2002-2005

Teaching Fellow, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999-2000.

Adjunct Faculty Instructor, Columbia College, Jefferson City, MO.  October 1998-1999.

Courses Taught

HIST 1700 – American Civilization (every semester)
HIST 2700 – U.S. History to Reconstruction
HIST 2710 – U.S. History since Reconstruction
HIST 3210 – U.S. Constitutional History (annually)
HIST 3250 – Religion in American History (biennually)
HIST 3030 – African American History (biennually)
HIST 4010 – Colonial America (biennually)
HIST 4020 – The American Revolution (biennually)
HIST 1985 – Historical Methods
HIST 4990 – Senior Seminar (capstone course)

Courses I have taught online:
HIST 1700
HIST 2710
HIST 3030
HIST 3210
HIST 3250
HIST 4010
HIST 4985
HIST 4990

Courses I have created:
HIST 3220 – History of the Bill of Rights
HIST 4015 – The Atlantic World
HIST 1600 (AI) – American History: The Black Experience

Courses I have co-created:
HIST 1610 (AI) – American History: The Latinx Experience
HIST 1620 (AI) – American History: The LGBTQ Experience

Scholarship

Publications

In Process: Our Mighty Dream online textbook, published by Great River Learning (Under Contract)

(as Vikki J. Deakin) In Liberating Strife: An American History Reader (Cognella Academic Publishing, 2016)

(as Vikki J. Vickers) My Pen and My Soul Have Ever Gone Together: Thomas Paine and the American Revolution (Routledge Press), November 2005. Now available in paperback through Routledge Paperbacks Direct.

Interviews

Interview, “Tom Paine, Warts and All,” by Bill Triplett, Wall Street Journal August 27, 2009

Service

Faculty Advisor for Phi Alpha Theta (National History Honors Society), Weber State University
            --accompanied the Phi Alpha Theta College Bowl team to the Regional competition in Tuscon, Arizona, February 23-25, 2006

Faculty Advisor for Delta Sigma Nu (African-American Students’ Honor Society), Weber State University

Major Fair, WSU

Weber State University History Fair, 2006

Holocaust Commemoration Committee, WSU

National and International Conferences and Presentations (since 2005)

Program Chair, Conference c0-organizer, and presenter, 31st Annual Front Range Early American Consortium Conference, Boise, ID, October 2017. Roundtable entitled “The Sussex Declaration.” I presented on the possibility of Thomas Paine being the way that the Sussex Declaration made it to England from America.

Hosted and presented at the 26th Annual Front Range Early American Consortium Conference, Ogden, UT, October 2012. Paper titled “A Man without a Country: Thomas Paine and the Problem of Citizenship in the 18th century”

Member Coordinating Committee, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture (OIEAHC) annual meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 2009.

“Thomas Paine and the Intellectual History of the Founding,” OIEAHC, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 12, 2009.

“The Long Eighteenth Century through Thomas Paine’s Looking Glass: Whither Intellectual History?” Front Range Early American Consortium, University of Arizona, October 10-11, 2008

Invited Participant, Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh (Scotland) conference on “Transatlantic Ideas of the American Founding,” March 2008. I gave a paper entitled “The Long Eighteenth Century through Thomas Paine’s Looking Glass.”

Planning Committee and Panel Moderator, Society of Military History Conference, Weber State University, April 2008.

Moderator, Thomas Paine Symposium, San Diego State University, October 21-22, 2005.

State and Local Conferences and Papers

“The Greatest Empire: The United States or Great Britain? A Debate between Stephen Francis and Vikki Vickers,” March 30, 2009, Weber State University.

“The Obama Presidency: A Turning Point?” Utah Democracy Project, Utah Valley University, February 10, 2009

“Thomas Paine’s Vision for a New Nation,” Monthly Ethics Forum, Great Thinkers in the History of Democracy, Utah Valley University, November 6, 2008.

Member and Participant, Front Range Early American Consortium annual meeting, Denver, Colorado, October 19-20, 2007 Salt Lake City, Utah, October 13-14, 2006.

Panel Moderator, “Cultural Clashes in History,” Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference, Westminster College, April 2007.

Panel Moderator, “The Cold War in U.S. History,” Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference, University of Utah, April 22, 2006.

“’My Pen and My Soul Have Ever Gone Together’: Thomas Paine and the American Revolution.” Weber State University, November 10, 2005

“One God and No More:” The Strange Mission of Thomas Paine.” Weber Historical Society, October 17, 2005.

Professional Memberships

Rocky Mountain Seminar in Early American History (since 2005)

• the RMSEAH has hosted Early American scholars like Christopher Grasso, Kathleen DuVal, Peter C. Mancall, and Jon Sensbach. Visiting scholars discuss current projects with Early American scholars from northern Utah universities.

Front Range Early American Consortium (since 2005)

• The Consortium brings together Early American scholars from universities in Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and Arizona to present papers, manuscript projects, and to discuss pedagogy. Members include Gloria Main (principal founder), Peter Wood, Benjamin Irvin, and Fred Anderson.

Service

Weber State University (2005-present)

Department:

Designed the curriculum for a new course, History 4985 (Historical Methods)

Faculty Advisor, Phi Alpha Theta (2005-2008)

Faculty Advisor, History Club (2006-2008)

• I founded the History Club so students who did not have the GPA requirements to join Phi Alpha Theta would still have an extracurricular History outlet at WSU.

Creator and Chair of the Library Committee for the Department of History Library

Graduate School Advisor (Informally)

• I have conducted seminars, and put together a comprehensive packet (“Graduate School Information Packet”) with information on everything from the job market to financial aid. It is now standard to give out a copy of this packet to all new History, History Teaching, Social Science Composite, and Social Science Composite Teaching Majors in our department.

History 3000

• I was instrumental in persuading my colleagues that History 3000 (Historical Methods) should be a prerequisite for History 4990 (Senior Seminar). All majors are required to write a Senior Thesis, but too many did not have the necessary research and writing skills to do that. History 3000 as a required course has led to a more prepared student body and better quality theses.
• I also designed a Research Exam for my History 3000 courses that requires students to demonstrate proficiency in research methods and techniques. It has been adopted by other colleagues who also teach 3000.

BS/ BA

• Upon discovering that very few institutions (including Utah) offer a Bachelor of Science in History, I produced a full report to provoke discussion among my colleagues about whether or not our department should continue to offer the BS. (I do not believe a Bachelor of Science is the appropriate degree for History majors because I think foreign language training is essential for a multitude of reasons.) The department officially endorsed a plan to push the BA track for any student considering graduate study in History.

Speaker Organizer

• Women’s History Month, March 24, 2008, Carole Levin ("The Heart and Stomach of a King": Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power)
• Black History Month, February 27, 2008, Fred Knight, Colorado State University, “Environmentalism and the Atlantic Slave Trade”
• Bobby Seale, February 2007 – I organized a “Breakfast with Bobby Seale” for my students in my African American History class and 30 other invited students and guests

College

Chair, Online Standards Committee

• Our committee was charged with being the first on campus to design a Best Practices Policy for Online Teaching for a college

University

Faculty Senate Executive Committee, 2012-2013

Faculty Senate, 3 year term ending Spring 2012-2014

Chair, Athletic Equity Committee, Fall 2008-2011

College Representative, Admissions, Standards, and Student Affairs Committee, 2008-2009

Member, 2006-2009

Diversity Committees:

• College Participation Committee
• Outreach Coordinating Committee
• Co-Team Leader, Mentoring and Tutoring

Member, Holocaust Commemoration Committee, 2005-2008

Faculty Advisor, Delta Psi Nu (WSU African-American Honors Society)

Judging Organizer, WSU History Fair (National History Day regional competition)

“The Spirit of 1776 and the Making of the Constitution,” Constitution Week, Weber State University, September 16, 2009

Martin Luther King, Jr. Colloquium, The King Legacy: Past Actions, Present Results, Future Hopes, January 19, 2009

“The Visionary Leader,” Academy of Leadership, August 13, 2008 (Midway, Utah)

Facilitator, Diversity Conference, “Democracy or Oligarchy? Diversity and Political Participation,” October 2007

“The Black Panther Party in Utah,” Social Work Club Lunch and Learn, Fall 2007.

“Comparing Iraq and Vietnam,” Honors Program Food for Thought Lecture Series, November 2007.

Community

Lecturer, History Alliance (2005 to the present)

• An evening lecture program for secondary public school History teachers in the Ogden area.

Lecturer, Weber County Teaching American History Grant

Lecturer, Davis County Teaching American History Grant

Lecturer, Tooele County Teaching American History Grant

Facilitator, Brigham City Library Reading Discussion Series, 2006-2009 and 2021.

“Successful Career Women Speakers,” WSU-Davis Campus, January 2008.

Profiled in the Ogden newspaper The Standard-Examiner (“Weber State professor Vikki Vickers on her history”) June 2007

Lecturer, Cache County Teaching American History Grant, Summer and Fall 2007.

Middle Tennessee State University (2002-2005)

Advisory Board member, “Teaching American History” Grant (Cumberland Valley Consortium), Middle Tennessee State University, 2002-2005

Coordinator, National History Day Regional Competition, MTSU Spring 2003

Judging Coordinator, National History Day Regional Competition, MTSU, Spring 2004 and 2005

Other Professional Activities

Invited Participant, American Board for the Certification of Teacher Excellence (Washington, D.C.), January 2007

Study Abroad, Missouri London Program, Fall Semester 1992