Faculty Profile
Karl Qualls
Professor of History; W. Gibbs McKenney Chair in International Education (2000)
Contact Information
Denny Hall
717-245-1774
Bio
Karl's teaching interests include Russian and German history, the Holocaust, comparative revolutions (political, social, and cultural), dictators, urban history, refugees, childhood, and more. His new book "Stalin's Ninos: Educating Spanish Civil War Refugee Children in the Soviet Union, 1937-51" (Toronto, 2020) examines refugee children of the Spanish Civil War who were raised in the Soviet Union and the special boarding schools designed for them and the educational methods used to develop the children into Hispano-Soviets. His previous book "From Ruins to Reconstruction: Urban Identity in Soviet Sevastopol after World War II" (Cornell, 2009) is now available in a free Ukrainian-language edition at https://www.academicstudiespress.com/9798887196992/. It challenges notions of totalitarianism, investigates the creation of historical myths, and outlines the role of monuments and urban space and identity formation in a city torn between Ukraine and Russia. It further helps us understand why Russians who have occupied the city since 2014 believe that it is a "Russian" city. These and other publication have been supported by grants from the J. Paul Getty Foundation, Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, Library of Congress, American Council of Learned Societies, National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, and the International Research and Exchange Board, among others. You can find a review of Stalin's Ninos at https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/127/3/1466/6850944
Education
- B.A., University of Missouri at Columbia, 1993
- Ph.D., Georgetown University, 1998
Awards
- Ganoe Award for Inspirational Teaching, 2003-04
2026-2027 Academic Year
Fall 2026
FYSM 100 First-Year Seminar
The First-Year Seminar (FYS) introduces students to Dickinson as a "community of inquiry" by developing habits of mind essential to liberal learning. Through the study of a compelling issue or broad topic chosen by their faculty member, students will:
- Critically analyze information and ideas
- Examine issues from multiple perspectives
- Discuss, debate and defend ideas, including one's own views, with clarity and reason
- Develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information, and
- Create clear academic writing
The small group seminar format of this course promotes discussion and interaction among students and their professor. In addition, the professor serves as students' initial academic advisor. This course does not duplicate in content any other course in the curriculum and may not be used to fulfill any other graduation requirement.
RUSS 260 Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini
Cross-listed with HIST 375-01 and GRMN 275-01. Contrary to the hope of contemporaries, World War I was not "the war to end all wars." Instead, at its end Europe emerged into a world of unprecedented turmoil and confusion, a time that was nonetheless permeated with hope, idealism, and possibility. This course explores European politics, society, gender, economics, and culture between 1918 and 1945, focusing on the extreme developments in Germany, Russia, and Italy during this time. We will examine the emergence, development, form, and consequences of the rule of Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini while also comparing to executive state expansion under FDR. Students will learn to think about modern state practices rather than lumping countries into unhelpful and inaccurate categories like "totalitarian.
GRMN 275 Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini
Cross-listed with HIST 375-01 and RUSS 260-01.
HIST 375 Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini
Cross-listed with GRMN 275-01 and RUSS 260-01. Course taught in English.
Spring 2027
HIST 254 Revolut/War/Daily Life Mod Rus
Cross-listed with RUSS 254-01.
RUSS 254 Revolut/War/Daily Life Mod Rus
Cross-listed with HIST 254-01.
GRMN 276 The Holocaust
Cross-listed with HIST 376-01 and JDST 316-01.
JDST 316 The Holocaust
Cross-listed with GRMN 276-01 and HIST 376-01.
The course explores the causes of the Shoah/Holocaust, including anti-Semitism, the eugenics movement, the growth of the modern state, and the effects of war. Themes will also explore perpetrator motivation, gendered responses, bystanders and rescuers, and the place of the Holocaust among other genocides. Students will approach the Holocaust through its historiography, which will equip them to interpret facts and understand how and why scholars have shifted interpretations over time.
HIST 376 The Holocaust
Cross-listed with JDST 316-01 and GRMN 276-01.