Profile
Dr. Michael Novakwas conceived in the afterglow of the Indians’ last World Series Championship and born among the Czechs, Slovenians and Hungarians of east Cleveland. The third child of second generation immigrants, he was the last member of his family to learn accordion and the first to complete high school. Transcripts indicate that he attended Denison University from 1968-1972, receiving an A.B. in History. He then spent seven years studying and teaching at Harvard University, finally exiting in 1979 with a PhD in European Intellectual History and an abiding attachment to Boston sports teams. He then joined his wife Martha Gagliano in North Carolina, and taught for seven years at NCSU while she completed her medical training in Pediatrics at Duke University. In 1986 he had the good fortune to begin teaching at Meredith College, from which institution he expects to be carried out feet first. His special teaching interests are Medieval, Renaissance and Reformation Europe, Western Civilization, Eastern Europe and the 20th Century World. For recreation he attempts tennis and squash, plays Irish string band music and exchanges practical jokes with his son, Matthew born in 1993.
Academic Credentials
PhD, Harvard University, 1979
AM, Harvard University, 1974;
AB, Denison University, 1972
Research
The Radical Reformation in Europe, 1530-1660.Awards
Meredith Award for Teaching, 1993, 1999
