Zane Elward is an Assistant Professor of History at Marian University in Indianapolis, where he is also the Chair of the Department of History and Global Studies and the Director of Undergraduate Research. He is a historian of Italy and the United States, with expertise in cultural and political studies.
Dr. Elward earned his B.A. at the University of Illinois, Chicago and his M.A. at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. He received his Ph.D. in History with a minor in Political Science from the University of Indiana, Bloomington. Prior to joining Marian University, Dr. Elward taught courses at Illinois Central College and IU, and worked as an Instructional Technologist at a number of institutions.
His research focuses on the interplay between politics, ideology, and popular culture. In Comic Fascism, published by OSU Press, Dr. Elward examined six popular Italian illustrated periodicals from the 1920s through the late 1940s, many of which heavily incorporated comics from the US. The study provides a cultural and political history of how various sociopolitical positions became entangled with the Fascist project. He is currently researching Italian efforts to utilize public relations campaigns in the US to influence American public opinion of Italy surrounding Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935.
Dr. Elward is passionate about engaging students in learning about the past and present, getting students to see themselves as scholars, and helping students to develop analytical skills and pursue their goals.
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University Service
