Daniel W. Bjork, Professor
(210) 436-3704, dbjork@stmarytx.edu, Chaminade Tower, Rm. 501

Ph.D. Oklahoma, 1973
M.A. Toledo, 1964
B.Ed. Toledo, 1963

Daniel Bjork is a native of Milwaukee, Wis. He specializes in United States intellectual and cultural history. Before coming to St. Mary's in 1991, Bjork taught at Southeast Missouri University, the University of Alabama in Birmingham and the University Detroit-Mercy. He offers courses in various periods of United States history including American Revolution, the Age of Jackson, the Civil War, and United States intellectual history and biography. Bjork is currently the faculty advisor for the St. Mary’s Chapter of the Phi Alpha Theta national history honor society, as well as the History Club.

Gary H. Gordon Professor
(210) 436-3313, ggordan@stmarytx.edu, Chaminade Tower, Rm. 506

Ph.D., Iowa, 1972
M.A., Iowa, 1965
B.A., Upper Iowa, 1963

Gary Gordon is a native of Iowa. He specializes in modern Europe and teaches courses on Contemporary and Medieval Europe, Russia and the former Soviet Union, history of the Balkans, and military history. His doctoral dissertation examined the Soviet partisan movement during the Second World War. Gordon is fond of international travel which he does most every summer and Christmas break and is well known in the classroom for his colorful travel stories and personal experiences with world cultures.

Gerald E. Poyo, Professor and Department Chair
(210) 436-3703, gpoyo@stmarytx.edu, Chaminade Tower, Rm. 504

Ph.D., Florida, 1983
M.A., Texas (Austin), 1975
B.A., South Carolina, 1972

Born in New Jersey, Gerald E. Poyo grew up in Bogotá, Colombia; Caracas, Venezuela; and Buenos Aires, Argentina. As a graduate student he studied Latin American and U.S. Latino history. He worked as a research associate and curator at the University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio before taking a faculty position at Florida International University in Miami in 1990. From 1992-1996 he occupied the O’Connor Chair in the Study of Spanish Colonial Texas and the Southwest at St. Mary’s University and then accepted a position in the Department of History. Poyo is currently Chair of the History Department and teaches courses in colonial and modern Latin American history as well as U.S. ethnic and immigration history and the history of Latino communities in the United States.

Teresa Van Hoy, Assistant Professor
(210) 436-3608, tvanhoy@stmarytx.edu, Chaminade Tower, Rm. 504

Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 2000
M.A., Wesleyan University, 1991
B.A., Wesleyan University, 1983

Teresa Van Hoy is Assistant Professor of History. She is a native of North Carolina. After finishing her doctoral degree at University of Texas at Austin, Van Hoy accepted a position at University of Houston-Clear Lake where she attained the rank of Associate Professor and served two terms as Chair of Women’s Studies. She came to St. Mary’s in August 2007 where she teaches courses in modern U.S. history, history of women, and Texas history, among others. Van Hoy is accomplished in the use of technology in her teaching. During Summer 2007 she won a national competition sponsored by Blackboard, Inc. for her on-line course design. Long-committed to activism in the Latino/a community, she founded and directs “San Antonio Students Stand and Deliver,” an educational enrichment program now hosted at St. Mary’s University. She also works with “Latinas for a Cure” to focus attention on the disparity of breast cancer mortality suffered by women of color. Van Hoy created a website (http://courses.cl.uh.edu/womenstudies/) that features two podcasts — a lecture at Beijing Women’s University on the race politics of breast cancer and another from the Blackboard course.