Instructor Biography

Allen Hauser
Allen Hauser has been teaching US History courses for PSU Independent Study since the fall of 1995.

He has also taught a wide array of history courses at a number of different colleges and universities including Portland State University. Among the history courses he has taught are World Civilizations, Western Civilization, Europe since the Renaissance, 19th Century Germany, Modern Germany, World War I, World War II, and US History.

Allen is a Northwest Native and has studied a diverse array of historical topics while at Linfield College, Portland State University and The University of Chicago. His research interests have ranged across fields as diverse as the career of Senator Charles McNary of Oregon, the art and culture of Habsburg Vienna, the rise of Wahabism and the House of Saud in Arabia, the Protestant Reformation, and the rise of Nationalism. Still, these remain a mere sampling of the diversity of his research interests rather than an all-inclusive list. For Allen, human history is a multi-faceted and complex enigma and it is our task to try to puzzle out its many and varied mysteries concerning who we are and how our world came to be as it is.

Allen works at the Portland State Library, providing research assistance to students, staff and faculty at the Reference Desk. Over the years he has been an active volunteer within Portland Public Schools, providing anything from general classroom assistance to teaching on specialized topics such as how to make origami boxes or the meaning of heraldry. Of late, his free-time interests include bird-watching and genealogy.