Contact
Name: Craig W. Pilant, Ph.D.
Rank: Associate Professor, History and Political Science
Department: History, Political Science and Criminal Justice
Division: Liberal Arts
Member of the CCM Faculty: 2005 (Assistant Professor), 2011 (Associate Professor)
Education: B.A., Loyola University (Chicago); M.A., University of Illinois (Chicago)
M.S. Ed., M.B.A., Ph.D., Fordham University
Current Status:
During the 2012-2013 academic year, Dr. Craig Pilant is Assistant Chair of the Department of History, Political Science and Criminal Justice. This is in addition to his current teaching load, focusing on European history – especially the Ancient World and the Middle Ages. Prof. Pilant divides his course teaching between face-to-face and online teaching. Highlights of the 2012-2013 academic year will include teaching an online section of post-Civil War American history, and a spring semester course, Special Topics: Greece and Rome. This latter course will be open to all students, and especially for students who are planning to attend the March 2013 CCM trip to Greece and Italy, led by Dr. Pilant
Background:
A native of San Francisco, Professor Pilant received his bachelor’s degree (political science – major – and philosophy – minor) at Loyola University of Chicago, and subsequently attended both the University of Illinois where he obtained his Master’s in Medieval and English Reformation history, and did studies at the University of Notre Dame and at the Rome Center of Loyola University.
After a teaching stint in Austin, Texas, Dr. Pilant moved to the Bronx, where he taught high school for seven years while he was obtaining a degree in educational administration and his doctorate in historical theology. He received his doctorate in 1997, and completed his studies at Fordham with the M.B.A. in marketing and information systems.
Since that time, Dr. Pilant has worked extensively in the field of enrollment management at several local graduate institutions of higher learning. He came to the County College of Morris with the rank of Assistant Professor in 2005, focusing on early and medieval European history. Since then he has also taught honors’ division courses, as well as Early Modern and Modern European history. He has also taught the History of Russia during the spring term for several years, and is currently developing a course in Middle Eastern history. He was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in April 2011.
Since his first year at County College of Morris, Dr. Pilant has been active in online and hybrid courses, teaching all of his non-honors courses periodically throughout the academic year online. He has been appointed to a number of CCM college committees – including the Curriculum and Information Technologies Committees – and has been a member of College Council since 2008. He has recently been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Center for Teaching Excellence.
Over the years Professor Pilant has had memberships in several professional societies, including the American Academy of Religion, the American Catholic Historical Society, and the National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals. He has published several articles for edited essay collections, book reviews, and is currently preparing his dissertation for publication.
Focusing most of his energies on teaching and course development, Professor Pilant makes time for his hobbies of downhill skiing, daily walks, classical music and reading. He is also an avid traveler, having spent part of his college senior year in Rome.
Travels and Talks:
Since coming to CCM, he has made two trips to Alaska, several to Canada, and four trips to the Caribbean and Central America. In July 2009, Professor Pilant voyaged to the Baltic region of northern Europe, visiting Saint Petersburg, Tallinn (Estonia), and the Scandinavian capitals. In 2010 he travelled to Central America, this time traversing the Panama Canal. In July 2010 he travelled to Beijing, and subsequently to the Western Mediterranean.
In July of 2011, Professor Pilant successfully delivered a series of five extended talks as a destination lecturer on the Celebrity Equinox, on a round trip from Rome to Istanbul. During the first half of July 2012, Dr. Craig Pilant of the History, Political Science and Criminal Justice Department successfully delivered a series of six extended talks as a destination lecturer on the RCI Independence of the Seas, during a voyage from Southampton, England to Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy and back. Other ports included Gibraltar, Cadiz and Vigo (Spain), Lisbon (Portugal), Toulon and Ajaccio (France) and Livorno (Florence) in Italy. His topics ranged from the murder of a Medici prince in the Cathedral of Florence, to unusual stories and sites in Rome, as well as the history of Gibraltar and the late career of artist Vincent van Gogh in Provence. Prof. Pilant plans on another such lecture cruise next year during the Summer of 2013.
He is currently preparing notes for beginning a monograph on five great churches of Europe, including Saint Peter's (Rome), Sagrada Familia (Barcelona), Hagia Sophia (Istanbul), Notre Dame (Paris), and Saint Paul's (London).