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Topic: History

Kim Klimek

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Kimberly Klimek, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of History at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She teaches courses on the history of medieval England, medieval Europe, history of European women, medieval world, world civilizations to 1500 and women in world history.

Klimek has been teaching at MSU Denver since 2006. She received the Outstanding Women’s Award from MSU Denver’s Institute for Women’s Studies and Services in 2016. Klimek is a council member of Medieval Association of the Pacific, academic consultant for Professional Decorative Painter’s Association, member of Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association and member of Society of Medieval Feminist Scholars.

Her research interests include the intersections between gender and intellectual history, with a particular focus on women and their impact on historical writing. Klimek is also interested in mysticism, particularly as it relates to philosophical, intellectual, and gendered identities. She is currently working on projects surrounding a text in medieval world history, the use of graphic novels in history classrooms; and PTSD and medieval Crusade veterans. Klimek authored a chapter titled “War. War Never Changes: Using Popular Culture to Teach Traumatic Events” in the 2018 textbook “Leadership, Popular Culture, and Social Change.” She has also presented her work at many conferences and formal presentations around the country and in England.

Klimek received her doctorate in medieval and early modern history from University of New Mexico in 2009, a master’s in history from Colorado State University in 1997 and a bachelor’s cum laude in history and theatre from University of Colorado, Colorado Springs in 1993.

Adam Graves

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Adam J. Graves received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2007 and is an professor of philosophy at Metropolitan State College of Denver, where he teaches courses in philosophy of religion, history of philosophy, hermeneutics and phenomenology and serves as the primary advisor for the minor in Religious Studies. Dr. Graves has published on Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy of religion and has made numerous presentations in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Denmark and Russia. He is currently editing a volume on Ricoeur’s philosophy of religion (Northwestern University Press, forthcoming) and is working on a project that traces the religious sources of modern conceptions of autonomy.

Caleb Cohoe

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Caleb Cohoe studied in Princeton University’s Interdepartmental Program in Classical Philosophy, receiving his Ph.D. in philosophy in 2012. He received a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College in 2006. He has published articles on philosophy of religion, ancient philosophy, and medieval philosophy in leading journals including Phronesis, British Journal of the History of Philosophy and Faith and Philosophy. He has served as a speaker at leading universities including Oxford University, the University of Notre Dame and the University of Colorado Boulder. He has received grants for his research in the philosophy of religion from the Templeton Foundation. He is currently in his third year as an associate professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Tom Cech

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Tom Cech, M.A., is the founding director of the One World One Water Center for Urban Water Education and Stewardship at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He retired from the University in 2021. Cech’s areas of expertise include water resources management and development, water education, water history, water law and water policy.

Cech was the executive director of the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District in Greeley for nearly 29 years. He also taught undergraduate and graduate level courses on water resources at University of Northern Colorado and Colorado State University for 11 years before joining MSU Denver in 2011. Cech received the Education and Public Service award in 2016 and the Diane Hoppe Leadership award in 2018.

As an expert source, he has authored/co-authored several published books including “Principles of Water Resources: History, Development, Management and Policy,” “Introduction to Water Resources and Environmental Issues” and “Colorado Water Law for Non-Lawyers.”

Cech received a master’s in community and regional planning from University of Nebraska, Lincoln and a bachelor’s in math education from University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Shelby Balik

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Shelby M. Balik, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of History at Metropolitan State University of Denver where she teaches courses in early American history, American religious history, American slavery and social studies education. She is a former high school social studies teacher and still works with pre-service teachers and remains engaged in issues that affect public education. Her areas of expertise include American slavery, historical memory and American political Philosophy.

Balik has published in the “Journal of Church and State,” the “New England Quarterly,” the “Massachusetts Historical Review,” and the “Journal of Social History.” Her book, “Rally the Scattered Believers: Northern New England’s Religious Geography” (Indiana, 2014), won the 2014 Phi Alpha Theta Best First Book Award, and she is currently researching a book on the politics and practice of household religion in eighteenth-century North America.

Balik earned her Ph.D. and master’s in early American history and religion from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006. In addition, she also has a master’s in education from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1994.

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