Michael J. Halvorson

Benson Family Chair in Business and Economic History

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Michael J. Halvorson

Phone: 253-535-8258

Email: halvormj@plu.edu

Office Location: Xavier Hall - 116

Status:On Sabbatical

Website: https://www.plu.edu/business-economic-history-program/

Curriculum Vitae: View my CV

  • Professional
  • Biography

Additional Titles/Roles

  • Professor of History

Education

  • Ph.D., History, University of Washington, 2001
  • M.A., History, University of Washington, 1996
  • B.A., Computer Science, Pacific Lutheran University, 1985

Areas of Emphasis or Expertise

  • Business and Economic History
  • Innovation / Public interest technology
  • History of Computing (Personal Computers)
  • Software Development / Windows Programming
  • Early Modern Europe / Reformation Germany / Lutheranism
  • Tudor England (study abroad)

Books

  • Abstractions and Embodiments: New Histories of Computing and Society, edited by Janet Abbate and Stephanie Dick. (Chapter 9- "The Help Desk: Changing Images of Product Support in Personal Computing, 1975–1990," Johns Hopkins, 2022) : View Book
  • Code Nation: Personal Computing and the Learn to Program Movement in America (ACM Books 2020) : View Book
  • The Renaissance: All That Matters (McGraw-Hill 2015) : View Book
  • Microsoft Visual Basic 2013 Step by Step (Microsoft Press 2013) : View Book
  • Heinrich Heshusius and Confessional Polemic in Early Lutheran Orthodoxy (Ashgate 2010) : View Book
  • Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 Step by Step (Microsoft Press 2010) : View Book
  • Defining Community in Early Modern Europe (Ashgate 2008) : View Book
  • A Lutheran Vocation: Philip A. Nordquist and the Study of History at Pacific Lutheran University co-edited with Robert P. Ericksen (PLU Press 2005) : View Book
  • Lo-ha-ra-no (The Water Spring): Missionary Tales from Madagascar edited by Michael James Halvorson (Warren & Howe Press 2003) : View Book
  • Running Microsoft Office 2000 Professional, with Michael J. Young (Microsoft Press 2001) : View Book

Biography

Michael Halvorson teaches business and economic history courses in the Department of History at PLU, as well as classes on innovation and the history of technology. His most recent books are This Little World: A How-to Guide for Social Innovators (2024), co-authored with Shelly Cano Kurtz, and Code Nation: Personal Computing and the Learn to Program Movement in America (2020). Both projects offer a “behind-the-scenes” look at digital transformation in American society and its potential for positive social change.

Prof. Halvorson is also interested in oral history and its use in preserving the memories and contributions of technology workers and organizations. He is currently working with Microsoft as a senior oral historian to record the memories of its alumni as the company approaches its 50th anniversary (1975-2025). A sample of his scholarship in this area is “The Help Desk: Changing Images of Product Support in Personal Computing, 1975-1990,” published in Abstractions and Embodiments: New Histories of Computing and Society, edited by Janet Abbate and Stephanie Dick (Johns Hopkins, 2022).

PLU’s Innovation Studies program was co-founded by Prof. Halvorson in 2017 to cultivate innovative thinking across campus and engage with community partners that use academic resources and innovative technology for the public good. Halvorson teaches in the program and served as its inaugural director from 2017 to 2024.

Michael Halvorson’s research bibliography is available at: