Robert Miller: The History of Warren Wilson College’s New History Professor
Eli Styles | November 1, 2023
Though he has only been working at Warren Wilson College (WWC) for a little over a year, history professor Robert Miller has made a significant impact on the student body of the college.
Miller is originally from Eugene, Ore., but he has lived and studied all over the world. He began his postsecondary education by studying physics and philosophy at the University of California Santa Barbara before changing paths a few times: first to study mechanical engineering, then religious studies and finally to literature and history. During this time he also studied at Lane County Community College, University of California Santa Cruz and abroad in Turkey.
“I think there’s kind of a huge overlap between UC Santa Cruz and [Warren Wilson],” Miller said. “UC Santa Cruz is like a bunch of little Warren Wilson’s in the woods. I lived at an anarchist collective, and I had a lot of interesting conversations which gave me a new kind of view on the world.”
After completing his undergraduate degree, Miller went on to Columbia University to study statistics. His thesis was meant to be an analysis of colorism in the United States but later he switched to studying how textbooks depicted race.
While working on his master’s degree, Miller took classes in the history department to keep his connection with literature in history. He was drawn into history and applied to study Timbuktu and how it connected to parts of the Ottoman world.
Miller wrote his doctoral dissertation on the backstory to the Armenian genocide: the way that lowland structures of power conquered and colonized upland areas, and how, in the process, they set up divide-and-rule tactics that laid the groundwork for the violence that followed.
Despite many changes in direction throughout his college career, the detail that led Miller to stick with history was the book “Ottoman-Turkish Conversation Grammar” by V.H. Hagopian.
Miller was working on learning Ottoman Turkish on his own. He became quite attached to Hagopian as he read the book and began to research him. What he found sent a chill down his spine.
“In August of 1915, some oxcarts pulled up to [Anatolia College] where V.H. Hagopian was teaching,” Miller said. “And they demanded that all the Armenians — students, faculty and staff — accompany them and be effectively taken from the college. And V.H. Hagopian had had the chance to escape earlier, but he felt it was important to accompany his students, and none of the students or faculty came back.”
This information led to Miller trying to understand what happened. He dedicated himself to listening to testimonials from survivors of the Armenian genocide and thinking about the history of racism and dehumanization that led to it. He then wrote a paper wherein he contextualized the history of the Armenian genocide in a larger history of violence in the Black Sea region.
“When we study histories of genocide, people tend to study one genocide as if it were separate from others,” Miller said. “People who are survivors of one genocide are often left with this question: Should this never happen to us, [the people], again, or should this never happen to humans, all humans, again? Some people choose the first rather than the second. And when they [do that], that is to justify all levels of violence.”
Miller said he is interested in comparative genocides and the ways in which racism and dehumanization operate to condition and allow for genocides to take place. His study of this violent history has come up in just about every class he has taught.
Before coming to WWC Miller taught at a variety of schools: Columbia University, Cornell University, Pratt Institute, Emerson College, Union College and Bilkent University in Turkey. A friend sent him the WWC job description. The community aspect caught his attention.
“I think for me, one of the most important things is feeling like I’m part of a community,” Miller said. “There’s about 1,000 people on campus. And that strikes me as, you know, I can get to know quite a few people’s names and get to know their stories.”
Miller did not set out at first to become a teacher. He wanted to become a lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center or work as a volunteer for the Peace Corps. Because both of Miller’s parents are teachers — amassing, together, a total of 70 years of teaching experience, he has always looked up to those willing to take on the job.
“I think that one of the best parts of being a professor is how much I get to learn,” Miller said. “The conversations I have with the students are amazing. I’ve learned from the conversations because education to me is simply a series of conversations where we question our own presuppositions about the world.”
Going forward, Miller hopes to be able to facilitate conversations and build trust among the community.
“I think that professors are ephemeral community organizers,” Miller said. “I think we’re there to create a space, and that requires building trust. And I think that’s the first job of professors, to learn how to create that space, at least when it comes to teaching history or topics of that nature. And the second is that I co-teach with my students, so the students have a chance to develop curriculum and pedagogy as well.”
If you are interested in learning more from Robert Miller, contact him at rmiller@warren-wilson.edu.