Pilant, Dr. Craig W.
cpilant@ccm.edu
Name: Craig Pilant
Academic Rank: Professor
Department: History and Political Science
School: School of Liberal Arts
Office: DH 313
Email: cpilant@ccm.edu
Education: Ph.D., M.S.Ed., MBA, Fordham University
M.A., University of Illinois at Chicago
B.A., Loyola University, Chicago
Hired: 2005
Dr. Craig Pilant is Professor of History in the Department of History and Political Science, and, since 2015, Co-Chairperson of the County College of Morris General Education Committee.
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, he has also participated in MOOC courses, most recently with the Università di Sapieza in Rome.
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 developed a course in Middle Eastern history. He was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in April 2011.
Dr. Pilant received promotion to the rank of Professor, beginning the Fall 2017. He is scheduled to go on sabbatical during the Spring of 2018. During that time, he will be working on several manuscripts based on his research topic of Orestes Brownson, the American philosopher and theologian during the first half of the 19th century.
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 as well as the Advisory Board of the Center for teaching Excellence. Recently he was appointed co-chair of the College's General Education Committee. He was the Assistant Chairperson of the Department of History and Political Science, from 2012-2014.
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 working on research for several potential projects. He gives public talks on a variety of historical and cultural subjects, both at the County College of Morris and, since Fall of 2011, for the great Horizons Project, sponsored by the Morris School District. He has also done editorial work, creating instructor manuals and testing materials for Norton Publishers.
Focusing most of his energies on teaching and course development, Professor Pilant makes time for his hobbies of classical music, art history, film, 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. Pilant 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. 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.
Since that time, Prof. Pilant has given talks on the history of Adriatic and Mediterranean ports (2013), and continued to do so during the Summers of 2014 (Norway), 2015 (the Mediterranean), and 2016 (the Baltic countries, including Russia). He is scheduled for giving talks on a cruise from Abu Dhabi to Rome, via the Suez Canal in 2018.
In January of 2011, Dr. Pilant led 21 students and several chaperones on a guided student trip to Rome, Florence, Pompeii, Paris, Versailles, and London. Spring break of 2012 found him leading another group of students to Spain, beginning in Madrid and culminating in Barcelona, with a special focus on cities in Andalucía. Subsequent trips brought his student trips to Greece and Italy (2013), and to Great Britain and Ireland (March 2014). Thirty-five travelers accompanied him on tour in March 2015, for an intensive ten-day trip from Venice to Rome, including Pisa, Siena, Florence, Ravenna, and Assisi. Large numbers of travelers also traveled to Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland in March 2016, and to Paris and Spain in March 2017.
For 2018 the annual trip for students has been moved to May of that year, with travel planned to Munich (Germany), Lucerne (Switzerland), Verona, Venice, Ravenna, Assisi, and Rome (Italy).