Associate Professor

About

  • Role:

    Faculty

  • Position:

    • Associate Professor

  • Concentration:

    • Public History and Environmental History

  • Department:

    • History

  • Education:

    • Ph.D., University of New Mexico

Biography

INTRODUCTION

I joined the faculty at CSU in the fall of 2012 when I was hired as one of the department's three Public Historians. Prior to my time at CSU, I worked in a wide range of Public History positions including at a consulting firm specializing in historic preservation and cultural resource management, as the managing editor of the New Mexico Historical Review, and as a consultant for museum and outreach projects. In addition to teaching and continuing to practice Public History, my research is in the field of Environmental History. My current manuscript project Screwing with Nature: An Environmental History of Birth Control in the United States explores the production, consumption, and disposal histories of contraceptives in the twentieth century. In addition to teaching in the history department, I serve as a Faculty Affiliate of CSU's Public Lands History Center. At the PLHC my colleagues and I work with students on a wide range of projects that further knowledge of the history of America's public lands using our expertise in environmental history historic preservation Native American history social history museum studies and cultural resource management.

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

Cultural Resource Management/Historic Preservation with Adam Thomas.

Public History with Leisl Carr Childers and Adam Thomas.

History of Women, Gender, & Sexuality with Professors Ann Little.

U.S. Environmental History with Professors Jared Orsi, Leisl Carr Childers, Michael Childers, and Doug Sheflin.

Public Lands History with faculty at the Public Lands History Center

FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS

I advise and mentor graduate students training in the Cultural Resource Management (CRM) & Historic Preservation Concentration of the Master of Arts in History program. I take 3-4 graduate students per year who want to earn an MA in the CRM&HP Concentration (program code HIST-CMHZ-MA). For Fall 2024, I will be accepting a maximum of 4 new students. I may also be interested in working with graduate students who want to complete a thesis, studying the intersections of environmental history and public history, or environmental history and gender history. Graduate students interested in working with me must email for an introductory meeting before they apply.

REGULARLY TAUGHT COURSES

HIST 373 Environmental History of Colorado at CSU's Mt. Campus (summers)

HIST 503 Methods Seminar in Historic Preservation (odd springs)
HIST 479 The Practice of Public History (every fall)
HIST 478 Heritage Resource Management (cross-listed as ANTH 478, offered even springs)
HIST 476 The History of America s National Parks
HIST 355 American Environmental History
HIST 151 U.S. History since 1877

Publications

Select Publications & Current Projects:

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Administrative History, Volume II. This project, funded by the NPS, will produce a history of the administration of the park from the 1990s to the present.

Whiskeytown National Recreation Area Administrative History. This project, funded by the NPS, will produce the park's first administrative history.

Screwing with Nature: An Environmental History of Contraceptives in the United States. This monograph explores the production, consumption, and disposal histories of common forms of birth control used during the twentieth century.

Confinement in the Land of Enchantment: Japanese Americans in New Mexico During World War II. Natl Park Service Japanese Confinement Sites Program, 2017. This project produced a publication, StoryMap, research materials, and interpretive plans. The collaborative, engaged research project won the Honorable Mention Outstanding Public History Project Award from the National Council for Public History in 2018. See my Ted Talk on the project.

Changes in Riverine Agricultural Practices at the Pueblo de Cochiti, 2012. Prepared for the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Pueblo de Cochiti and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE) Albuquerque District.

“Place, Gender, Ethnicity, and the Role of the Nation in the Lives of Northern Plains Women.” In Women on the North American Plains, ed. Renee M. Laegreid and Sandra K. Mathews, forward by Joan M. Jensen.  Texas Tech University Press: 2011.

Courses

  • HIST 479 The Practice of Public History (every fall)

    There are many career opportunities for historians who wish to work with the public in settings outside of the classroom—this course will introduce students to the range of work historians do as public historians. This course will combine field trips, discussions with guest professionals, lectures, readings, class discussions, and real-world assignments to introduce students to various types of Public History work. We will explore the theory and methods of public history, and most importantly we will practice working as public historians ourselves.

  • HIST 373 Colorado’s Environmental History

    Environmental History is the study of how humans have interacted with, shaped, and been shaped by their physical environments. Environmental historians consider the active role that nature has played in human history. This course looks at relationships among people and environments in Colorado and takes place each summer for two weeks at CSU’s Mt. Campus. Recently, students in the class produced this documentation of the Ramsey-Koenig Historic District located on the campus: https://csurams.maps.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=565dbe5baf7040ce86c150cfb1ca11bb