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STRENGTH AREAS IN USU’S GRADUATE PROGRAM FOR HISTORY
Environmental History
Environmental history examines the interrelationships between humanity and the biophysical world. The History Department at Utah State offers students a number of resources for research in environmental history. History department faculty members have research expertise in U.S., Africa and World environmental history and have supervised theses ranging from the history of wilderness conservation to the ecological history of western grasslands. Student research projects generally draw upon the university’s extensive library collections, but our students have also conducted extensive fieldwork outside the university. The History Department also offers an annual seminar in environmental history, which regularly draws students from across the campus. We encourage our students to present their work at international conferences and to publish their research in professional journals.
LINKS:
FACULTY:
Chris Conte: Africa, World and Environmental History
Lawrence Culver: US Southwest Borderlands, US West, Cultural, Environmental & Urban History
David Lewis: American Indian, Environmental, and Utah History
SOME RECENT THESES IN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY:
Sarah Fox, “‘As it turns out, there were people in all those little communities’: Downwinder Personal Narratives as History, Folklore, and Popular Epidemiology” (MS 2006).
David Vail, “‘The Thirsty Places of the Earth’: Politics, Environment, and the Contentious History of Utah’s Cache County Water District No. 1” (MA 2006).
Adam Luke, “Manufacturing the Wilderness: The Role of Local Communities, Activists, and Industry in Creating Wilderness and Public Land Policy” (MS 2007).
Lafe Conner, “Growing Wild: Crested Wheatgrass and the Landscape of Belonging” (MA 2008).
Western US Studies
The History Department at Utah State has longstanding strengths in the study of the American West. Few other history departments in the country possess as many faculty members who specialize in the history of this region. In undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as graduate research projects, students at USU can explore the cultural, environmental, labor, Native American, political, religious, and urban history of the region, as well as other aspects of its history. Utah State’s History Department is also the host institution for the Western Historical Quarterly, the official academic journal of the Western History Association and the premier journal in its field. Internships and fellowships at the WHQ offer our students hands-on experience with academic editing and publishing, and exposure to the most current research in the field. Other departments and programs at Utah State, such as American Studies, English, and Natural Resources, also contain faculty who specialize in the study of the West. USU Special Collections and Archives at Merrill-Cazier Library contain a wide variety of archival collections documenting the history of the region. They offer many opportunities for graduate research projects. Located in the geographic center of the West, within a day’s drive of several national parks and major western cities, Utah State University/Logan is an excellent location for exploring the West in person as well.
LINKS:
FACULTY:
Lawrence Culver: US Southwest Borderlands, US West, Cultural, Environmental & Urban History
Victoria Grieve: Modern American, Cultural, and Intellectual History; Art & Culture of the West
David Rich Lewis: American Indian, Environmental, and Utah History
Colleen O’Neill: American West; American Indian; Labor; Ethnic; Women & Gender
Religious Studies
The USU History Department has particular depth in the study of the history of religions. It is linked with the Religious Studies Program, which resides in the Department, and it has two endowed chairs who study the history and culture of religion. Charles Prebish, the Redd Chair in Religious Studies, is a world renowned expert on Buddhism in the West, as well a student of early Indian Buddhism. Philip Barlow, the Arrington Chair in Mormon History and Culture, is a leading expert on Mormon history, and, as co-editor of the New Historical Atlas of Religion in America, an expert on American religious history in general. USU's archival holdings make it a superb place to study the history of Mormonism. Norm Jones is a well known expert on the English Reformation, concentrating on law and religion in late Medieval and early modern Europe. Dan McInerney, an historian of nineteenth-century American culture, is a student of American religious culture in the antebellum Republic. In addition, faculty members in English, Folklore, Anthropology and other fields study religion and are often used on masters' committees. The Merrill-Cazier Library is endowed to support the study of religion, and Utah State is building a fine set of collections for the study of religion.
LINKS:
FACULTY:
Phil Barlow: Religious Studies, American Religion, Mormon History & Culture
Norm Jones: Renaissance-Reformation Europe, Tudor England, History of Christianity
Dan McInerney: American Intellectual History, 19th Century U.S.
Charles Prebish: Religious Studies, History of Buddhism
Mark
Damen designed this web site and Diane Buist is the current web master.
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