Department of History and American Studies

History

158 History Building, (307) 766-5101
FAX: (307) 766-5192
Web site: www.uwyo.edu/history
E-mail: uwhistory@uwyo.edu
Department Chair: Isadora Helfgott

Professor:

RENEE LAEGREID, B.A. Washington State University 1982; M.A.L.S. Wesleyan University 1994; Ph.D. University of Nebraska 2002; Professor of History 2015, 2012.

Associate Professors:

ISADORA A. HELFGOTT, B.A. Swarthmore College 1994; A.M. Harvard University 1997; Ph.D. 2006; Associate Professor of History 2015, 2009.

JEFFREY D. MEANS, B.A. Grand Canyon University 1995; M.A. University of Montana 2001; Ph.D. University of Oklahoma 2007; Associate Professor of History 2013, 2007.

Assistant Professor:

ADAM BLACKLER, B.A. Carroll College 2006; M.A. University of Wyoming 2009; Ph.D. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities 2017; Assistant Professor of History 2018.

ALEXANDRA KELLY, B.A. University of Chicago 2004; M.A. 2005; Ph.D. Stanford University 2014; Assistant Professor of History and Anthropology 2014.

BARBARA E. LOGAN, B.A. Queens College, CUNY 1986; Ph.D. University of California-Santa Cruz 2002; Assistant Professor of History 2018, 2011.

MELISSA MORRIS, B.A. Miami University 2004; M.A. Miami University 2010; Ph.D. Columbia University 2017; Assistant Professor of History 2018.

PETER WALKER, B. A. University of Oxford 2008; M. Phil. University of Oxford 2010; Ph. D. Columbia University 2016; Visiting Assistant Professor of History 2019.

Adjunct Faculty:

MICHAEL J. DEVINE, B.A. Loras College 1967; M.A. Ohio State University 1968; Ph.D. 1974; Adjunct Professor of History, 2014, 1991.

Professors Emeriti:

Eric D. Kohler, William H. Moore, Phil Roberts

History is a foundational discipline that blends the methodologies and perspective of the humanities and social sciences in order to engage with the history of human culture on a global scale. UW’s History degree program emphasizes interdisciplinary teaching and research and provides course work, research experiences, and internships on both American and international topics. The History program offers a Bachelor of Arts degree major and minor, and a Master of Arts degree.

The study of History at the University of Wyoming provides students with the tools to comprehend the present in order to prepare for the future. Challenging courses are designed to facilitate critical thinking and the development of analytical skills. Each of our courses features the discussion of complex issues, the development of writing and reading skills, and is generally oriented toward promoting individual enrichment. The professional skills that the History program instills transcend our field and allow students to work toward a variety of career choices such as business, law, government service, public history, archives and museum work, education, management, writing, and graduate studies. The ability to develop perspective, render informed judgments, and function as productive citizens of the global community stand as hallmarks of our program.

Learning Outcomes

It is the goal of the History department that our graduates have the following skills and knowledge:

Students shall be able to demonstrate thinking skills by analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating historical information from multiple sources.
Students will develop the ability to distinguish between fact and fiction while understanding that there is no one historical truth.
Students will produce well-researched written work that engages with both primary sources and the secondary literature.
Students will develop an informed familiarity with multiple cultures.
Students will employ a full range of techniques and methods used to gain historical knowledge.
Students will develop an ability to convey verbally their historical knowledge.
Students will demonstrate their understanding of cause and effect along with their knowledge of the general chronology of human experience.

History/Social Studies Education Majors

Through a cooperative agreement with the College of Education, students can now earn concurrent majors or dual degrees in history and secondary education in social studies. Interested students should inquire with the Office of Teacher Education, McWhinnie Hall, room 100.

Graduate Study

The History Department offers a Master of Arts (MA) degree.

Program Specific Admission Requirements

General Regulations

The M.A. in History requires 18 hours of undergraduate history courses as minimum preparation for admission. The rules under which the student enters remain those governing the program for the duration of the student’s continued enrollment. In accordance with university graduate regulations, students are responsible for meeting all deadlines and for fulfilling all requirements for the degree.

Application and Admissions

To be eligible for financial support in the form of a Graduate Assistantship, the Department of History must receive all materials by March 1. All other application materials must be received by the Department of History no later than May 1. The application process is now completely online. In addition to the application, applicants must upload the following documents via the UW Admissions website (www.uwyo.edu/admissions):

GRE EXAM with a score of at least 150 on the verbal reasoning section and a score of at least 141 on the quantitative reasoning section is required.
Three letters of recommendation that assess the student’s academic and research abilities.
Transcripts from all undergraduate institutions and graduate programs.
A writing sample of 10-20 pages, typically either a portion of a senior thesis or an upper-level seminar paper.
A statement of purpose of 250-500 words, explaining the applicant’s preparation, interests, and plans. Please indicate if you would like to be considered for a graduate assistantship.

Program Specific Graduate Assistantships

When applicants submit their materials to the program in History, they should indicate their wish to be considered for a Graduate Assistantship. Anyone receiving financial support must be registered as a full-time (9 hours per semester) student and must be making acceptable progress towards degree completion. Renewal of Graduate Assistantships is contingent on such progress. Support is not given for more than two academic years.

American Studies

Cooper House, (307) 766-3898
Web site: www.uwyo.edu/ams
Director: Frieda E. Knobloch

Professor:

FRIEDA E. KNOBLOCH, B.A. Cornell University 1985; Ph.D. University of Minnesota 1994; Professor of American Studies 2014, 1997.

Associate Professors:

ULRICH ADELT, Magister Artium, University of Hamburg 2000; M.A. University of Iowa 2005; Ph.D. 2008; Associate Professor of American Studies 2015, 2009.

LILIA SOTO, B.A. University of CaliforniaSan Diego 2000; M.A. University of California-Berkeley 2003; Ph.D. 2008; Associate Professor of American Studies and Latina/o Studies 2017, 2010.

Academic Professional Research Scientist

ANDREA GRAHAM, B.A. University of Pennsylvania 1978; M.A. 1980; Associate Academic Professional Research Scientist 2016, 2009.

Professors Emeriti:

John Dorst, Eric Sandeen

Adjunct Faculty:

(See Catalog section following name for academic credentials)

R. McGreggor Cawley, Political Science
Fred Chapman, public historic preservation consultant
Catherine Connolly, Gender and Women’s Studies
Colleen Denney, Art
Anthony Denzer, Architectural Engineering
Michael Harkin, Anthropology
Tammy Heise, Religious Studies
Isa Helfgott, History
Scott Henkel, English and Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research
Jeanne Holland, English
Mary Humstone, public historic preservation consultant
Michelle Jarman, Wyoming Institute for Disabilities
Mary Keller, Religious Studies
Rachel Sailor, Art

American Studies explores American cultural experience past and present, through a wide range of approaches to American lives, places, arts, knowledges, communities, institutions, histories, and ideas. American Studies is an integrative field that comes from and adds to the context of our cultural lives in the U.S. and the U.S. in the world. American Studies frames present concerns with engagement with the past; expects us to engage people’s experiences in the context of a diversity of experiences; and invites us to understand our own commitments and interests as valuable contributors to American cultural understanding. American Studies as a field depends on and adds to insights of scholars, artists, and scientists from virtually any field of expertise.

The American Studies program offers undergraduate B.A. and graduate M.A. degrees in American Studies, as well as courses of general interest to students in any degree.

Our program places special emphasis on studying American cultures through field experiences and internships: students apply academic knowledge and develop professional skills in community and non-profit organizations, historic preservation efforts and organizations, historic sites, museums and collections, among many possibilities. Every internship is developed in close consultation between the students and our Internship Coordinator, and frequently stems from a student’s general idea about where or with whom they’d like to work, in Laramie or Wyoming, in other parts of the U.S., or sometimes abroad. Our program also highlights international perspectives, as well as the transnational context of American impacts and experiences, in course work and exchanges available to American Studies students.

American Studies puts people and their plans together building career goals in K-12 education, law, or business, work in community organizations and public institutions, or further graduate-level study.

Undergraduate Major

Program Learning Outcomes

Students graduating with a B.A. in American Studies integrate study from several fields with their study in American Studies courses, in individual programs of study. The American Studies B.A. prepares students to enter graduate and profressional programs, enter education certification programs, and work in community organizations and other public professional settings. Coursework in American Studies prepares students to:

Interpret American cultural experiences and creative expressions by applying appropriate approaches to interpreting words, narratives, images, material objects, communities, built environments, cross-cultural comparison, continuities and discontinuities with the past in a range of American cultural settings.
Understand the processes of diversity in American experience including their own, through study of identity formation, performance of identity, stereotyping, cultural contact, cultural memory, and national identity.
Demonstrate critical analysis, interpretation, or insight, through effective communication primarily in writing, but also in speaking (when appropriate, performance or display may embody these qualities as well), as demonstrated in analytically coherent interpretive writing, authoritative, informed oral presentation, and well-documented, visually effective performance or display (where appropriate).
Apply American Studies methods in field-based courses and/or internships, through use of American Studies approaches and competencies in nonclassroom settings, as demonstrated in field course or internship evaluations and students’ final reports.

Internships

The internship experience is essential for students specializing in public sector American studies. The American Studies program has an active program of scholarship-supported internships that can place students in work environments in Wyoming, other parts of the U.S., or in selected foreign countries.

Exchanges

The program has established semester or academic year exchanges with universities in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark and New Zealand in order to encourage an international understanding of American culture. The Elaine Kay Clatterbuck Fund supports majors who are spending this valuable time abroad.

Financial Aid

The William Robertson Coe Fellowship supports undergraduate tuition. The LongFindeisen Fund supports individual research or exhibition projects. The Elaine K. Clatterbuck Fellowship assists students engaged in an international research or exchange. The internship program provides students with a stipend while engaged in a program-approved internship.

Teacher Education

Teacher certification in elementary or secondary (social studies) is available by arrangement with the College of Education. Students will be assigned an adviser from the College of Education, as well as from American Studies.

Graduate Study

The American Studies M.A. is an interdisciplinary professional development degree in a committed learning community that builds on students’ research interests, accomplishments, experiences, and career goals working with American cultraul contexts past and present. After the M.A., our alums seeks further professional specialization in law, education, writing, library and information science, and other fields; pursue Ph.D.s in academic careers in American Studies and other scholarly areas including ethnic studies, cultural geography, literature, religious studies, anthropology, history, ethnomusicology, among others; and work professionally in public settings, including historic preservation orgranizations, historic sites, museums, collections, and other non-profit, community or governmental organizations.

The M.A. is a 2-year program for students enrolled full-time, culminating in a major research project, either a “Plan A” thesis, or a “Plan B” non-thesis portfolio of work. We work frequently with part-time M.A. students to accommodate other demands on students’ time. We encourage the development of emergent, innovative formats and project types as valuable contributions to contemporary American studies practice, relevant to a student’s professional development plans.

Because American Studies is an international field with scholars all over the world, and the U.S. has significant impacts transnationally, M.A. Students from outside the U.S. are a regular part of our M.A. cohort, and we encourage our M.A. students to consider semester exchanges abroad. The Program also supports American Studies M.A. student and faculty participation in the annual biennial international conferences. Every two years, we welcome the winner of the British Association of American Studies’ Peter Boyle Award into the M.A. cohort.

All M.A. students complete at least 15 credit hours in American Studies courses: 2 required theory and methods courses in the Program (AMST 5500 and AMST 5510 ), and 3 graduate seminars in American Studies. The remainder of coursework - 12 credits for those completing a thesis, or 15 credits for those completing non-thesis portfolios - can be drawn from graduate-level coursework in any area of study. Most of our M.A. students complete 1-3 credit internships as part of their coursework, in public or organizational sites in Laramie, elsewhere in Wyoming or the U.S., and occasionally abroad as well. M.A. students’ paths through their programs of study are as varied as our students.

Applicants to the M.A. program do not have to have prior majors in American Studies. The American Studies program does not require the GRE in applications to our M.A. program.

Financial Aid

The American Studies M.A. is generously supported by endowment funds that allow us to award significant financial aid to M.A. students enrolled full time, through teaching, research, or community organization assistantship placements, as well as scholarship support as appropriate for students’ own M.A. research.

Program Specific Admission Requirements

A significant writing sample (usually a seminar paper or, for those coming from technical fields, a major report) that demonstrates potential for graduate study.

Program Learning Outcomes

Students graduating with an M.A. in American Studies integrate their educational backgrounds, research and professional interests, and coursework at the M.A. level inside and outside American Studies, in individual programs of study, to professionally engage American cultural production and communities in preparation for professional work or advanced graduate study. Students earning the M.A. in American Studies, either completing a thesis or pursuing the non-thesis Plan B project, are prepared to:

Interpret a variety of objects significant to the study of American cultures, including words, narratives, images, material objects, communities, built environments, identities, cross-cultural and/or international perspectives, continuities and discontinuities with the past in a range of cultural settings.
Demonstrate professional competence in writing and speaking in error-free expository prose, authoritative oral presentation, insightful use of relevant source material reflecting critical reading skill, prose style commensurate with professional responsibility, and prose content commensurate with professional responsibility.
Produce professional research for a well-defined community (scholarly, public, or an appropriate combination), by identifying and using primary sources, building approaches from a relevant matrix of secondary sources, and understanding scholarly traditions within the field of American Studies that supports, expands, and connects research to professional goals.
Make effective plans for advanced graduate study or professional employment by developing competencies listed above, including the opportunity to complete appropriate internship or field course work in an area of the student’s professional plans.