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California Indian History/History and Memory
Ph.D. Candidate
B.A., History, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; M.A., Public History, CSU Sacramento
Office: HSSB 3231 Hours:
Advisor: Mary Hancock
I believe in the following credo: Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself - and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekht (Chief Joseph), Nimiputimt (Nez Perce) (more...)
Regarding History:
I have long been disenchanted with “academic history,” a feeling shaped in large part by my undergraduate education. I found a home, however, in Sacramento State University’s public history program. They embraced my desire to study the casual ways in which people interact with the past. With the guidance of Dr. Mona Siegel and the encouragement of Dr. Lee Simpson, I began exploring the emerging field of Memory and History. My new interest in public memory, coupled with my decade-long involvement with the California Mission Studies Association, led to my master’s thesis, Recounting a Fantasy Past: Memory, History, Politics and the Interpretation of the California Missions, wherein I explored the politics of public memory and the disparity between what happened during the missions’ histories and what is now said to have happened and why.
My nearly eight years of experience with California State Parks, as both a front-line interpreter and a supervisor, gave me a unique platform to examine the process by which historical knowledge, if acknowledged at all, is changed, stripped-down and flat-out abandoned in such places as museums, parks and other historic sites; the places where, incidentally, the majority of Americans derive their conceptions of history and the past. I strongly believe that we academics must step outside of the ivory tower and share our knowledge and authority, if not with the masses, then at least with the practitioners of public history. The docents, volunteers and employees working at historic sites, with few exceptions, do not have historical training. They, however, impart information and ideas about history to more people in a single day, than most academics sell their monographs to, well, ever. For what we do to be relevant, we must talk to people outside of our small circle. We must cast a wider net!
Teaching Fields- California History
- Native American History
- United States History
- Public History
Courses Taught- History 17A: United States History to 1877 and History 17B: United States History from 1877, California State University, Sacramento, Spring 2012
- History 171: American Indian Ethnohistory, California State University, Sacramento, Fall 2011
- History 163: The City in United States History, California State University, Sacramento, Spring 2011
Teaching Assistantships- History 2B: World History, 1000 to 1800
Winter 2009, Winter 2010
- History 8: Introduction to the History of Latin America
Fall 2009
- History 17C: United States History, 1917 to Present
Spring 2009
- History 7: Great Issues in the History of Public Policy
Fall 2008
Awards- Geiger Memorial Fellowship, 2011
Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library
- UCSB History Associates Fellowship
2009
Public History Work- Chief of Museum Interpretation, Hearst San Simeon State HIstorical Monument, California State Parks
June 2012 to Present
- Museum Services Manager, California State Capitol Museum, California State Parks
December 2010 to March, 2012
- State Park Interpreter II, Interpretation and Education Division, California State Parks
April 2005 to November 2010
- Guide II, Historical Monument, Supervisor, California State Capitol Museum, California State Parks
July 2003 to April 2005
- Guide I, Historical Monument, PI, Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument, California State Parks
February 2000 to June 2003
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