Happy Thanksgiving! As we approach the final weeks of the semester, I’m pleased to update you on all of the action at the University of Montana History Department. The unstated theme of this fall has very much been “reentry,” and it’s been nothing short of amazing. With masks on for safety, faculty and students have enthusiastically returned to in-person education after a challenging year in which distance dominated. My colleagues and I couldn’t be more thankful to again be in actual classrooms with our students, who continue to inspire us with their enthusiasm and insight. We also feel lucky to have been able to hold numerous public events. |
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Already this semester, the history community has gathered at a memorial celebrating the life and work of our fallen comrade, Professor Robert H. Greene. We’ve also hosted the Pulitzer-prize-winning historian Dr. Alan Taylor, who delivered our annual Swanberg Lecture in Military History. Along with our friends at the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, we brought Sam Mihara to campus in early October to talk about his experiences as a Japanese American interned at Heart Mountain during World War II. Partnering with the UM Humanities Institute, we also sponsored Dr. Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh’s compelling presentation about racial justice and the history of slavery. In the meantime, our Lockridge Workshop series has returned to what it’s long been – a thriving space for intellectual exchange for our faculty and graduate students. Our undergraduate student organization – the UM History Society – has held several events that delightfully bridge the social and intellectual. Most recently, students screened and discussed a new documentary, "My Name is Pauli Murray". I could go on, but in short, it’s been a remarkably active semester, and it’s been heartwarming to see in-person intellectual vibrancy return to campus with such vigor. We’re eager for this to continue in 2022, so please stay tuned. On behalf of my colleagues, please have a wonderful – and wonderfully celebratory – holiday season. We thank you for your continued support of UM History. |
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Professors Tobiin Miller Shearer, Kelly Dixon, Scott Arcenas, Gillian Glaes, Kyle Volk, Ashby Kinch and Kathryn Shanley, the team that garnered a nearly half-million-dollar grant to support the humanities at UM, pose in front of Main Hall. |
In the space of only two weeks, after a long and exhausting semester, members of the History Department helped spearhead an effort to garner a half-million dollar grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the American Rescue Plan legislation. Along with a talented interdisciplinary team, History faculty crafted a grant proposal focused on “making the humanities public in Montana.” Kyle Volk, department chair, explains: “This grant will bolster our ongoing effort to make history – and the humanities writ large – public: to bring research and programming on campus to the wider western Montana community and to involve that wider community in our scholarly work." Led by Principal Investigator Tobin Miller Shearer, the team designed a multi-phased initiative that emphasized bringing resources from humanities classes and programs to the broader public. Assistant Professor Scott Arcenas provided an overall intellectual framework for the proposal and provided deft editing input. Humanities Institute Director and Visiting Associate Professor of History Gillian Glaes, serving as co-PI, brought significant logistical and organizing resources to the effort while also designing a Racial Justice Speaker Series. And History Department Chair Kyle Volk, who also serves as a co-PI, wove together a set of initiatives described below to strengthen the department’s growing public history program. |
"This grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities will be transformative for the humanities at UM.” - Gillian Glaes, Director, Humanities Institute.
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Following news of the grant being awarded in early October, the entire team began the work of implementation. Professor Ashby Kinch of the English Department will organize an extensive series of speakers, movies and events reflecting on death in a time of COVID. Professor Kathryn Shanley of the Native American Studies Department and Professor Kelly Dixon from anthropology have partnered to develop a speaker series entitled, “Indigenous Knowledge for the 21st Century: Native Humanism at the Center.” The Humanities Institute will also sponsor a “Summer Humanities Institute,” a one-week program designed to introduce “humanities-curious” high school students to the experience of collegiate-level humanities course work, to be led and organized by History Professor Claire Arcenas. Gillian Glaes reflects: "This grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will be transformative for the humanities at UM. The funding will support important initiatives across several different departments, from Native American Studies and anthropology to English and history while providing substantial support for the Humanities Institute. I look forward to working with this group over the next year and I'm excited for all of the amazing developments to come." |
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The Covid-19 pandemic will be one of the most important historical events of the 21st century. Happily, this fall, the Missoula County government received CARES Act funding for the creation of a public archive and oral history collection about the experience of Covid-19 in the Missoula area. The archive will draw on materials from businesses, local government, nonprofits and other organizations around Missoula. The county has hired Leif Fredrickson to direct the project, and Leif has hired history major Madeline Hagan as his assistant. They will reach out to local organizations to survey what they have been collecting (or could collect), and if they are interested in sharing documents with this project. The actual archiving and cataloguing of materials will be done by the Archives and Special Collections at the Mansfield Library, which received money from this grant to purchase a subscription to Preservica, a digital preservation software tool. In addition, Leif will conduct oral history interviews with local policy makers, businesses, nonprofits, workers and other people. Eventually, most of these documents and oral histories will be available to the public through a digital portal at the Archives. The goal is to create a collection of documents and interviews that record how organizations and individuals in Missoula perceived the pandemic, experienced it and responded to it over time. The collection will serve both Missoulians and researchers who seek to understand and explain this monumental event. The project builds on an initiative launched in early 2020 by County Commissioner Dave Strohmaier (a former professional historian), the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, the UM History Department, the Mansfield Library, the Missoula Downtown Partnership, and many other local groups. That was a volunteer effort, but this summer, Commissioner Strohmaier spearheaded funding from the County to formally and professionally collect materials. The collection also will complement local Covid-19 projects already begun or completed, including digital submission platform administered by the Mansfield Archives, an oral history project conducted by the history department in 2020, and the NEH projects mentioned [somewhere else in the newsletter]. While many communities are documenting Covid in various ways, Missoula is likely to have one of the most robust and best preserved collections on the pandemic. |
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History enthusiasts gather on an eerie evening for the new “Screams and Spirits” Unseen Missoula Tour designed by UM history students and alumni. |
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"Screams and Spirits" is a new tour from Unseen Missoula sharing firsthand accounts of local ghost sightings and other inexplicable experiences. Designed by UM history alumnus John Stefanek and UM history student India Hite, the tour starts at the Roxy and journeys through the campus and onto University Avenue, highlighting each haunted building along the way. Ten different haunted locations are featured, and tour guides share other tales of legendary Missoulian ghost sightings between each haunted location! Ghost stories include everything from kind, mischievous ghosts stealing and returning items, to tales of unseen entities destroying furniture and harassing living people. The tour opened with resounding success in 2021, and Unseen Missoula looks forward to sharing it once again during Halloween season 2022! John Stefanek observes: “This summer and fall I had the pleasure of being an intern and a tour guide for the Downtown Missoula Association. As a recent M.A. graduate from the history department, I did not want to leave Missoula quite yet, but also wanted to explore the world of public history. I had not planned on being a tour guide, but quickly fell in love with it. Being able to directly interact with the public and see them engaged with Missoula’s history is one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had. It also feels great to know that I can always lead tours as long I stay in the Missoula area.” |
“Being able to directly interact with the public and see them engaged with Missoula’s history is one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had.” – John Stefanek
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India Hite reflects: “There could not have been a more fun way to practice public history than working on a haunted tour script, at least in my opinion. The bones of the script had already been generated by a previous intern, but there was plenty more to unearth. Using my nascent historical research and writing skills to tell ghost stories was an absolute blast, and when John joined the process, the script only got bigger and better. I also learned a ton about tour logistics; John and I frowned at maps of Missoula and did practice tour walks to try and make the tour engaging, but not too short and not too long. John and I are both big horror movie fans, so overall, this work was kind of our dream come true. I'm very grateful to Unseen Missoula for letting me join in on this process!”
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“There could not have been a more fun way to practice public history than working on a haunted tour script.” – India Hite
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In response to the pandemic, the Blackfeet, Amskapi Pikuni, organized a chapter of the Red Cross, pictured here, to educate people about mask-wearing and quarantine. |
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Dee Garceau (Ph.D., Brown University, American Civilization) is working with two interns, Kevin Mobley (history major) and Kym MacEwan (Ph.D candidate, history) on a documentary film about the 1918-19 influenza pandemic in Montana. Kevin and Kym hold internships through the Public History Program. Ashby Glover (B.A. history, Rhodes College) is assistant producer on the project. The film team has been researching newspapers and archives, meeting every week to share evidence and discuss interpretations. |
“It has been a true delight to learn how to take archival research and turn it into a public-facing project." – Ashby Glover
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Ashby Glover reflects: “It has been a true delight to learn how to take archival research and turn it into a public-facing project. The documentary format especially is such a unique form of public history, involving both rigorous historical research and great creativity to blend audio and visual into a compelling narrative that brings the past into the present for an audience. I have been thrilled to be a part of this documentary research and am looking forward to the filming process next spring.” The 1918-19 influenza was a coronavirus that struck down young adults in the prime of life and ravaged both rural and urban areas. New insights are emerging: Women found new and lucrative opportunities in nursing, but with lethal risks; a trained nurse tended stricken Army Reserves students at the UM, only to be felled by the virus. A Crow woman, Absalooke, graduated from UM law school, full of promise in 1918; she responded to the call for volunteer nurses in Red Lodge, and she, too, died of influenza. The Blackfeet people, Amskapi Pikuni, combined tradition and innovation as members of the Crazy Dog Society and founded a chapter of the Red Cross on the reservation to encourage masking and quarantine. African-American women in Great Falls, Helena and Billings organized nursing and relief for afflicted families through their churches and women’s clubs. Montanans aged 18-40 died at higher rates than the older population yet faced the same risks of exposure. One grandson’s job was to identify those who had died overnight in his grandmother’s hotel and help carry the bodies out. Overall, the film will pose larger questions about trauma and resilience. |
“Due to the internship, I have greatly expanded my historical knowledge by conducting archival research, combing through newspapers, compiling oral histories, and choosing photographs for the film. It has been extremely rewarding and has enriched my historical education.” – Kymberly MacEwan
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Kymberly MacEwan describes her experience: “Being a part of a documentary team is my first venture into the field of public history. My dissertation focuses on Montana tribes and public health. The documentary internship dovetails with my public health interests as we are focusing on the influenza experiences of native peoples, women, and African Americans. Due to the internship, I have greatly expanded my historical knowledge by conducting archival research, combing through newspapers, compiling oral histories, and choosing photographs for the film. It has been extremely rewarding and has enriched my historical education.” In November, the film team will draft voiceover scripts drawn from firsthand sources, create storyboards for sequences within the film and consider the dramatic arc of the film as a whole. Film shoots and editing will take place spring semester 2022. For more information about this project, please see 1918mtinfluenza.com and/or danceriverproductions.com. |
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UM Alum Attends Montana History Conference |
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By John Stefanek, M.A. 2021
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This past September I attended the Montana History Conference in Butte. I graduated from the UM history department with my M.A. in history and spent a considerable amount of my time at UM researching and writing about Butte. I presented my paper, “Creating and Destroying History: Butte, Montana’s Model City Program, 1968-1975” at the conference. Utilizing original archival research from Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives, the Montana Historical Society and Maureen & Mike Mansfield Library, I explore how Butte was impacted by the Model Cities program, a federal urban renewal program initiated by LBJ’s administration that selected hundreds of cities across the U.S. I initially was going to present my paper in Butte and Washington state in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic canceled both of those conferences. I am thankful that the Montana History Conference happened this year.
While this was not my first professional conference, presenting in the city which I had written so much about was a bit intimidating. My concerns were quickly dismissed when I received positive, critical feedback after my presentation. I will never forget something that an older woman from Butte, who had lived through the Model Cities program, asked me “how can your paper help Butte?” It was essentially the dreaded “so what?” question, but the way she had asked it made it more of a warm invitation to keep writing. The next day a very excited Butteian asked if I could send him a copy of my paper so he could learn more about Model Cities. The fact that Butte was excited to read my paper and saw value in it meant the world to me. I had previously only really thought of my paper contributing to the academic world, but now realized my paper could help Butte better understand a difficult part of its history. It was the most inspiring professional feedback my writing has received to date.
The Montana History Conference helped me regain confidence in myself as a writer and scholar. I had taken distance from my paper since graduating this past April and was incredibly burnt out. Further, the conference helped me decide whether I wanted to keep writing the paper to submit it to a professional journal or magazine. Thanks to the encouraging feedback from the UM history department, my paper caught the attention of the Montana: The Magazine of Western History. While I was still taking a break from my paper during the summer, the wonderful people at the magazine were completely understanding and asked if I wanted to reconvene at the Montana History Conference. I am glad they asked because after getting the positive feedback at the conference I wanted to submit my paper for publishing. I am currently revising my paper and was told by the associate editor of the magazine that I’d be welcome to send a rough draft of it anytime for any feedback before submitting a final draft by the end of this year.
The conference was also an excellent example of networking in the small world of history careers. Even before the pandemic, finding a career in the world of history could be difficult and demoralizing. But the conference gave me hope. In addition to making connections with the Montana Magazine, they gave me career advice. The most important advice I received was the importance of diversifying your skill set. One recent Ph.D. graduate at the conference told me she delved into the world of GIS mapping to be a more competitive candidate. It was important for me to hear that, as I had become so tunnel-visioned on selling my strong writing and research skills that I had dismissed other hard skills. I am still searching for my calling but feel more equipped to find it after attending the conference. Finally, it just felt nice to sit down with fellow history folk who are just as passionate as I am about the importance of history. |
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This semester, students in Claire Arcenas's American Revolution & Founding Era course spent several days imagining themselves back in the summer of 1776. They debated declaring independence from Britain and what independence would mean for them. Despite the constraints of the Covid-19 learning environment, which necessitated some creative adjustments to this kind of role-immersion learning, Professor Arcenas's students excelled! Gillian Glaes has been appointed to the editorial board of Immigrants and Minorities: Historical Studies in Ethnicity, Migration, and |
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Students in Professor Arcenas’s class engage in role-play to gain insight into the American Revolution. |
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Diaspora. As director of the Humanities Institute, she also is a member of the group of faculty awarded the major NEH grant discussed above. Anya Jabour published an article, “‘A Kentucky Portia’: The Legal Career and Legislative Legacy of Sophonisba Breckinridge, Kentucky’s First Woman Lawyer,” in Ohio Valley History (Fall 2021), a piece for the National Park Service on Eleanor Roosevelt, several op-eds for Made by History in the Washington Post, and blog posts about her new subject, prison reformer and sex researcher Katharine Bement Davis, for the Society for the History of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era and for Nursing Clio. Her research was featured in the Washington Post, Them and several podcasts. Tobin Miller Shearer continues to engage in a host of public-facing speaking engagements, including appearances at the Montana Book Festival, Montana Tech,and Partners in Home Care. He has released a new book, co-authored with Dr. Regina Shands Stoltzfus, entitled, "Been in the Struggle: Pursuing an Anti-racist Spirituality" (Herald Press), which engages with historical, sociological, and theological questions while also reflecting on the 30 years they have worked together in the field of anti-racism. Leif Fredrickson co-organized the national webinar, “From Besieged to Bolstered? The Biden Environmental Transition,” which included environmental historians, environmental policy experts and Peggy Shepard of the White House Advisory Committee for Environmental Justice. He collaborated on two journal articles putting the Trump administration’s environmental policies in perspective (published in Environmental Justice and the Journal of Public Health Policy). He presented on podcasting, public engagement and applied history at the Organization of American Historians and Western Historical Association conferences, as well as in several classrooms. Locally, he has joined the board of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula and has continued to lead historical tours and train community members in oral history. Professionally, he directs two projects: “A People’s EPA” (an oral and digital history project) and “Documenting COVID-19 in Missoula” (a public archive and oral history project). Scott Arcenas published an article based on his contributions to ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World in Mediterranean Historical Review. He also designed several new courses and is particularly excited to teach one of them, HSTR 303: Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World, this spring. Jeff Wiltse served as lead content expert for "POOL: A Social History of Segregation." Based largely on Dr. Wiltse’s research, this exhibit at the Fairmount Water Works in Philadelphia tells the story of black Americans’ complex relationship with water-based recreation. Most of the exhibit can be viewed online. He also provided expert analysis and commentary for articles that appeared in USA Today, National Geographic, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Dallas Morning News, Forbes and Vogue. |
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Cody Ewert M.A. 2012 will publish his book, "Making Schools American: Nationalism and the Origins of Modern Educational Politics," in spring 2021. Ryan McCarty M.A. 2020 begins a position as instructor in liberal arts at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo in November. Hayden Nelson M.A. 2020 is now a second-year Ph.D. student in history at the University of Kansas. He currently serves as the graduate assistant for the Western History Association as well as a book review editor for the online humanities network, H-Borderlands. Hayden received the Gordon Morris Bakken Scholarship in Western History from the Phi Alpha Theta |
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National History Honors Society and grants from the Kansas State Historical Society and the Mining History Association to support his dissertation research. Hayden is also working as the lead author on a project that he began last year as a research assistant, which historicizes the contested memories and meanings of Iⁿ ‘zhúje ‘waxóbe / Lawrence’s Big Red Rock to both the Kaw Nation and descendants of Lawrence’s white settlers. Jared Norwood Ph.D. 2021 is now a full-time lecturer at Tennessee State University, where he teaches the freshman seminar, HIST 1000: Global Cultures in History. Virginia L. Summey M.A. 2012 continues to teach in the Honors College at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her first book, which grew out of her MA thesis, will be published in May 2022. "The Life of Elreta Melton Alexander: Activism Within the Courts," explores the career of a pioneering African-American woman lawyer in the Jim Crow South. |
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Alumna Virginia Summey’s first book is forthcoming in May 2022.
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College of Humanities & Sciences History Department
University of Montana - 32 Campus Drive
Missoula, Montana 59812 |
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