Department of History, Box 23
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37132
615.898.2423; rebecca.conard@mtsu.edu
911 Whitehall Road
Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37130
615.890.9017
Position
Education
Professor of History/Director of Public History, Middle Tennessee State University.
Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara, 1984.
M.A. University of California, Los Angeles, 1976.
B.S. California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, 1973.
Prior Teaching Positions
Associate Professor, Department of History, Middle Tennessee State University, 1998-2004.
Assistant Professor and Director, Graduate Program in Public History, Wichita State University,
August 1992-June 1998.
Visiting Assistant Professor, UC Santa Barbara, History Department, 1985-1990.
Faculty, English Department, American River College, Sacramento, CA 1976-78.
Professional Practice
Cofounder and partner, Tallgrass Historians L.C., Iowa City, 1993-2002.
Cofounder PHR Associates, Santa Barbara, 1982; partner 1982-1988; sole proprietor, 1988-1992.
Professional Affiliations
George Wright Society: Board of Directors, 2004-2011.
National Council on Public History: President 2002-2003; Vice President, 2001-2002; Chair, Longrange Planning Committee 2003-2004; Chair, Curriculum and Professional Standards
Coordinating Committee, 2004-2007; 2001 Annual Meeting Program Committee (Co-Chair);
Endowment Committee, 1995-2000; Board of Directors, 1993-1996.
Organization of American Historians: OAH Distinguished Lecturer, 2005-2008; 2000 OAH/NCPH
Joint Annual Meeting Program Committee.
American Association for State and Local History: Diversity Task Force, 1999-2004; Program
Committee for 2000 Annual Meeting.
American Historical Association: Herbert Feis Award Committee, 2005-2008 (Chair, 2008).
American Society for Environmental History: Rachel Carson Award Committee, 1998-1999 (Chair),
1996-1997.
Professional Activities, Recent and Ongoing
Keynote speaker, “Public History Education in the United States,” 2012 Annual Higher Education
Academy Teaching and Learning Conference, London, September 2012.
Tennessee Historical Records Advisory Board, 2008-2013 (governor’s appointment).
Co-editor, George Wright Forum , 2010-present.
The Annals of Iowa : Editorial Board, 1994-present.
Editorial Advisory Board, Iowa and Midwestern History Series, University of Iowa Press, 2009present.
AASLH/AltaMira Press Editorial Advisory Board, 2005-2009.
Coordinator, Middle Tennessee District History Day Annual Competition, 2002-2009.
Tennessee History Day Advisory Committee, 2001-2009.
Humanities Tennessee, grant reviewer, 2009-present.
The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson, and America 1801-1861 , NEH Landmarks of American History
Workshop: Project Co-director with Marsha Mullen, 2004; Session Leader, “Creating a
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Distinctive American Culture,” 2006, 2008, and 2010 workshops coordinated by Jan Leone and
Marsha Mullen.
Teaching American History Projects funded by U.S. Department of Education: Project Co-director with Jan Leone, Cumberland River Valley Consortium (2002-2006); Academic Director,
Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (2004-2007).
National Endowment for the Humanities: Panel Reviewer for Museum and Public Programs
Division, 2006; for Education Division, 2004; for Preservation and Access Division, 1999.
Invited Participant, "Varieties of Competencies in the Historical Professions," Wingspread
Conference, 2005, cosponsored by the American Historical Association and the Johnson
Foundation.
Program Reviewer: Appalachian State University, 2002; Northwest Louisiana State University,
2003; University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2003; Loyola University-Chicago, 2005.
Fort Atkinson Area Cultural Resources Field School, co-sponsored by State Historical Society of
Iowa and Iowa Department of Natural Resources; co-director, 2001; instructor, 2005.
State Historical Society of Iowa: SHSI Research Grant Selection Committee, 1994-present;
Benjamin Shambaugh Award Selection Committee, 2003-2005, 2008.
Selected Publications
Books and Monographs
“All Men and Women are Created Equal”: An Administrative History of Women’s Rights National
Historical Park . National Park Service: Northeast Region, 2011.
Benjamin Shambaugh and the Intellectual Foundations of Public History.
University of Iowa Press,
2002.
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Legislative History, 1920-1996.
Omaha: National Park Service,
Midwest Support Office, 1998.
Places of Quiet Beauty: Parks, Preserves, and Environmentalism. University of Iowa Press, 1997. with Christopher Nelson, Santa Barbara: El Pueblo Viejo . Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1986.
Articles and Shorter Works
“The Changing Face of the Country: Environmental History and the Legacy of the Civil War at Stones
River National Battlefield.” George Wright Forum 28:2 (2011).
Contributor, Biographical Dictionary of Iowa . David Hudson, Marvin Bergman, and Loren Horton, eds. University of Iowa Press, 2008. [entries: Ruth Augusta Gallaher, Ada Hayden, John Fletcher
Lacey, Aldo Leopold, Louis Hermann Pammel, Benjamin Franklin Shambaugh, Bohumil
Shimek, Jacob Armstrong Swisher]
“Public History and the Odyssey of a Born-again Native.” Annals of Iowa
67:2/3 (Spring/Summer
2008): 165-180.
“Local History and Contemporary Relevance.” Indiana Magazine of History
103:4 (December 2007):
429-433.
"Tough as the Hills: The Making of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve."
Kansas History: A
Journal of the Central Plains
29 (Summer 2006): 2-17. An earlier version appears in
Proceedings of the Kansas History and History of the Great Plains Symposium
(Topeka: Kansas
State Historical Society, 2002).
Guest Co-editor, “Public History as Reflective Practice.” Theme issue of
The Public Historian
28, no.
1 (Winter 2006).
“John F. Lacey: Conservation’s Public Servant.” In Harmon, David, Francis P. McManamon, and
Dwight T. Pitcaithley, eds. The Antiquities Act: A Century of American Archaeology, Historic
Preservation, and Nature Conservation
. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2006.
“Spading Common Ground: Reconciling the Built and Natural Environments.” In Public History and the Environment , ed. Martin Melosi and Philip V. Scarpino. Krieger Press, 2004.
“Facepaint History in the Season of Introspection.” The Public Historian 25:4 (Fall 2003): 9-24 .
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“Applied Environmentalism, or Reconciliation Among the 'Bios' and the 'Culturals.'” The Public
Historian
23:2 (Spring 2001): 9-18. with Michael Carrier, “Integrating Natural and Cultural History in State Park Management.” The
George Wright Forum 17:3 (2000), 21-30.
“The National Conference on State Parks: Reflections on Organizational Genealogy.” The George
Wright Forum 14:4 (1997): 28-43.
“State Parks: A Various Language.” Journal Iowa Academy of Science 104:2 (1997): 32-38.
“The Lincoln Highway in Greene County: Highway Politics, Local Initiative, and the Emerging
Federal Highway System,” The Annals of Iowa , 52 (1993): 351-384.
“Hot Kitchens in Places of Quiet Beauty: Iowa State Parks and the Transformation of Conservation
Goals.” The Annals of Iowa 51 (1992), 441-479.
“Once I Built a Railroad: Viewing Railroad History from the Depot Platform.” The Public Historian
14 (1992): 25-41 .
“Green Gold: 1950s Greenbelt Planning in Santa Clara County, California.” Environmental Review 9
(Spring 1985): 5-18.
“Suburban Encroachment on the Old North Forty: Effective Ways to Preserve Agricultural Land.”
The American Journal of Economics and Sociology
42 (April 1983): 193-208.
“From Private Philanthropy to Public Resort: Waterfront Tourism and Recreation.” In Santa Barbara by the Sea , ed. Rochelle Bookspan. Santa Barbara: McNally-Loftin, 1982.
Research in Progress
“Professionalizing the Public History Impulse,” a history of public history, book-length manuscript.
“Stones River Battlefield from Reconstruction to Remembrance,” an ongoing collaborative research project with Stones River National Battlefield.
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