NMSU: Public History

Public History Program

Department of History, NMSU
MSC 3H, Las
Cruces, NM 88003
Main Office: 575-646-4601
Fax: 575-646-8148
Jon Hunner, Program Director
jhunner@nmsu.edu

Public History Professors

Jeff Brown was the founding director of the Public History Program (1984-1991) at New Mexico State University. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Brown teaches the Public History survey and oral history, as well as the early history of the United States. He has also assisted communities in historic preservation, for which, in 1986, he received the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation. More recently, his public history work has focused on collecting oral histories. He is a scholar of frontier politics in the early national period of the United States and has written numerous articles on the subject. For many years, he was the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and remains the “go-to guy” if you need to negotiate the university’s bureaucracy.

Jon Hunner is the academic head of the History Department at New Mexico State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico. His teaching focuses on public history, including the Public History survey, “time traveling” (first person interpretation), historical editing, and oral history. He travels the state to document, interpret and publicize its history and culture, and has received the prestigious Darnell Award from NMSU for outstanding teaching, research, and service; the Dorothy Woodward Award for education from the Historical Society of New Mexico; the Elizabeth B. Mason Award from the Oral History Association; and the Heritage Preservation Award from the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division. He is a scholar of the nuclear age. His award-winning book Inventing Los Alamos: The Growth of an Atomic Community examines the creation of the atomic city, and the award-winning Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Cold War, and the Atomic West brings new insights into how the West influenced Oppenheimer and how he then transformed the West.

Jon has lived in New Mexico most of his life and gained his fifteen minutes of fame in 1976 when he juggled from Santa Fe to Albuquerque as a fundraiser for the Arthritis Foundation. Before becoming a historian, he was a founding member of the comedy group Rimshot, ran an art services business, and worked at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe.

Dwight Pitcaithley teaches courses on interpreting historic places and historic preservation theory, as well as the U.S. Civil War. He received his Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. Before joining the faculty at NMSU, he was a historian for the National Park Service for thirty years, culminating in the position of Chief Historian (1995-2005). For much of that time, he was a national leader in the field of public history; he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Organization of American Historians and the Robert Kelley Memorial Award for outstanding achievement in public history from the National Council on Public History. His scholarship focuses on the U.S. Civil War, historical interpretation, and the National Park Service, and he is the author of the award-winning book The Antiquities Act: A Century of American Archaeology, Historic Preservation, and Nature Conservation.

Affiliated faculty include Steve Hussman (Archives), Monte McCrossin (Anthropology), Silvia Marinas (Art), and Beth O’Leary (Anthropology).

	Jeff Brown was the founding director of the Public History Program (1984-1991) at New Mexico State University. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Brown teaches the Public History survey and oral history, as well as the early history of the United States. He has also assisted communities in historic preservation, for which, in 1986, he received the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation. More recently, his public history work has focused on collecting oral histories. He is a scholar of frontier politics in the early national period of the United States and has written numerous articles on the subject. For many years, he was the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and remains the “go-to guy” if you need to negotiate the university’s bureaucracy.
	Jon Hunner is the academic head of the History Department at New Mexico State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico. His teaching focuses on public history, including the Public History survey, “time traveling” (first person interpretation), historical editing, and oral history. He travels the state to document, interpret and publicize its history and culture, and has received the prestigious Darnell Award from NMSU for outstanding teaching, research, and service; the Dorothy Woodward Award for education from the Historical Society of New Mexico; the Elizabeth B. Mason Award from the Oral History Association; and the Heritage Preservation Award from the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division. He is a scholar of the nuclear age. His award-winning book Inventing Los Alamos: The Growth of an Atomic Community examines the creation of the atomic city, and the award-winning Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Cold War, and the Atomic West brings new insights into how the West influenced Oppenheimer and how he then transformed the West. Jon has lived in New Mexico most of his life and gained his fifteen minutes of fame in 1976 when he juggled from Santa Fe to Albuquerque as a fundraiser for the Arthritis Foundation. Before becoming a historian, he was a founding member of the comedy group Rimshot, ran an art services business, and worked at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe.
	Dwight Pitcaithley teaches courses on interpreting historic places and historic preservation theory, as well as the U.S. Civil War. He received his Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. Before joining the faculty at NMSU, he was a historian for the National Park Service for thirty years, culminating in the position of Chief Historian (1995-2005). For much of that time, he was a national leader in the field of public history; he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Organization of American Historians and the Robert Kelley Memorial Award for outstanding achievement in public history from the National Council on Public History. His scholarship focuses on the U.S. Civil War, historical interpretation, and the National Park Service, and he is the author of the award-winning book The Antiquities Act: A Century of American Archaeology, Historic Preservation, and Nature Conservation.


	Affiliated faculty include Steve Hussman (Archives), Monte McCrossin (Anthropology), Silvia Marinas (Art), and Beth O’Leary (Anthropology).