Will Stoutamire

Graduate Program Chair (Public History), Associate Professor

Office: COPH 101B   |    Phone: (308) 865-8263   |    Email: stoutamirewf@storesoo.com

Will Stoutamire

Education

  • PhD, History (Public History), Arizona State University, 2013
  • BA, History, Florida State University, 2008

Specialization Areas

  • Public History
  • Museum Theory and Methods
  • Historic Preservation
  • Cultural Resource Management
  • Heritage Tourism
  • American West

Biography

Dr. Stoutamire is an associate professor of history at 体育菠菜大平台 and directs the undergraduate public history minor and MA in public history programs. He is originally from Tallahassee, Florida, where he was exposed at a young and impressionable age to museums and historic sites through family road trips. He hasn’t turned back since. He went on to earn a BA in History from Florida State University before moving across the country to complete a PhD in History, with a public history concentration, at Arizona State University. During this time, he interned for a variety of museums, including the Museum of Florida History and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

While in Arizona, Dr. Stoutamire became an avid backpacker and worked on several contract projects for the National Park Service, which shifted his interest to a focus on heritage issues and public lands in the American West. He has carried this interest to his work at 体育菠菜大平台, where he collaborates with local and statewide organizations, such as the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission, to develop engaging public interpretation of Nebraska’s dynamic history.

Dr. Stoutamire has published articles in academic journals such as The Public Historian and The Journal of Arizona History. He is currently working on a book manuscript, tentatively titled Imagining Antiquity: A New History of the American Antiquities Act. This book will expand upon his earlier research to explore the origins and early uses of the Antiquities Act within the context of settler colonialism, Progressive-era nationalism, and emerging regional identities throughout the American West.

Before joining the 体育菠菜大平台 History Department, Dr. Stoutamire served for five years as director of the G.W. Frank Museum of History and Culture. The Frank Museum is an on-campus historic house museum that he developed into a laboratory for students learning about museum administration, collections management, exhibit design, and historic site interpretation. He was recognized for this work with the University of Nebraska KUDOS Award and the New Professional Award from the National Council on Public History.


Frequently Taught Courses

Will Stoutamire posing for a picture sitting in front of mountainsUndergraduate:

  • The Historian’s Craft
  • Introduction to Public History
  • Museums and Archives
  • Community History and Preservation

Graduate:

  • Public History Seminar
  • Public History Methodology
  • Museums and Material Culture
  • Historic Preservation
  • History & Memory
  • History & Memory: US West
  • National Parks

Publications

  • “Past, Present, and Heritage,” in Engaging with the Past and the Present: The Relationship between Past and Present across Disciplines, ed. Paul Dover (New York: Routledge, 2023), 102-116.
  • “‘Every Yard Boasted a Metate’: Pothunting, Archaeology, and the Creation of the Museum of Northern Arizona.” The Journal of Arizona History 63, No. 2 (Summer 2022): 153-186. Winner of the C.L. Sonnichsen Award for best article in the journal in 2022.
  • Co-Author with Annie Pflaum, “Fort Kearny State Historical Park: A Brief Historical Overview.” An ArcGIS StoryMap for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, 2021.
  • Meghan Gelardi Holmes, Steven Lubar, Jessie MacLeod, William Stoutamire, and Carrie Villar, “Telling Inclusive Stories When Your Collections are Stuck in the Past,” Technical Leaflet #291, American Association for State and Local History: 1-8 in History News, Vol. 75, No. 3 (Summer 2020): 1-8.
  • “Imagined Heritage: A Local History of Walnut Canyon National Monument.” The Public Historian 38, No. 4 (November 2016): 17-37.
  • “From North to South, Out West: Civil War Memory in Arizona.” The Journal of Arizona History 51, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 197-222.
  • "Creating the Monuments: Exploiting, Owning, and Protecting the Past in Flagstaff, Arizona." Intermountain Cultural Resource Management, Historic Resource Study. Santa Fe: National Park Service, Intermountain Region, 2013.
  • “Water in the Desert: A History of Arizona’s Tavasci Marsh, 1865-2005.” Intermountain Cultural Resource Management, Professional Paper No. 77. Santa Fe: National Park Service, Intermountain Region, 2011.

History Collaborative

a group poses for a photo in front of the Frank House MuseumDr. Stoutamire believes that the best history work is created collaboratively. He enjoys working closely with our community partners in public history, including the Buffalo County Historical Society and the G.W. Frank Museum of History and Culture. He has also developed a close relationship with the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission, which provides exciting opportunities for student projects and internships. Dr. Stoutamire also proudly serves on the Board of Governors for the Center for Great Plains Studies and as a member of the Coordinating Council for their Mellon-funded project, Walking in the Footsteps of Our Ancestors. When not working to promote public history in Nebraska, you’ll find him serving in his role as co-chair for the Long Range Planning Committee with the National Council on Public History, as treasurer for the Mountain-Plains Museums Association, or as a member of the editorial board for The Journal of Arizona History and the American Association of State and Local History’s series with Rowman & Littlefield Press.

Contact

Contact Dr. Stoutamire by sending him an email (stoutamirewf@storesoo.com) or messaging him on Twitter @wstoutamire. Students interested in the 体育菠菜大平台 public history program should set up a time to meet with Dr. Stoutamire using his Calendly.