Erika M. Bsumek
Associate Professor — Ph.D., 2000, Rutgers University
Contact
- E-mail: embsumek@austin.utexas.edu
- Phone: 512-475-7253
- Office: GAR 2.104C
- Office Hours: Fall 2019:
- Campus Mail Code: B7000
Biography
Research interests
Professor Bsumek has written on Native American history, environmental history/studies, the history of the built environment, and the history of the U.S. West. She is author of the award winning, Indian-made: Navajo Culture in the Marketplace, 1848-1860 (University Press of Kansas, 2008) and the coeditor a collection of essays on global environmental history titled Nation States and the Global Environment: New Approaches to International Environmental History (Oxford University Press, 2013). Her current research explores the social and environmental history of the area surrounding Glen Canyon on the Utah/Arizona border from the 1840s to the present. The working title of the book is "Infrastructures of Dispossession: Latter-Day Saints, American Indians, and Water Technologies on the Colorado Plateau, 1800 to the Present." She is also working on a larger project that examines the impact that large construction projects (dams, highways, cities and suburbs) had on the American West which is tentatively titled "The Concrete West: Engineering Society and Culture in the Arid West, 1900-1970." She has written OpEds for publications such as Time, the Austin American Statesman, Huffington Post, Al Jazeera America, and Pacific Standard and is currently a Provost's Teaching Fellow. She is also the creator of digital timeline software, called Cliovis, that enables students and researchers to create time aligned network maps of their class/research projects.
Courses taught
Native American history, U.S. West history, Environmental history, The Land Before Us (UGS), and Building America
Publications
Her first book, Indian-made: Navajo Culture in the Marketplace, 1880-1940, explores the intersection of consumerism and ethnic identity construction.
Co-editor, Nation States and the Global Environment: New Approaches to Environmental History (Oxford University Press, 2013).
Co-creator: Radical Hope Syllabus, a public-facing scholarly resource on environmental history and climate change.
Awards
- UT-Austin Academy of Distinguished Teachers, 2020
- Regent's Outstanding Teaching Award, 2018
- President's Associates Teaching Excellence Award, 2017
- Provost's Teaching Fellow, 2016-2019
- Dads' Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship, 2014
- New Mexico Book Award (2010) for Indian-made: Navajo Culture in the Marketplace, 1880-1940
- Ralph Emerson Twitchell Award (2009), New Mexico Historical Society for Indian-made: Navajo Culture in the Marketplace, 1880-1940
Courses
HIS 317L • Building America
38555 • Spring 2020
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM GEA 105
CDE
HI
(also listed as AMS 315)
HIS 350L • Radical Hope And Global Enviro
38730 • Spring 2020
Meets W 9:00AM-12:00PM SZB 323
Wr
HIS 317L • Intro To Native Am Histories
38095 • Fall 2019
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM GAR 0.102
CD
HI
(also listed as AMS 315)
UGS 302 • The Land Before Us
60650 • Fall 2019
Meets MW 3:30PM-5:00PM CAL 200
CDIIWr
ID
HIS 389 • American Indian Histories
39325 • Spring 2018
Meets T 12:30PM-3:30PM GAR 1.122
(also listed as AMS 391)
UGS 302 • The Land Before Us
62260 • Fall 2017
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM MAI 220A
Wr
ID
HIS 317L • Building America
39305 • Spring 2017
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM UTC 3.110
CDE
HI
(also listed as AMS 315)
HIS 350R • Envir Hist Of North Amer
39495 • Spring 2017
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM GAR 0.120
IIWr
HI
(also listed as AMS 329, URB 353)
HIS 317L • Intro To Amer Indian History
39135 • Fall 2016
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM JGB 2.218
CD
HI
(also listed as AMS 315)
UGS 302 • West Of The Imagination
62171 • Fall 2016
Meets MW 3:00PM-4:30PM MAI 220C
CDWr
ID
HIS 317L • Intro To Amer Indian History
38510 • Spring 2016
Meets MW 3:00PM-4:30PM JGB 2.324
CD
HIS 317L • Building America
38515 • Spring 2016
Meets MWF 9:00AM-10:00AM UTC 3.102
CDE
(also listed as AMS 315)
HIS 389 • New Perspect In Environment
38870 • Fall 2015
Meets T 12:30PM-3:30PM GAR 2.124
UGS 302 • West Of The Imagination
61440 • Fall 2015
Meets MW 3:00PM-4:30PM MAI 220C
CDWr
ID
HIS 317L • Building America
38480 • Spring 2015
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM GAR 0.102
CDE
(also listed as AMS 315)
UGS 302 • Imagined West And Real West
62390 • Spring 2015
Meets MW 1:00PM-2:30PM MAI 220D
CDWr
HIS 317L • Building America
39720 • Spring 2014
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM UTC 3.132
CDE
HI
(also listed as AMS 315)
HIS 350R • Envir Hist Of North Amer
39975 • Spring 2014
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM GAR 1.134
IIWr
(also listed as AMS 329, URB 353)
HIS 317L • Intro To Amer Indian History
39670 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM GAR 0.102
CD
HI
UGS 302 • The West Of The Imagination
65205 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM MAI 220F
Wr
HIS 392 • Environmental History
39885 • Spring 2013
Meets T 4:00PM-7:00PM GAR 2.124
(also listed as AMS 391)
UGS 302 • Imagined West And Real West
64055 • Spring 2013
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM CBA 4.338
Wr
HIS 317L • Intro To Amer Indian History
39210 • Fall 2012
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM UTC 3.134
CD
HI
HIS 350R • Envir Hist Of North America
39465 • Fall 2012
Meets MW 3:30PM-5:00PM MEZ 2.118
Wr
HI
HIS 350R • 20th-Cen Native Amer History
39435 • Spring 2012
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM GAR 2.128
CDWr
HI
HIS 356G • Hist Of The United States West
39500 • Spring 2012
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM GAR 0.102
CD
HI
HIS 317L • Intro To American Indian Hist
39180 • Fall 2011
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM GAR 0.102
CD
HI
UGS 302 • Imagined West And Real West
63710 • Fall 2011
Meets MW 2:00PM-3:30PM MAI 220C
Wr
HIS 356G • Hist Of The United States West
39800 • Spring 2011
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM GAR 0.102
CD
HI
UGS 302 • Imagined West And Real West
63470 • Spring 2011
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM GAR 2.124
Wr
UGS 302 • Imagined West And Real West-W
64625 • Fall 2009
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM GAR 2.124
C1
HIS 356G • Hist Of The United States West
40395 • Fall 2008
Meets MW 4:00PM-5:30PM GAR 0.102
HI
(also listed as AAS 325)
HIS 392 • Native American History
40645 • Fall 2008
Meets T 3:30PM-6:30PM GAR 2.124
(also listed as AMS 390)
HIS 356G • Hist Of The United States West
40255 • Spring 2008
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM GAR 0.102
HI
(also listed as AAS 325)
HIS 356G • Hist Of United States West-W
40260 • Spring 2008
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM GAR 2.112
HI
(also listed as AAS 325)
HIS 392 • Environmental History
41285 • Fall 2007
Meets T 4:00PM-7:00PM MEZ 1.104
HIS 356G • Hist Of United States West-W
38935 • Spring 2006
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM MEZ 2.124
HI
HIS 392 • History Of The American West
39220 • Spring 2006
Meets M 4:00PM-7:00PM PAR 8A
HIS 315L • United States Since 1865
38030-38075 • Fall 2004
Meets MW 1:00PM-2:00PM WEL 2.224
HI
HIS 356G • Hist Of The United States West
38405 • Fall 2004
Meets MWF 9:00AM-10:00AM UTC 3.102
HI
HIS 315L • United States Since 1865
35495-35540 • Spring 2003
Meets MW 1:00PM-2:00PM UTC 2.102A
HI
Affiliated Departments
Portfolio Program in Sustainability through UT's Center for Sustainable Development
Affiliated Faculty Member, American Studies Department
Affiliated Faculty Member, Asian American Studies Department
Past Graduate Students
Neel Baumgardner, Ph.D., UTSA
Neel Baumgardner received a B.B.A. and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University. Dr. Baumgardner's research focuses on the development and protection of national parks and wilderness areas. His book in progress, titled "Unbordering North America: Creating International Parks along the Periphery of Canada, Mexico, and the United States," examines four different parks in two regions: Waterton Lakes and Glacier in the northern Rocky Mountains of Alberta and Montana, and Big Bend and the Maderas del Carmen in the Chihuahuan Desert of Texas and the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. Dr. Baumgardner teaches courses in American Studies and history.
Kelli Mosteller, Ph.D., Citizen Potawatomi Nation
Kelli Mosteller is the Gaming Commissioner of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center. She was recently featured as a contributor to a newly published book, "“Indigenous Communities and Settler Colonialism: Land Holding, Loss and Survival in an Interconnected World,” about the British Empire’s impact on indigenous communities.
Emily Kinney, Ph.D, Writer/Educator.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-r-kinney
Books
Indian-Made: Navajo Culture in the Marketplace, 1868-1940
Erika Bsumek, University of Kansas Press, October 2008
Erika Bsumek (Co-Author), Oxford University Press, April 2013
Public Engagement
Bridge to Somewhere
Life and Letters article written by David Ochsner on Erika Bsumek's undergraduate history class Building America: Engineering Society and Culture, 1868 - 1980. The course "teaches humanities students how the technology surrounding them works and teaches STEM majors how history and politics shape technological advances. STEM disciplines can make a bridge stand up, but the humanities tell us why it exists."
Read it here.
Populism, the Railroads, & the West
Erika Bsumek of The University of Texas at Austin delivers a talk on populism, the railroads, and the American West on June 5, 2012, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Bsumek's presentation was part of "The Making of Modern America, 1877-Present," a teacher workshop sponsored by Humanities Texas and SMU's Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.
Researching the "Concrete West"
Bsumek's project "The Concrete West" examines how the American West was transformed by concrete, and how the profession of engineering changed over the course of the 20th century. Bsumek is also studying the impact of large construction projects (dams, highways, cities and suburbs) on the American West.
America's Subpar Infrastructure Rating
The second video on Bsumek's project "The Concrete West".
Commercialization of Navajo Craft
Prof Bsumek discusses the commercialization of Navajo weaving and silversmithing based on her book "Indian-Made: Navajo Culture in the Marketplace, 1868-1940."
Writings on Not Even Past
Founded in 2010, Not Even Past was developed by the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin in order to bring great history writing to the public. The History faculty and graduate students at UT Austin are committed to making research available and accessible to everyone interested in History. View some of my selected writings, a video interview, and more, published on Not Even Past:
Curriculum Vitae
Profile Pages
- Home
- Courses
- Affiliated Departments
- Past Graduate Students
- Books
- Public Engagement
- Writings on Not Even Past
External Links
- • "Navajos Fight to Protect Their Brand" in Pacific Standard
- • "Stop Trying to Control Nature" in Time
- • “Oregon standoff mirrors westward expansion” in Al Jazeera America
- • Learn about her Building America class in Life and Letters
- • Radical Hope Conference
- • "The climate crisis will not be solved by technology alone" in the American-Statesman
- • "Timeline Tool Connects the Dots"
- • "Helping Students Visualize History"
- • ClioVis: Digital Timeline Software
- • Radical Hope Syllabus Project: A Group Sourced Pedagogy Project
- Radical Hope in the News