Craig Rigdon
Office Location:
Office Telephone:
E-mail: craig.rigdon@umontana.edu
Current Position:
PhD Candidate, University of Montana, Department of History
Description:
Craig Rigdon's dissertation, tentatively titled "A Little Plat of Heaven: Development in the Rural Rocky Mountain West," looks at how romantic notions of the Old West and the ideas of the modern environmental movement have interacted to reshape the landscape and the culture of the post-World War II West. More specifically, he is using a series of "representative events" to understand how both sets of ideas influence the ways in which the Rocky Mountain West was, and continues to be, developed. Research topics include: access to public lands, selling the mythology of the West, wildlife and wildfire issues along the "frontier" of western development, recreational homesteading, and the changing land use patterns in the rural Rocky Mountain West.
Fellowships and Awards:
Winner, Richard Drake Writing Award, 2012
Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, Summer Research Award, 2012-2013
Matthew Hansen Endowment Research Grant, 2012 - 2013
Moser-McKinney Fellowship, 2008 – 2012
Bertha Morton Scholarship recipient, 2009 – 2010
Winner, Notes from the Field writing contest, Flyway Magazine, 2008
Fellow, Environmental Writing Institute, University of Montana, 2007
Field Of Study:
American West and Environmental History; Fire History; Native American History
Education:
PhD candidate (ABD), History, University of Montana
M.S., Environmental Studies, University of Montana, 2007
B.S., Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1997
Teaching Experience:
HSTA 391 The American West: Environmental History since 1848
ENST 594 Environmental History of the American West
HSTA 364 Environmental History of the American West (teaching assistant)
PHYS 225 Introduction to Physics and Astronomy (teaching assistant)
EVOL 212 Introduction to Evolution (teaching assistant)
