Dr. Benac's Faculty Page

Dr. Benac's Faculty Page



David Benac Benac Picture

Position: Assistant Professor
Fields of Study: Public History, US History, Environmental History

Classes Usually Taught: US History Surveys, Introduction to Public History, Public

History Internship, Public History Seminar, Historic Preservation Seminar, Historical Editing, Introduction to Archival Practice, Local/Regional History, Family History, Introduction to Museum Practice, Heritage Tourism, Audience and Media, and Oral History

Office Room Number: 347E

Office Phone Number: 985-549-5723

E-Mail: dbenac@selu.edu

Faculty Web Page Address: http://www.selu.edu/Academics/Faculty/dbenac/

Education: BA in History, Michigan State University (1995); MA in Public History, Indiana University--Purdue University at Indianapolis (1997); PhD in History, University of Missouri (2003)

 

Book:
  • Conflict in the Ozarks: Hill Folk, Industrialists, and Government in the Courtois Hills. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2010.


Articles/Reviewed Publications:

  • Perrault, Stephanie, Emily Crowe, Nathanael Heller, Susan Barrett Smith, David Benac, and William P. Athens, Phase I Cultural Resources Survey and Archeological Inventory of the Proposed Southern Natural Gas Company South System Expansion III Project Fulton, Clayton, Spalding, Lamar, and Upson Counties, Georgia. Submitted by R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates, Inc. to Southern Natural Gas Company, 2009.
  • Eberwine, James, David Benac, Emily Crowe, and William P. Athens, Phase I Cultural Resources Survey and Archeological Inventory of the Proposed 97.6 ha (241.1 ac) River Birch Landfill Borrow Location Project, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. Submitted by R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates, Inc. to River Birch Inc., Highway 90, LLC, 2008.
  • David Benac, “Whose Forest Is This? Hillfolk, Industrialists, and Government in the Ozarks,” Missouri Historical Review (Oct. 2006)
  • David Benac, “Ozarkers and Industry: The Integration of Economic and Social Behaviors,” Big Muddy: Journal of the Mississippi River Valley (Spring 2006)
  • David Benac and Susan Flader, “History of Missouri Forests in the Era of Exploitation and Conservation.” Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-73. (Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station, 2004). pp. 36-41.

 

Professional Activity:

  • November 2010 to present: Vice President for Research and Publication for H-Net
  • Member of program committee for 2011 National Council on Public History Conference.
  • July 2009 to present: Book review editor for H-Environment.
  • December 2009: Historic Preservation Specialist and team leader for the Architectural Reconnaissance Survey for the Dog Creek Wind Energy Development Site, Van Wert and Allen Counties, Ohio
  • December-October 2008: application of the Criteria for Inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places (36 CFR §60.4 [a-d]) leading to determinations of
    eligibility or non eligibility for the following historic sites in New Orleans, LA: The American Can Company Building; the treescape along Banks Street; the Canal Street Guest House; the Carondelet Canal/Bayou St. John corridor; Jefferson Davis Parkway; Dixie Brewery; Schoen Funeral Home; and the Mardi Gras Indians. R. Christopher Goodwin and Associates, Inc., submitted the determinations to the State Historic Preservation Office in Baton Rouge, LA, (where they are filed).
  • January 2008 to July 2009: Consultant for the Pearl River and Honey Island Swamp Museum. Project included all steps in the creation of the museum, including long-term funding and marketing strategies, exhibit content and design, and administrative structure.
  • Design and creation of the Genealogy Research Lab in the Tangipahoa African American Heritage Museum. (Fall 2007)
  • June 2006-August 2009: Historic Preservation Specialist and team leader for Architectural resource surveys in Central City, Mid-City, Faubourg Marigny, and
    Parkview, all neighborhoods within New Orleans, Louisiana. These surveys consisted of evaluating structures for their historical and cultural significance as defined by 36 CFR §60.4 (c) for architecture.
  • June 2006 - December 2008: Historic Preservation Specialist and team leader for Architectural field survey to document structures insoutheast Louisiana damaged
    by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as part of a data-gathering mitigation effort. These surveys consisted of evaluating structures for their historical and cultural
    significance as defined by 36 CFR §60.4 (c) for architecture.
  • History of Missouri: adult class at William Woods University, October 2002.I designed the course for future instructors.

 

Reviews:

  • Review of: Robert G. Pasquill. Planting Hope on Worn-Out Land: History of the Tuskegee Land Utilization Project, Macon County, Alabama, 1935-1959 (Montgomery, Ala., and Louisville, Ky.: NewSouth Books, c. 2008. Pp. 152. $24.95, ISBN 978-1-58838-205-4). In the Journal of Southern History, vol. 76,
    no. 3, Aug 2010, pp. 776-777.
  • Review of: the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Offices website http://www.ncshpo.org. In CRM: The Journal of Heritage Stewardship, Summer 2006
  • Review essay of: James E. Fickle. Mississippi Forests and Forestry. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001, xiv, 347 pp. $35.00. ISBN 1-57806-308-6 and James E. Fickle. Timber: A Photographic History of Mississippi Forestry.Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2004, xv, 151 pp. $35.00. ISBN 1-
    57806-710-3. In the Gulf South Historical Review, Fall 2005.
  • Review of, Tom Rumer. Unearthing the Land: The Story of Ohio’s Scioto Marsh. In Ohio Valley History, vol. 1, no. 3, Fall 2001, p. 48.

Seminars and Training Sessions Attended:

  • National Preservation Institute, “Section 106: An Introduction,” October 2007.

Papers Presented, Panels Chaired, and Special Lectures:

  • “Configuring Boundaries and Determining the Historical.” Accepted for the National Council on Public History Conference, April 2011.
  • “Four Neighborhoods, Four Stories.” Presented at the National Council on Public History annual conference, March 2010. I also served as the organizer for the
    panel entitled “Neighborhood and Community Involvement in Historic Preservation,” for this conference.
  • Chair and commentator for the panel, “Exploiting the Land: The Agriculture and Timber Industries in Missouri and Arkansas.” Presented as part of the “51st
    Annual Missouri Conference on History,” April 2009.
  • “Careers in Public History.” Presented as a workshop for graduate students in history at Southeastern Louisiana University, April 2009.
  • “Milneburg: 150 Years of Recreation.” Presented as part of the Christwood Lecture series, Covington, LA, March 2009
  • “Milneburg: Federal Actions Bury A Recreational Landscape.” Presented at the joint conference of the Pioneer America Society and the Eastern Historical Geography Association, October 2008.
  • Chair for “Urban Landscapes I” panel at the joint conference of the Pioneer America Society and the Eastern Historical Geography Association, October 2008.
  • Graduate Mentoring: A Heavy Responsibility.” Presented at the Susan L. Flader Conference on Missouri Environmental and Cultural History, February 2008.
  • “Trees, Corn, and Cattle: The Ozarks After the Timber Boom.” Presented at the Agricultural History Society, June 2006.
  • “Creating the Woods, Shaping the Forest: Ozarkers’ and Industrial Timber Companies’ Manipulation of the Ozark Forests,” Presented at the Southern Historical Association, November 2005.
  • “Taking Charge: Women in Historic Preservation.” Presented as part of Southeastern Louisiana University’s women’s history month lecture series, March 2005
  • “Respecting Historic Properties in Tangipahoa Parish.” Guest lecture in honor of Justin Barrilleaux at a fundraising event for the Louisiana Preservation Alliance,
    May 2005.
  • Chair for “Forests, Logging, Tourism and Memory” panel at the American Society for Environmental History/National Council on Public History joint conference, April 1, 2004.
  • “The Question of Race in Louisiana During the 1940s.” Presented as part of the “One Book” program at the St. Tammany Parish Library, Covington, April 2004.
  • Chair for “Regulating the Environment and Public Health in the Gulf South” panel at the Gulf South History and Humanities Conference, October 2003.
  • “Government to the rescue? The growth of governmental power in the Missouri Ozarks.” Presented at the Missouri Valley History Conference, March 7, 2003,
    University of Nebraska, Omaha.
  • “The Use and Exploitation of the Missouri Ozarks.” Presented at the Upland Oak Ecology Symposium, October, 2002, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
  • “Manhood in the Ozarks.” Presented at the Mid-America Conference on History, September, 2002, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
  • “A Company Town in the Missouri Ozarks: A Social and Environmental Study of Grandin, MO, and the Missouri Lumber and Mining Company.” Presented at the Ohio Valley History Conference, October 21, 2000, Murray State University, Murray, KY.
  • “Lessons in the Past: Local Reaction to the Missouri-Ozarks Timber Industry.” Presented at the Great Lakes History Conference, October 6, 2000, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI.
  • “The Importance of Independence.” Presented at the Mid-American History Conference, September 22, 2000, University of Kansas, Lawrence.
  • “Clinging to Independence: The Rise and Fall of the Missouri Ozarks Timber
    Industry.” Presented at the Missouri Graduate Conference on History, March 2000, University of Missouri, Columbia.

 

Awards, Grants, and Scholarships:

  • State Historical Society’s Missouri Historical Review Article Award for best article of 2006 for “Whose Forest Is This? Hillfolk, Industrialists, and Government in the Ozarks,” (Oct. 2006).
  • Teaching Enhancement Grant, awarded by the Center for Faculty Excellence at Southeastern Louisiana University, October 2004. Used to buy equipment for the
    Lake Pontchartrain Basin Oral History Project.
  • Faculty Development Grant, awarded by the Center for Faculty Excellence at Southeastern Louisiana University, February 2005. Used to buy equipment and
    supplies for the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Oral History Project.
  • Louisiana State parks awarded a grant to the internship program I created as part of the public history program at Southeastern Louisiana University for the Spring semester of 2005.
  • Dissertation fellowship from the Frank F. and Louise I. Stephens History Scholarship and Fellowship Fund, received winter semester 2002
  • The Allen Cook White, Jr. Fellowship, received in Aug. 2000
  • The Jonas and Ruth H. Viles Memorial Scholarship, received in Aug. 2000
  • Jess Bircher Memorial Scholarship, received in 1994


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