![Dale Potts](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_image_/public/Potts%2C%20Dale_2016.jpg?itok=PSaDF7fj)
Dale Potts
Associate Professor of History
Education
- M.A. in humanities | The Pennsylvania State University | 1997
- Ph.D. in history | University of Maine at Orono | 2007
Academic and Professional Experience
Academic Interests
- American environmental history
- American Indian history
- American popular culture
- Environmental history
- Social and cultural history of the U.S.
Academic Responsibilities
- United States History I and II
- World Civilizations I and II
- Environmental History of the U.S.
- World Environmental History
- Folklore and Popular Culture of the U.S.
- U.S. History Since 1941
- American Indians and Film
Committees and Professional Memberships
Committees
- History Program Lead
- Teacher Education Faculty Committee
- Graduate School Representative
- Certified Peer Observer
- History Discipline Representative for Hilton M. Briggs Library
- Search Committees
Professional Memberships
- American Folklore Society (AFS)
- Agricultural History Society (AHS)
- Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures (ASAIL)
- American Society for Environmental History (ASEH)
- Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE)
- Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP)
Research and Scholar Work
Areas of Research
- Nature writers
- The modern environmental movement
Awards and Honors
- 2022, Timothy J. Nicholas Outstanding Undergraduate Academic Advising Award, 葫芦影业.
- 2020, Edward Patrick Hogan Award for Teaching Excellence, 葫芦影业.
- 2017, James Phinney Baxter Award, best journal article in Maine History for the previous year. Awarded May, 2019 for "'There are Folks Comin' after Us that will Need Trees,': Progressive Era Conservation, the Woods Tradition and Maine Writer Holman Francis Day." Maine History 52: no. 1 (Winter 2017): 17-46.
- 2016 Kentucky Historical Society Scholarly Research Fellowship, Kentucky Historical Society Foundation, research on writer Jesse Stuart and the maintenance of the twentieth-century rural landscape of Kentucky.
- 2009-2010, Science, Technology and Society Research Scholar, Colby College, Waterville, Maine.
- 2007, Outstanding Graduate Student: Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Maine.
- 2006, New England Historical Association Conference, Best Graduate Student Paper.
- 2005-2006, Canadian-American Center, Maine Atlas Project Research Assistant.
- 2004-2005, University of Maine Graduate School Research Fellowship.
- Spring 2005, John J. Nolde Lectureship, U.S. History II, University of Maine.
- 2004, Maine Economic Improvement Fund Summer Research Grant.
- 2004, National Folk Festival/Maine Folklife Center Summer Internship.
- 2003-2004, New England-Atlantic Provinces-Quebec Fellowship, Canadian-American Center.
- 2000-2003, Teaching Assistant, Department of History, University of Maine
Publications
Conference Papers, Invited Lectures:
- American Society for Environmental History (ASEH) Virtual Conference, March 28, 2024, "Indigenous Guides and Naturalist Vistas: Twentieth-century Naturalists, Nature Writing, and the Role of Indigenous Collaborative Voices."
- American Folklore Society (AFS) Virtual Conference, Oct. 18, 2021, "Ancient Mother in Her Robes of Green: The Modern Nature Essay and the Search for Cultural and Environmental Connections to the Land."
- Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing Conference, Amherst, Massachusetts, July 2019. 鈥淧ulp Fiction Markets, Editorial Selection and the Presentation of Native Americans, 1900-1930.鈥
- Thoreau Society Annual Gathering, Concord, Massachusetts, July 2019. Invitation to participate in a panel on the impact of Henry David Thoreau鈥檚 book, Maine Woods (1864). I presented a discussion on my chapter contribution to the 2019 anthology Rediscovering the Maine Woods.
- Staging the Space Between Society Conference, 葫芦影业, May 30-June 1, 2019. 鈥淢aliseet Writer Henry Perley and a Native American Perspective on the Twentieth-Century North Woods.鈥
- International Conference on Global Human Rights, 葫芦影业, Brookings, South Dakota, October 2018. 鈥淐limate Change, Environmental Justice, and the Legacies of Colonialism in the South Pacific.鈥
- Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, June 2017. 鈥淗e Would Not Ask for More鈥: Tradition and Environment in Maliseet Writer Henry Perley鈥檚 Pulp-Fiction of the Maine North Woods.
- Agricultural History Society, Edith Macy Center, New York, New York, June 2016. 鈥淭o keep all their topsoil from washing away: Writer Jesse Stuart and the Maintenance of the Twentieth-Century Rural Landscape of Kentucky.鈥
- Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, June 2015. 鈥淭he Wood Box in the Cabin: Reconciling Forest Aesthetics with Promoting the Outdoor Life in the Writings of Calvin Rutstrum, 1940-1980.鈥
- American Literature Association Conference, Thoreau Society Panel on the Legacy of Thoreau鈥檚 The Maine Woods, Westin Copley Place, Boston, Massachusetts, May 2015. 鈥淧opular Literature and Conservation in the Maine Woods.鈥
- Agricultural History Society Conference, Provo, Utah, June 2014. 鈥淟and, Weather and Endurance: Hal Borland, Genteel Farming and the Conservation of Nature and Culture, 1920-1970.鈥
- Northeast and Atlantic Canada Environmental History Conference, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, September 28th, 2013. 鈥溾橝 Greenness Already Determined鈥: Writer/Naturalist Hal Borland, Popular Environmental Literature, and Nature as More than the Backdrop to History, 1946-1978.鈥
- Northeast and Atlantic Canada Environmental History Conference, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, October 27, 2012. 鈥淭he Recreational Culture of the North Woods: Unconventional Sources and the Reliability of Evidence.鈥
- Agricultural History Society Conference, Springfield, Illinois, June 2011. 鈥淏etween Forest and Field: American Regional Debates on the Connectivity between Agriculture and Wild Nature, 1940-1960.鈥
- Rural Heritage Institute, Sterling College, Vermont, June 2010. 鈥淟ocal Sustainability and Worldwide Movements: Regional Histories, Cross-Regional Debates.鈥
- Popular Culture/American Culture Association, St. Louis, Missouri, April 2010. 鈥淣ew York to California: New England Airships, Itinerant Inventors, and Antebellum American Advertising.鈥
- Colby College, Science Technology and Society Research Scholar Presentation, April 29, 2010. 鈥淩. Porter and Co.: Aerial Transports, the Useful Arts, and the Best Route to California, 1849.鈥
- New England Historical Association, Portland, Maine, April 2009. 鈥淐ommunity within Nature: Northern Agrarianism, Environmental Preservation, and the Farm Literature of New England, 1930-1950.鈥
- Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association Conference, October 2008. 鈥淒efining Roles: Cultural Sensitivity and Native American Representations in Hollywood Films, 1980-2007.鈥
- Rural Heritage Institute, Sterling College, Craftsbury Common, Vermont, June 2008. 鈥淣orthern Agrarianism: Working Pasts and Leisured Presents in the Chimney Farm Non-fiction of Henry Beston and Elizabeth Coatsworth, 1944-48.鈥
- Popular Culture/American Culture Association, San Francisco, California, April 2008. 鈥淣orth Woods Melodrama: The Growth of the Lumber Hero in American Pulp Fiction and Film, 1910-1930.鈥
- New England Historical Association, Worcester, Massachusetts, October 2007. 鈥淭he Old Squire鈥檚 Farm: C.A. Stephens, Popular Literature, and New England鈥檚 Agricultural Decline, 1890-1930.鈥
- Popular Culture/American Culture Association, Boston, Massachusetts, April 2007. 鈥淔inding that Cabin in the Woods: The Popular Literature of the Northeastern Forest, 1930-1960.鈥
- New England Historical Association, Dartmouth, Massachusetts, October 2006. 鈥淲oods Enough Still: Transforming Henry David Thoreau鈥檚 Recreational Landscape in Popular Tourist Literature of Maine, 1860-1900.鈥
- Popular Culture/American Culture Association, Atlanta, Georgia, April 2006. 鈥淕uiding the Populace: Conservation, Local Culture and Traditional Practices in the Recreation Writings of Henry Red Eagle.鈥
- American Society for Environmental History, St. Paul, Minnesota, April 2006. 鈥淎uthority in the Forest: Recreation and Resource Use in the Popular Literature of the Maine North Woods, 1910-1941.鈥
- Agricultural History Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, June 2006. 鈥淣o Time to Search the Woods: Traditional Farm Knowledge and the Wild Lands of Maine in the Depression-era Fiction of Gladys Hasty Carroll.鈥
- Agricultural History Society Symposium, Cornell University, September 2004. 鈥淲hen Field and Forest Meet: Valuation of the Small Farm Woodlot in the Popular Literature of Maine, 1930-1959.鈥
Journal Articles:
- "A 'Greenness Already Determined:' Hal Borland, Popular Nature Writing and the Modern Environmental Movement, 1946-1978." , Advance Online Article publication, October 15, 2020. Print publication, 28: no. 1 (Spring 2021): 113-143.
- 鈥淭o keep all their topsoil from washing away: Writer Jesse Stuart and the Maintenance of the Twentieth-Century Rural Landscape of Kentucky,鈥 The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 116: nos. 3 and 4 (Summer/Autumn 2018): 335-375.
- 鈥淭here are Folks Comin' After Us That Will Need Trees: Progressive Era Conservation, the Woods Tradition and Maine Writer Holman Francis Day." Maine History 52:1 (Winter 2017-2018): 17-46.
- 鈥淥nly the Government Can Do It: Assessing the Role of the United States Forest Service Under the United States Department of Agriculture, 1881-1990.鈥 Agricultural History 87:3 (Summer 2013): 323-332.
- 鈥淚ndian Storyteller in the Mainstream: Henry Perley of Maine and the Pulp-Fiction Market, 1910-1930.鈥 Studies in American Indian Literatures, 鈥淚ndigenous New England鈥 Special Issue 24:3 (Fall 2012): 53-70.
- 鈥淐ommunity within Nature: Culture and Environment in the Works of Henry Beston and Elizabeth Coatsworth, 1944-1948.鈥 Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 19:2 (Fall 2011): 820-839.
- 鈥淗enry Red Eagle, Popular Literature and the Reassertion of a Native American Connection to the Maine North Woods, 1910-1960.鈥 Maine History - Reconstructing Maine鈥檚 Wabanaki History 43:2 (August 2007): 187-217.
- Anthology Chapters: "The Big Sioux River Watershed: Changing Perceptions of River Health and the Role of State Soil and Water Conservation Districts in Twentieth Century South Dakota," in Heartland River: A Cultural and Environmental History of the Big Sioux River Valley, edited by Jon K. Lauck. Augustana University, Sioux Falls: Center for Western Studies, 2022.
- 鈥淢ultiple Use and Its Discontents: Popular Conservation Writing in the Maine Woods a Century after Thoreau.鈥 In Rediscovering the Maine Woods, edited by John Kusich, 169-192. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 2019.
- 鈥淗enry Red Eagle and the Native American Presence in the New England Woods.鈥 In A Landscape History of New England, edited by Richard W. Judd and Blake Harrison, 91-107. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2011.
Book Reviews:
- Book Review of Robert M. Thorson鈥檚 The Boatman: Henry David Thoreau鈥檚 River Years. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2017. Published in Environmental History 24:1 (January 2019), 223-225.
- Book review of Arthur Buntin鈥檚 Moccasin and Foote Creeks: A Brown County Saga of Challenge and Response, 1880s-2013. Aberdeen: Aberdeen/Brown County Landmarks Commission, 2014. Published in Great Plains Quarterly 38:1 (Winter 2018), 116-117.
- Book Review of Christopher Isett and Stephen Miller鈥檚 The Social History of Agriculture: From the Origins to the Current Crisis. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2017. Published in Agricultural History 92:4 (Fall 2018), 617-619.
- Book Review of Daniel G. Payne鈥檚 Orion on the Dunes: A Biography of Henry Beston. Jaffrey, New Hampshire: David R. Godine, 2016. Published in Maine History, 52:2 (Summer 2018), 236-238.
- Book Review of Matthew N. Johnston's Narrating the Landscape: Print Culture and American Expansion in the Nineteenth Century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016. Published in South Dakota History 48:2 (Summer 2018), 166-167.
- Book review of John F. Bauman鈥檚 Gateway to Vacationland: The Making of Portland, Maine. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 2012, for Maine History (2015).
- Book review of Pamela Riney-Kehrberg鈥檚 The Nature of Childhood: An Environmental History of Growing up in America Since 1865. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2014, for the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (2015).
- Book review of Aaron Shapiro鈥檚 The Lure of the North Woods: Cultivating Tourism in the Upper Midwest. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota press, 2013, for The Michigan Historical Review, (Spring 2014).
- Book review of William David Barry and Patricia McGraw Anderson鈥檚 Deering: A Social and Architectural History. Portland: Greater Portland Landmarks, 2010, for Maine History (2014).
- Book review of Foster, Charles H.W., Ed. Twentieth-Century New England Land Conservation: A Heritage of Civic Engagement. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009, for Maine History (January 2013).
- Book review of Corey Lee Lewis, Reading the Trail: Exploring the Literature and Natural History of the California Crest, Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2005, for H-Environment, (2008).
- Book review of Robert T. Self, Robert Altman鈥檚 McCabe and Mrs. Miller: Reframing the American West. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2007, for The Journal of Popular Culture, (December 2008).
- Book review of Melanie L. Simo, Literature of Place: Dwelling on the Land before Earth Day 1970. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 2005, for the New England Historical Association Newsletter, spring (S.
- Book review of Rebecca Kneale Gould, At Home in Nature: Modern Homesteading and Spiritual Practice in America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005, for H-Environment, (2006).
Abstracts:
- 鈥淧opular Literature and Conservation in the Maine Woods,鈥 Abstract, The Thoreau Society Bulletin 290 (Summer, 2015): 10.
Other Research:
- Hornsby, Stephen J., Richard W. Judd and Dale E. Potts, 鈥淗unting and Fishing in the Maine Woods鈥 and 鈥淰acationland鈥 plates for The Historical Atlas of Maine (Orono: University of Maine Press, 2015): Plates 60 and 72.
Associated Areas