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FACULTY & STAFF

Dr. Greg O'Brien

Contact Information

Email: wgobrien@uncg.edu
Office: 2129 MHRA

Education

Ph.D., University of Kentucky, 1998
M.A., James Madison University, 1994
B.A., Randolph-Macon College, 1988

Academic Positions

Head, Department of History, UNC-Greensboro, 2019-present
Associate Head, Department of History, UNC-Greensboro, 2017-2019
Associate Professor, Department of History, UNC-Greensboro, 2008-present
Executive Editor, Native South journal, 2013-2018
Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History, UNC-Greensboro, 2010-2015
Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi, 1998-2008
Visiting Professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College, 2004
Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History, U. of Southern Mississippi, 2002-2004

Research Interests

My research interests are in ethnohistory, American Indians of the Southeast, American environmental history (particularly in the South), and the American Revolutionary era. I have focused extensively on Choctaw Indian history before the 1830s.

"Pre-removal Choctaw History with Greg O’Brien," an interview by the Choctaw Nation Historic Preservation Office, October 6, 2020.

Listen to an interview with Dr. O'Brien:

Current Project

My current book project is a study of the 1849 New Orleans flood, the worst flood to hit that city before Hurricane Katrina. My longer-range project is a study of the Seven Years War (French and Indian War) in the South (1750s-1760s) focusing on American Indian diplomatic initiatives and relations between Indians and Europeans.

Courses Taught

HIS 209, World Environmental History
HIS 211, US History before 1865
HIS 322, American Indian History after 1840
HIS 323, American Indians and Nature
HIS 333, American Indian History to 1840
HIS 334, Environmental History of the United States
HIS 335, Colonial America
HIS 434, The American Revolution
HIS 411A, Seminar in Historical Research and Writing: "American Indian History before 1840"
HIS 520, Southern History: Southeastern Indian History
HIS 522, Revolts and Rebellions in Colonial America
HIS 701, Colloquium in US History to 1865
HIS 722, Topics in Early American History: Deep and Vast Early America
HIS 722, Topics in Early American History: Early American Indian History
HIS 722, Topics in Early American History: The American Revolution
HIS 723, Topics in 19th Century U.S. History: The Market Revolution

Selected Publications

The Native South: New Histories and Enduring Legacies (University of Nebraska Press, 2017).
"The Fly-Fishing Engineer: George T. Dunbar, Jr. and the Conservation Ethic in Antebellum America," in Bryon Borgelt, Samuel Snyder, and Elizabeth Tobey, eds., Backcasts: A Global History of Fly Fishing and Conservation (University of Chicago Press, 2016).
"Satire and Politics in the New Orleans Flood of 1849," in Cindy Ermus, ed. Environmental Disaster in the Gulf South: Two Centuries of Catastrophe, Risk, and Resilience. (LSU Press, 2018).
Pre-Removal Choctaw History: Exploring New Paths (University of Oklahoma Press, 2008).
Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, 1750-1830 (University of Nebraska Press, 2002, 2005).
Other publications listed on Vitae.

Selected Awards and Honors

Dianne Woest Fellowship in the Arts and Humanities, Historic New Orleans Collection, 2006
Mississippi Humanities Council Teacher Award, 2005
Who's Who in American Education, 2004
McLemore Prize from the Mississippi Historical Society for the best book published on a Mississippi history topic in 2003.
Fletcher M. Green and Charles W. Ramsdell Award for the best article published in the Journal of Southern History during the two-preceding years, 2002.

PhD students working with me

Jeanna DeVita (entered program in 2021, M.A. from Sam Houston State University), Early American Cultural Brokers
Katie Duckworth (entered program in 2018, M.A. from UNCG), Cherokee women and medical practice
Ashley Gilbert (entered program in 2019, M.A. from VCU), Taverns and Political Culture in 18th century North Carolina and Virginia
Zoey Hanson (entered program in 2023, M.A. from UNCG), Environmental History
Jewel Parker (entered program in 2018, MA from Appalachian State University), Intercultural medical practice in the early South
Richard Smith, (entered program in 2016, MA from George Mason), race and politics in early Maryland

Dissertations Directed at UNCG

Arlen Hanson (MA from UNCG), "Troubled Voices: Choctaws in Mass Deportation and Ethnic Cleansing" (2021) Instructor at UNC-Pembroke
Stuart Marshall (M.A. from UNCG), "The Age of Junaluska: Eastern Cherokee Sovereignty in the Long Civil War Era" (2023) Visiting Assistant Professor at Sewanee: University of the South
Sarah McCartney (MA from William & Mary), "O'er Mountains And Rivers': Community And Commerce In The Greenbrier River Valley In The Late Eighteenth Century" (2018) Assistant Teaching Professor for NIAHD (National Institute of American History & Democracy) and the Department of History at the College of William & Mary
Jamie Mize (MA from North Georgia), "Sons of Selu: Manhood and Gendered Power in Cherokee Society, 1775-1846" (2017) Associate Professor of History at UNC-Pembroke
Steven Peach (MA from Northern Illinois), "'The Three Rivers Have Talked': The Creek Indians and Community Politics in the Native South, 1753-1821" (2016) Associate Professor of History at Tarleton State College
Jason Stroud (MA from N.C. State), "Crime, Justice, and Order in the North Carolina Piedmont, 1760-1806" (2019) Assistant Professor of History at Greensboro College, NC
Monica R. Ward (MA from Rutgers), "Little Tallassee: A Creek Indian Colonial Town" (2019) Full-time Lecturer at Bryant University, Rhode Island