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General Interests
"My research focuses on marriage in Minnesota before 1850, particularly as a means of understanding gender, sexuality, race and nation-building in the region. Marriages of all kinds, and the households that marriages created, were inextricably bound up with questions of nation and identity for the Dakota, the Ojibwe, mixed-heritage individuals, and Americans who interacted in the Upper Midwest. Through the stories of married - and divorcing - men and women in the region, we can trace the uneven fortunes of American expansion in the early nineteenth century, and the nation-shaping power of marital acts.
It's a concurrent interest of mine to find creative ways to train and support K-12 teachers who are social science educators. I am the Lead Historian for Bringing History Home in Iowa, where I work with teachers to help them create dynamic curriculums based on primary source research. Funded by federal Teaching American History grants totally more than $3 million dollars since 2001, Bringing History Home has served over 900 teachers across Iowa, Alaska, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, and Wyoming. We conservatively estimate that 45,000 elementary school children and 15,000 middle and high school students have passed through our program, demonstrating a statistically significant improvement in their historical thinking skills as a result."
Years at Knox: 2005 to present
Education
Ph.D., History, 2005, University of Iowa.
MA, History, 1996, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
B.A., (Hons), American Studies, 1994, University of Nottingham.
Teaching Interests
American Indian History, Women and Gender in North America, Sexuality and Marital Law.
Full Curriculum Vitae - (DOC)
Honors/Grants
Research Funding from the College Faculty Career Enhancement Grant, awarded to Knox College by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, July 2011.
Council of Independent Colleges / Gilder Lehrman American History Seminar Travel Grant, June 2008.
Seashore Dissertation Fellow, University of Iowa, 2004-2005.
Newberry Library/Centers for Institutional Cooperation Research Fellow, 2003-2004.
Charles Strong Research Fellow, Department of History, University of Iowa, 2003-2004.
Charles Strong Research Fellow, Department of History, University of Iowa, 2002-2003.
Newberry Library/CIC-American Indian Studies Consortium Travel Grant, September 2002.
Nominee, Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Iowa, 2002.
University of Iowa Student Government Travel Grant, September 2001.
Alice E. Smith Research Fellow, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 2000-2001.
Best Paper, CIC-AISC Graduate Student Conference, 2001.
Nominee, Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Iowa, 1999.
Publications
Review of Mary Lethert Wingerd, North Country: The Making of Minnesota. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010, in American Indian Culture and Research Journal, forthcoming, 2011.
"A Summer's Koan," Guest Contributer, NPR's On Being blog, August 20, 2011.
Review of Carl J. Ekberg, Stealing Indian Women: Native Slavery in the Illinois Country. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2007, in The Annals of Iowa, 70.1 (Winter 2011) 67-69.
"Pelagie Farribault's Island: Property, Kinship, and the Contested Meaning of Marriage in Dakota Country, Fort Snelling, 1820-1838," Minnesota History 62.2 (Summer 2010): 48-59.
"Reading the Revolution as More Than Just Shorthand," Guest Opinion, Iowa City Press-Citizen, July 3, 2010. (Also carried in a dozen other newspapers nationwide, including the Oregon Statesman Journal and the Pennsylvania Pocono Record.)
"Ethics for Historians: The Perspective of One Undergraduate Class." Perspectives on History. January 2010.
Review of Rebecca Kugel and Lucy Eldersveld Murphy, eds., Native Women's History in Eastern North American before 1900: A Guide to Research and Writing. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007, in American Indian Culture and Research Journal 32.1 (2008): 143-145.
Presentations
"SOCC it to 'em: Teaching Historical Thinking Skills in High School and College," Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, April 18-22, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
"Teaching College-Level History," Workshop for Graduate History Instructors, University of Iowa, Department of History, August 18, 2011.
"The Digital Early Republic," Roundtable Panelist, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Annual Meeting, July 22-25, 2010, Rochester, New York.
Panel Commenter, The May Brodbeck Symposium: New Voices in Women's and Gender History, May 9, 2010, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
"To Calm the Sterner Passions of Man: Women, Politics, and the History of Marriage in the United States." Women's History Month Guest Speaker, Carl Sandburg Community College, March 18, 2010, Galesburg, Illinois.
"Exhibiting History: Making the Lincoln-Douglas Debate Come Alive." Professional Development Workshop for Teachers (with Knox students Erin Souza and Margaret Spiegel), Conference on Illinois History, October 1-2, 2009, Springfield, Illinois.
"Pelagie Farribault's Island: Property, Kinship, and the Contested Meaning of Marriage in Dakota Country, Fort Snelling, 1820-1838." Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Annual Meeting, July 16-19, 2009, Springfield, Illinois.
Panel Chair and Commenter: Minnesota in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. The State We're In: Creative and Critical Approaches to Minnesota History at 150, May 28-30, 2008, Collegeville, Minnesota.
"From Chaos to Citizenship: Revising the American History Survey Course," ACM FaCE Workshop: Teaching History Survey Courses, April 14, 2007, Monmouth, Illinois.
"Bringing History Home: Transforming K-5 Social Studies Education in Five Iowa School Districts," Illinois Association of Teacher Educators Conference, October 27, 2006, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois.
Panel Member, "Linking History Content Institutes to Classroom Teaching." U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History Program, Annual Project Directors' Meeting, April 19-20, 2005, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Campus & Community Involvement
Elected Faculty Observer to the Board of Trustees, 2011-2013.
Coordinator of Assessment, Department of History, 2010 to present.
Ford Fellowship Committee, 2010-2011.
Curriculum Committee, 2007-2010.
First Year Preceptorial Steering Committee, 2006-2008; 2009-2010.
Honorary Degrees Subcommittee, 2007-2010.
Alumni Hall Visitors' Center Committee, 2006-2010.
What Students Say
"Catherine Denial is not just a professor; she is a friend to many students and yet she maintains respect and discipline in her classes. She focuses on the forgotten aspects and people of history and finds ways to make the most dull events exciting."
-Sara Patterson, Chemistry and History double major
"I couldn't ask for more from a professor and advisor. Catherine continually provides her students with new perspectives on history, and she is committed to her students' success both inside and outside of the classroom."
-Erin Souza, History major
"Horizons: A Celebration of Student Inquiry, Imagination, and Creativity" featured student research presentations in the humanities, sciences and social sciences on May 5, and student presentations in music in on May 8.
"Horizons: A Celebration of Student Inquiry, Imagination, and Creativity" at Knox College in May 2012 included award presentations in art, art history, fiction, poetry and playwriting.
Horizons 2012 featured student work in the performing arts -- dance and music -- including the Knox College Choir's world premiere of "Youth and Pioneers: An Ode" and the formal Spring Dance Concert.
