Catherine Denial

Assistant Professor of History

General Interests
"My research focuses on gender, sexuality, race and nation-building in the United States, especially before 1865. I am particularly interested in the ways in which contact between different cultures took place in disparate times and places. My focus is primarily on the region we now call Minnesota, in the years before it became a territory, and the ways in which Ojibwe, Dakota, and non-Native men and women, both enslaved and free, defined and experienced the idea of freedom in radically different ways.

A concurrent interest of mine is finding creative ways to train and support K-12 teachers who are social science educators. I am a project historian for both Bringing History Home and The Grant Wood History Institute in Iowa, where I work with teachers to help them create curriculums based on primary source research. Funded by federal Teaching American History grants totaling more than $3 million over the last several years, Bringing History Home has been implemented in seven Iowa school districts. The Grant Wood History Institute works with middle and high school teachers from thirty-two districts across eastern Iowa. We hope to expand our operations into Kansas City in the coming year."

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

Recent Recognition
Awards
Nominee, Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Iowa, 2002.

Best Paper, CIC-AISC Graduate Student Conference, 2001.

Nominee, Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Iowa, 1999.

Grants
Council of Independent Colleges / Gilder Lehrman American History Seminar Travel Grant, June 2008.

Newberry Library/CIC-American Indian Studies Consortium Travel Grant, September 2002.

University of Iowa Student Government Travel Grant, September 2001.

Fellowships
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.

Alice E. Smith Research Fellow, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 2000-2001.

Recent Accomplishments
Publications
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.

Encyclopedia entries on African-Americans; Marriage and Family Life; Seneca Falls; Women: Status and Rights. Expansion and Reform, 1813-1855. Encyclopedias of American History IV. Edited by Malcolm Rohrbough. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2002.

Presentations
"Exhibiting History: Making the Lincoln-Douglas Debate Come Alive." Teacher Workshop (with students Margaret Spiegel and Erin Souza), Conference on Illinois History, Springfield, Illinois, October 1-2, 2009.

"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, Springfield, Illinois, July 17, 2009.

"Pelagie Farribault's Island: Marriage, Property, and Race in the Great Lakes Borderlands, 1819-1845." Fridays at Four Series, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, February 27, 2009.

"'Mutually Desirous of Dissolving the Marriage Contract': Unpacking the Meaning of an Anglo-American Divorce in Dakota and Ojibwe Country, 1835-1845." The State We're In: Creative and Critical Approaches to Minnesota History at 150, Collegeville, Minnesota, May 28-30, 2008.

Panel Chair and Commenter: Minnesota in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. The State We’re In: Creative and Critical Approaches to Minnesota History at 150, Collegeville, Minnesota, May 28-30, 2008.

"From Chaos to Citizenship: Revising the American History Survey Course," ACM FaCE Workshop: Teaching History Survey Courses, Monmouth, Illinois, April 14, 2007.

Commentator in absentia, Panel: Native Americans and Europeans in Colonial America, Missouri Valley History Conference, Omaha, Nebraska, 2007.

"Bringing History Home: Transforming K-5 Social Studies Education in Five Iowa School Districts." Illinois Association of Teacher Educators Conference, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, 2006.

"The Changing Face of Motherhood in America." Knox County Genealogical Society, Galesburg, Illinois, 2006.

"The Irish in America." Knox County Genealogical Society, Galesburg, Illinois, 2006.

"The Gritty, Elusive Nature of History." Iowa Council for the Social Studies Fall Conference, Des Moines, Iowa, 2005.

"Linking History Content Institutes to Classroom Teaching." U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History Program, Annual Project Directors' Meeting, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2005.

"Mapping Identity: Defining 'Place' in the Early Nineteenth Century Upper Midwest." CIC-American Indian Studies Consortium Graduate Student Conference, Chicago, Illinois, 2003.

"Why Women's History Matters." Women's History Month Celebration, Buena Vista University, Storm Lake, Iowa, 2002.

"'On account of the Hostile Incursion of the Sioux Indians:' Wisconsin Territory and the Strange Case of Margaret McCoy's Divorce." American Society for Ethnohistory Annual Meeting, Tucson, Arizona, 2001.

"Meeting Margaret McCoy." CIC-American Indian Studies Consortium Graduate Student Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2001.

Campus & Community Involvement
Participant, Council of Independent Colleges / Gilder Lehrman American History Seminar, New York University.
Participant, Newberry Library/CIC-AISC Fall Workshop, University of Iowa.
Program Historian, Bringing History Home, K-6 Educators' Professional Development Program.
Research, technical and pedagogical consultant for curriculum development and teacher training, K-5.
Workshop leader, summer professional development workshops and school-year in-services, Washington, Perry, and Prairie school districts, Iowa; Community Unit School District #205, Galesburg, Illinois.Program Historian, Grant Wood History Institute, Middle and High School Educators' Professional Development Program.
Co-leader, Spring Paradigm Workshop.
Faculty leader and facilitator, middle school programming, Summer Institute.

What Students Say
"Catherine Denial is not just a professor she is a friend to many students and yet she maintains respect and disipline in her classes. She focuses on the forgetten 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

Contact
309-341-7382
cdenial@knox.edu