Curriculum Vitae
Michael Weeks
University of Central Oklahoma
Department of History and Geography
100 N. University Dr
Edmond, OK 73034
mweeks3@uco.edu
303-883-8685
EDUCATION
Ph.D., History, University of Colorado, Boulder
Dissertation: Industrializing a Landscape: Northern Colorado and the Making of Agriculture in the Twentieth Century
Fields of Study: Modern United States, Environmental History, American West, Latin America
Adviser: Dr. Paul Sutter
M.A., History, Northern Arizona University
Thesis: Constructing Winter: Flagstaff and the Culture of Snow, 1937-1990
B.A. and Social Science Teaching Credential, San Jose State University
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
2023-Present Assistant Professor of History and Director of History Education, University of Central Oklahoma
2017-2023 History Lecturer, Utah Valley University
2016-2017 Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Our Lady of the Lake University
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Cattle Beet Capital: Making Industrial Agriculture in Northern Colorado. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022).
Articles
“Colorado’s Forgotten Diversion Dilemma,” The Colorado Magazine (Spring/Summer 2023): 27-36.
“COVID-19 and Concentrated Animal Feeding in Historical Perspective,” The Short Rows, August 4, 2020, available from https://www.aghistorysociety.org/ahs-blog/michael-weeks-covid-19-and-concentrated-animal-feeding-in-historical-perspective
“Sugar State: Industry, Science, and Nation in Colorado’s Sugar Beet Fields,” Western Historical Quarterly 48 (October 2017): 367-391.
“Ralph Parshall and Watershed Engineering in Northern Colorado,” (2017) available from https://poudreheritage.org/documents-links-library.
“Irrigation in Colorado,” Colorado Encyclopedia, (2017) available from https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/irrigation-colorado.
“Fences, Conservation, and Tourism: A History of the Jackson Hole Wildlife Park.” University of Wyoming National Park Service Research Center Annual Report: Vol. 35, Article 7 (2012).
“Winter on the Margins: Promoting Flagstaff as a Winter Playground.” Journal of Arizona History 52 (Spring 2011): 53-72.
Book Chapters
“Measuring Expertise: Ralph Parshall and Watershed Management, 1920-1940,” in The Greater Plains: Rethinking a Region’s Environmental Histories (University of Nebraska Press, 2021).
Book Reviews
Making Machines of Animals: The International Livestock Exposition, by Neal A. Knapp, Agricultural History 98 (Fall 2024).
The Washington Apple: Orchards and the Development of Industrial Agriculture, by Amanda Van Lanen, Western Historical Quarterly 53 (Spring 2024): 73.
The Foundations of Glen Canyon Dam: Infrastructures of Dispossession and the Colorado Plateau, by Erika Marie Bsumek, Mormon Studies Review 11 (2024): 147.
Salinas: A History of Race and Resilience in an Agricultural City, by Carol Lynn McKibben, H-Net Reviews, (December 2022): Available from: https://networks.h-net.org/node/19397/reviews/11980105/weeks-mckibben-salinas-history-race-and-resilience-agricultural-city
Water and Agriculture in Colorado and the American West: First in Line for the Rio Grande, by David Stiller, Environmental History 27 (October 2022): 832.
A Land Made from Water: Appropriation and the Evolution of Colorado’s Landscape, Ditches, and Water Institutions, by Robert Crifasi, Environmental History 22 (July 2017): 540.
Persistent Progressives: The Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, by John F. Freeman, Agricultural History 91 (Fall 2017): 603.
Colorado Powder Keg: Ski Resorts and the Environmental Movement, by Michael W. Childers, Environmental History 18 (July 2013): 644.
Manuscripts in Preparation
“Sweetness and Pollution: The Colorado Beet Sugar Industry and the South Platte Watershed, 1910-1960,” Potential Journal – Environmental History
“Making Beef: An Oral History of the Modern Feedlot,” Potential Journal – Agricultural History
Fellowships, Grants, and Awards
2024 New Faculty Start-up Grant, University of Central Oklahoma
2023 Research, Creative, and Scholarly Activities Travel Grant, University of Central Oklahoma
Capitol Reef Field Station Research and Teaching Grant, Utah Valley University
Finalist, Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize, University of Nebraska
2020 Engaged Learning in the Liberal Arts Grant, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Utah Valley University
2019 Samuel P. Hays Research Fellowship, American Society for Environmental History
2017 National Science Foundation Travel Grant to the American Society for Environmental History Conference
2016 Department of the Interior/Cache la Poudre River National Heritage Area/Research and Writing Grant
Science History Institute (formerly Chemical Heritage Foundation) Research and Travel Grant
Hagley Museum Exploratory Research Grant
Roaring Fork Dissertation Completion Fellowship, History Department, University of Colorado
2015 Cushwa Center Research Grant, Notre Dame University
Agricultural History Conference Travel Grant, Agricultural History Society
Graduate School Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Graduate School, University of Colorado
Beverly Sears Graduate Grant, Graduate School, University of Colorado
2013 Summer Dissertation Research Fellowship, Graduate School, University of Colorado
2012 National Park Service/University of Wyoming Research Fellowship, University of Wyoming and the National Park Service
2007 Valeen T. Avery Award, Best Graduate Paper, Arizona History Conference
Invited Talks/Media
2024 Roundtable Discussion with Michelle Berry’s Graduate Students on Cattle Beet Capital, University of Arizona, April 15.
“Agricultural Development in the Twentieth Century,” Westerners’ International Chisholm Trail Corral, Oklahoma City, January 18.
2023 “Industrializing Cattle: How Feeders and Feedlots Shaped our Food System,” New Faculty Speaker Series, University of Central Oklahoma, October 20.
Roundtable Discussion with Michael Childers’ Graduate Students on Cattle Beet Capital, Colorado State University, April 18.
2022 Podcast on Cattle Beet Capital, New Books Network: American West, December 17. Available from: https://newbooksnetwork.com/cattle-beet-capital
“Engineering Beef: A Brief History of the Modern Steak,” Roots of Knowledge Speaker Series, Utah Valley University, October 6. Available from: https://uvu.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/RoKspeakers/id/103/rec/1
2020 “Re-thinking Water in Colorado Agricultural History,” Young Farmers, delivered virtually, October 12.
2019 “The Political Ecology of the Modern Feedlot,” Utah Valley University, October 11
“Historical Approaches to Sustainability,” Environmental Ethics Symposium, Utah Valley
University, October 1
2018 “How to Research a Landscape,” Utah Valley University, September 11
“Engineering a Landscape: Ralph Parshall and Water Development in Northern Colorado,” The Gilded Goat, Fort Collins, Colorado, June 27
2016 “Teaching Survey Classes,” University of Colorado, Boulder, January 27
2015 “Federal Scientists in the Sugar Beet Fields, 1900-1950,” Little Thompson Valley Pioneer Museum, Berthoud, Colorado, November 3
“The Past, Present, and Future of Water in Colorado,” Meridian Senior Center, Boulder, Colorado, July 3
2014 “Unpacking the Sand Creek Massacre,” Atria Senior Center, Longmont, Colorado, November 10
CONFERENCE ACTIVITY/PARTICIPATION
Panels Organized
2025 “Re-envisioning the U.S. History Survey: A Confluence of Environmental Perspectives,” American Society for Environmental History,” Pittsburg, April 9-13
2022 “From Pasture to Lagoon: Post-World War II Cattle Landscapes,” American Society for Environmental History, Eugene, March 23-27
2020 “Agricultural Commodities in Environmental History: An Experimental Panel,” American Society for Environmental History, Ottawa, March 25-29 (cancelled due to COVID-19)
2019 “Industrial Food, Industrial Poison: Science, Agriculture, and Knowledge from the West to the Nation…and Back,” Western History Association, Las Vegas, October 16-19
“Unpacking State Power in Agriculture,” Agricultural History Society, Washington D.C., June 6-8
2017 “A Malleable Agroecology: Global Commodities, Regional Crops, Local Landscapes,” American Society for Environmental History, Chicago, March 29–April 2
Selected Conference Papers
2024 Teacher-Scholar Collaboration II, Western History Association, Kansas City, October 23-26
2023 ‘“I Just Got Tired of Fighting’: Oral Histories of Cattle Feeders Responding to Environmental Change after 1970,” Western History Association, Los Angeles, October 25-28
‘“Foul and Turbid’: The Beet Sugar Industry and the Invisibility of Water Pollution, 1910-1950,” Agricultural History Society, Knoxville, Tennessee, June 8-10
2022 “How Cattle Feeding Reshaped a Landscape,” American Society for Environmental History, Eugene, Oregon, March 23-27
2021 “Agroecology and Migrant Labor in the Sugar Beet Fields,” American Historical Association, Seattle, January 7-10 (talk delivered virtually)
2020 “Migrant Labor and Environmental Risk,” American Historical Association, Pacific Coast Branch, Portland, Oregon, August 3-6 (talk delivered virtually)
“How Commercial Cattle Remade a Landscape,” American Society for Environmental History, Ottawa, March 25-29 (cancelled due to COVID-19)
2019 “Importing and Exporting the Colorado Feedlot,” Western History Association, Las Vegas, October 16-19
“Re-Evaluating the Hightower Report,” Agricultural History Society, Washington D.C., June 6-8
2018 “Making Beef: Northern Colorado and the Origins of the Commercial Cattle Feedlot,” Agricultural History Society, Fort Lauderdale, May 24-26
“Sweetness and Pollution: The Colorado Beet Sugar Industry and the South Platte Watershed, 1910-1960,” American Society for Environmental History, Riverside, March 15-18
2017 “Measuring Expertise: How Engineers and Water Managers Shaped Irrigation on the Plains from 1910-1940,” The Great Plains: An Environmental History, Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, May 22-25
“Cultivating Sweetness: How Global Demand Shaped Agricultural Practice and Made an Industry,” American Society for Environmental History, Chicago, March 29–April 2, 2017
2016 “From the Lab to the Field: How Chemicals Became Commonplace in Northern Colorado Agriculture,” Southern Forum on Agricultural, Rural, and Environmental History, Birmingham, Alabama, April 15-16
2015 “Sugar State: How State-Sponsored Science Transformed an Industry,” Workshop for the History of Environment, Agriculture, and Technology (WHEATS), Boulder, Colorado, October 2-4
“The Engineering of an Agricultural Landscape: Cattle, Crops, and Colleges in Northern Colorado, 1880-1930,” Agricultural History Society Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, June 3-6
2012 “Excavating Nature: The Fight over the Colorado-Big Thompson Project and the Tunnel under Rocky Mountain National Park,” Western History Association Conference, Denver, October 4-7
Panel Chair/Comment
2023 “Intensifying Meat,” Agricultural History Society, Knoxville, Tennessee, June 8-10
2011 Environmental History Panel, Rocky Mountain Interdisciplinary History Conference (RMIHC), Boulder, Colorado, September 18-20
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
University of Central Oklahoma (2023-present)
Historiography
Historical Research
Industrial Plant, Industrial Animal
Social Studies Methods
U.S. History since 1877
Utah Valley University (2017-2023)
American Civilization (face-to-face, hybrid, and asynchronous)
Modern American West
Environmental History of North America (face-to-face and hybrid)
Utah History
Our Lady of the Lake University (2016-2017)
United States History I
United States History II
Digital History
University of Colorado, Boulder (2014-2015)
History of the U.S. since 1865
Graduate Teaching Assistant
2010- 2013 University of Colorado, Boulder
Courses: History of the U.S. since 1865, Introduction to Global History, Civil War and Reconstruction, Colonial Latin America, United States History, 1917-1945
2006-2007 Northern Arizona University
Courses: Modern America, United States History to 1865, History of the United States/Mexico Borderlands, Women and Gender in American History
Selected Public Schools Teaching
2013-2014 Quincy High School, Quincy, California
Advanced Placement Government, United States History, World History, Economics
2007-2010 International Baccalaureate School of the Cascades, Redmond, Oregon
United States History, Global Studies, Law and Criminal Justice, History for English Language Learners, Spanish I
TEACHING AWARDS AND HONORS
Faculty Senate Excellence Award, Utah Valley University (2022)
Project-Based Learning Fellow and Mentor (2022-23)
Service-Learning Fellow (2021-23)
Higher Education Academy Fellow (2019-)
SERVICE AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Service to the Field
American Society for Environmental History Education Committee (Current Chair)
Manuscript Reviewer, Environmental History
Manuscript Reviewer, Agricultural History
Manuscript Reviewer, University Press of Colorado
Manuscript Reviewer, Kansas History Journal
Executive Committee, Workshop for the History of Environment, Agriculture, and Technology (WHEATS, 2015)
University of Central Oklahoma
Co-coordinator, Making Meaning in the American West Lecture Series
Council for Teacher Education (CTE) Admissions and Retentions Committee
Teacher Education Faculty Committee
College of Liberal Arts Curriculum Committee
Judge, Oklahoma Regional Phi Alpha Theta Conference
Utah Valley University
College of Humanities and Social Sciences Teaching Committee
Environmental Ethics Symposium Executive Committee
Policy 653 Drafting Committee (non-tenure track rights and responsibilities)
Co-coordinator, Turning Points in History Speaker Series
Judge, Phi Alpha Theta Best Senior Thesis
Concurrent Enrollment Program Advisor
Our Lady of the Lake University
Advisor, University Historical Society
Wrote Proposal for Environmental Studies Minor
Community Service
Board of Directors, Utah Valley Earth Forum (2020-2021)
Advisory Committee, Provo Agricultural Commission, Provo, Utah (2018-2019)
A.P. Exam Reader, U.S. History, Louisville, Kentucky and Tampa, Florida (2016-2017)
Current Issues Lecturer, Active Minds, Boulder, Colorado (2012-2015)
Public Lands and Cultural Resource Research Associate, Management and Engineering Services, Longmont, Colorado (2011)
Professional Affiliations/Memberships
American Historical Association
American Society for Environmental History
Western Historical Association
Agricultural History Society
REFERENCES
Paul Sutter, Professor of History, University of Colorado, Boulder, Department of History, Hellems Room 204, UCB 234, Boulder, CO 80309, paul.sutter@colorado.edu, 303-492-6683
Bart Elmore, Associate Professor of History, Ohio State University, 167 Dulles Hall, 230 Annie and John Glenn Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, bartowjerome@gmail.com, 614-247-6037
Hilary Hungerford, Associate Professor of Geography, Utah Valley University, 800 West University Parkway, Orem, UT 84058, Hilary.Hungerford@uvu.edu, 801-863-7160