About
Dr. Stephen Hausmann received his B.A. and M.A. in history from the University of Vermont and his Ph.D. in American environmental history from Temple University. His areas of expertise include American history in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, environmental history, Native American history, and the history of the American West. At App State, he teaches courses on American history, environmental history, and the history of national parks. His first book, under contract with the University of Nebraska Press, is tentatively titled Indian Country: An Environmental History of the Black Hills. This project examines the role of human culture and environmental narrative creating the conditions for environmental injustice throughout the American West by examining the histories of places like Mount Rushmore and events like the 1972 Rapid City Flood. Dr. Hausmann has written for the Western Historical Quarterly, Middle West Review, the Washington Post, the Rapid City Journal, among other publications. His research on the Black Hills has been funded by several institutions including the Newberry Library, the Linda Hall Library, and the Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine.
While he is completing his current book, Dr. Hausmann is also getting underway on a new project: an environmental history of the Land Back movement which stretches its origins back to the seventeenth century and beyond. He is active in various scholarly organizations, having previously served as assistant director for the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH), and in 2024 as that organization's acting executive director. Currently, he is serving a four-year term as a member of the ASEH Executive Council and is also active on both prize and leadership committees for the Western History Association. In 2024-2025, Dr. Hausmann was a Mellon Research Fellow with the National Park Service, doing historical work at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota. When not teaching, reading, or writing history, he can be found rooting for his oft-beleaguered Boston Red Sox, playing history-based video games, and exploring the High Country’s many trails.
Education
Ph.D. Temple University
Areas of Study
United States History, Environmental History, Native American History, History of the American West
Selected Courses
- HIS 1170 Preservation, Sustainability, and Climate Action
- HIS 3238 America’s National Parks
Selected Publications
“Marketing Eternity: Settler Colonialism and Environmental Change at Twentieth-Century Mount Rushmore” in Raw Capital: Building Ecosystems/Selling Natures (Hagley Perspectives in Business and Culture, University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming, 2026)
"Putting Helene Recovery in Historical Perspective," High Country Press, September 30, 2025
"On Myths and Monuments: Mount Rushmore and Storytelling at America's National Parks," Perspectives, July 9, 2025
“Erasing Indian Country: Urban Native Space and the 1972 Rapid City Flood,” Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 3, Autumn 2021
- Winner, 2022 Arrell M. Gibson Award for best article in Native American history, Western History Association
Title: Assistant Professor
Department: Department of History
Email address: Email me
Phone: (828) 262-6816