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Jerry Frank

Jerritt (Jerry) Frank

Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of Kansas, Lawrence
area: U.S. Environmental history, American west, indigenous peoples, comparative world history
office: 206 Read Hall
phone: 573-882-9463
email: frankje@missouri.edu

Jerry Frank joins the history faculty after teaching at Western State College of Colorado where he also served as Director of the Colorado Water Workshop. Over the past two years, Professor Frank has raised nearly $100,000 in grants, donations, and registrations for the program and has been credited for saving the 34-year-old institution from collapse. While at Western, Dr. Frank also partnered with WSC students to form Healthy Homelands, which harnesses the talents and passions of students to address environmental and social needs of underserved communities in the region. Frank also served as the coordinator of Water Studies at Western State College.

Frank specializes in U.S. environmental history, with special attention paid to the development of consumer culture in the twentieth century. His research interests focus on environmental history, indigenous peoples, and the history of the American West. He is also interested in global comparative studies.

Professor Frank earned the distinction of honors for his dissertation, which he completed under the supervision of Donald Worster, who holds the Hall Chair in American History at the University of Kansas and is preeminent in the field of environmental history. He has received a number of fellowships and scholarships, including a Baily Dissertation Fellowship from the Rocky Mountain Nature Association in partnership with the National Parks Service; has given several guest lectures on a range of topics; and has presented his work at several regional and national conferences.

Currently, Professor Frank is revising his manuscript "Marketing the Mountains: An Environmental History of Tourism in the Rocky Mountain West" for the University of Kansas Press, and will be submitting an article titled "Re-Writing Wrongs: Returning Indians to our National Narratives" to Ethnohistory in the very near future. Professor Frank has taught a range of courses including introductory U.S. history, environmental history, Native American history, U.S. and Western environmental politics, global environmental policy, U.S. and Western water policy and politics, research seminars, and senior capstones.