Curriculum Vitae
Education
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, December 1986.
M.A. University of California, Berkeley, December 1979.
A.B., A.B., University of California, Irvine, June 1977, History / Political Science.
Teaching Fields
Colonial and early national America; public memory and commemoration; relics and material culture; American culture and politics; environment; urban history; Indigenous history and colonialism.
Positions
July 2015-present: Professor Emeritus of History and Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies.
September 2002-June 2015: Professor of History; Professor of Environmental Studies, University of Oregon.
Spring 2002: Visiting Professor (maître de conférennces invité) à l’Université Paris VII—Denis Diderot, Institut d’anglais Charles V.
September 1994-2002: Associate Professor of History, University of Oregon.
September 1988-1994: Assistant Professor of History, University of Oregon.
August 1987-July 1988: Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, D’Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian, Newberry Library, Chicago.
1986-1987: Visiting Lecturer, Department of History, University of California, Riverside.
Major Publications
Books
American Blood: A History of Spectacle and Power, forthcoming Spring 2027, University of California Press.
American Relics and the Politics of Public Memory, Public History in Historical Perspective series (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2023).
Seneca Possessed: Indians, Witchcraft, and Power in the Early American Republic (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010; paper 2012).
Encyclopedia of Holidays and Celebrations: A Country by Country Guide, general editor (with an introduction), 3 vols. (New York: Facts on File, 2006), 1852 pp.; named a “Best Reference Source, 2006” by Library Journal.
Red, White, and Blue Letter Days: An American Calendar (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2002; paper 2005).
Revelry and Riot in Early America, co-edited with William Pencak and Simon Newman (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2002). Cloth and paper.
Cultivating a Landscape of Peace: Iroquois-European Encounters in Seventeenth-Century America (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1993; paper, 1995), winner of the 1987 New York State Manuscript Award (renamed the Dixon Ryan Fox Prize in 1997) and the 1994 Erminie Wheeler-Vogel Prize, awarded by the American Society for Ethnohistory.
Articles and Chapters
“Making the New World Old: American Monuments and the Relics of Natural History,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 115, Part 1, Making Nature: The Labor of Natural History (March 2026), 167-94.
“Golden Relic: General George Washington’s Epaulets,” ’76 Objects, a special feature, American Historical Review, 131:2 (June 2026), 804-808. Online at https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/131/2/804/8724485?guestAccessKey=82dc3e79-101b-46ee-a447-f58269ee88ba.
“Washington Irving’s Relicts,” Rip Van Winkle’s Republic: Washington Irving in History and Memory, eds. Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2022), 82-98.
“‘Ours from the top to the very bottom’: Seneca Land, Colonial Development, Proto-Conservation, and Resistance in the Early American Republic,” American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 44: 1 (2020), 1-34.
“Family, Community, Society,” in Seeing America, SmartHistory: The Center for Public Art History, at https://smarthistory.org/seeing-america-2/social-structures/, framing art-historical essay for “Social Structures.”
“‘What’s In A Name?’ The University of Oregon, De-Naming Controversies, and the Ethics of Public Memory,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 120:1 (Summer 2019), 182-211.
“Oregon Abroad: Staying Home to Investigate the Cultural and Natural History of Our Own Backyard, Common-Place: The Journal of Early American Life 18:2 (Spring 2018), at http://common-place.org/book/vol-18-no-2-dennis/
“‘Pioneers! O Pioneers!’ Pioneers and the Cultural Work of American Festivity: Remembering and Forgetting for Fun and Profit,” Les États-Unis un fêtes / U.S. Festivities, in Revue Française d’Études Américaines, No. 146, 1er Trimestre 2016, 68-88.
Coauthored with Elizabeth Reis “Women as Witches, Witches as Women: Witchcraft and Patriarchy in Colonial North America,” in Thomas A. Foster, ed., Women in Early America (New York: New York University Press, 2015), 66-94.
“Natives and Pioneers: Death and the Settling and Unsettling of Oregon,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 115: 3 (Fall 2014), 282-97.
“Reflections on a Bicentennial: The War of 1812 in American Public Memory,” Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 12:2 (Spring 2014), 269-300.
“Legacies: The War of 1812 in American Memory,” The War of 1812: Official National Park Service Handbook (Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 2013), 108-23, for the commemoration of the Bicentenary of the War of 1812.
“The Visions of Handsome Lake: Seneca Dreams, Prophecy, and the Second Great Awakening,” in Ann Marie Plane and Leslie Tuttle, eds., Dreams and Visions in the Early Modern Atlantic World (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), 226-44, 294-99.
“The Culture of Nature, to ca. 1810,” in Douglass Cazaux Sackman, ed., A Companion to American Environmental History (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 214-45.
“Death and Memory in Early America,” History Compass, 4 (Blackwell, 2006): 10.1111/j.1478-0542/2006.00317.x, 1018, 1-18.
“The Invention of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday,” in Amatai Etzioni and Jared Bloom, eds., We Are What We Celebrate: Understanding Holidays and Rituals (New York, 2004), 178-93.
“Red Jacket’s Rhetoric: Postcolonial Persuasion on the Native Frontiers of the Early American Republic,” Ernest Stromberg, ed., American Indian Rhetorics: Word Medicine, Word Magic
(University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006), 15-33.
“Fourth of July” in Len Travers, ed., American Holidays and National Days: A Historical Guide, 2 vols. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2006), II: 301-31.
“Memorial Day,” in Len Travers, ed., American Holidays and National Days: A Historical Guide, 2 vols. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2006), I: 232-49.
“Sorcery and Sovereignty: Senecas, Citizens, and the Contest for Power and Authority on the Frontiers of the Early American Republic,” in John Smolenski and Thomas J. Humphrey, eds., New World Orders: Violence, Sanction, and Authority in the Early Modern Americas, 1500-1825 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), 179-99.
“Parades,” 5000 word essay in Gary S. Cross, ed., Encyclopedia of Recreation and Leisure in America, 2 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2005).
“Patriotic Remains: Nationalism and Bones of Contention in the Early Republic,” in Nancy Isenberg and Andrew Burstein, eds., Mortal Remains: Death in Early America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), 136-48.
“Sose-Ha-Wa’s Speech and the Code of Handsome Lake,” Colleen McDannell, ed., Religions of the United States in Practice, 2 vols. (Princeton University Press, 2002), I: 402-16.
“American Indians, Witchcraft, and Witch-hunting,” in the OAH Magazine of History, vol. 17, no. 4 (July 2003), 21-23, 27.
“Family Business: Kinship and Commerce on the Borderlands of New Netherland and New France,” in Jeremy Adelman, ed., Trading Cultures: The Worlds of Western Merchants (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2001), 113-36.
“The 18th-Century Discovery of Columbus: The Columbian Tercentenary and the Creation of American National Identity,” in Revelry and Riot in Early America, 205-28.
“Seneca Possessed: Colonialism, Witchcraft, and Gender in the Time of Handsome Lake,” in Spellbound: Women and Witchcraft in America, ed., Elizabeth Reis (Wilmington, Del.: SR Books, 1998), 121-43.
Numerous book reviews: see addendum below.
Short Entries and Contributions
“Mother’s Day and Father’s Day,” Encyclopedia of American Studies, ed. Simon J. Bronner (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016), s.v. “Mother's Day and Father’s Day” (by Matthew Dennis), http://eas-ref.press.jhu.edu/view?aid=887.
“Independence Day,” Encyclopedia of American Studies Online.
“The League of the Iroquois,” The Historian’s Perspective, History Now: A Quarterly Journal, 28 (June 2011), special issue on American Indians, online publication of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historynow/06_2011/index.php
“Murder! Or the Remarkable Trial of Tommy Jemmy, 19th-Century Seneca Witch-Hunter and Defender of Indian Sovereignty,” The Readex Report 7: 2 (April 2012), at http://www.readex.com/readex/newsletters.cfm?newsletter=189&article=190
“Holidays and Festivals,” in Lynn Dumenil, ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History, 2 vols. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).
“Thanks for the Memories, . . . and the Documentary Records: Thanksgiving and the History of American Holidays,” The Readex Report, Thanksgiving issue 2007.
“Memorial Day” and “Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday,” short entries in The Dictionary of American History, Dynamic Reference Edition (New York: Scribner’s/Gale, 2007).
“Born and Reborn on the Fourth of July,” afterword, Deborah Heiligman, Celebrate Independence Day, with Parades, Picnics, and Fireworks (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2007), 31.
“The Fourth of July” (a 2500 word essay), in Paul Finkelman, ed., Encyclopedia of African American History: From the Colonial Period through the Age of Frederick Douglass, 1619-1895, 2 vols. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
“Cemeteries and Burials” (2500 word essay) in ibid.
“Foreword,” Patriotic Holidays of the United States: An Introduction to the History, Symbols, and Traditions Behind the Major Holidays and Days of Observance, ed. Helene Henderson (Detroit: Omnigraphics, 2005).
“Native Americans,” in Robert Wuthnow, ed., The Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion, 2 vols. (Washington, D.C.,: Congressional Quarterly Books, 1998), I: 552-57.
Prizes, Honors, and Fellowships
Visiting Fellow, Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture, 2016.
Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society, elected June 2015.
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute fellow, “American Material Culture: Nineteenth-Century New York,” Bard Graduate Center, New York, July 1-26, 2013.
National Endowment for the Humanities/Massachusetts Historical Society Longterm Fellowship for 2012-2013.
Provost Senior Humanist Fellowship, Oregon Humanities Center, Spring 2013.
Rippey Innovative Teaching Award, University of Oregon, 2003-4, 2005-6, 2007-8, 2010-11.
Williams Council grant for teaching innovation, University of Oregon, 1999, 2010-11.
Center for the Study of Women and Society, University of Oregon, Research Grant, 2001.
National Endowment for the Humanities, Fellowship for University Teachers, 1999-2000.
Erminie Wheeler-Vogel Prize for best book in ethnohistory for 1993-94, for Cultivating a
Landscape of Peace, awarded by the American Society for Ethnohistory.
Invited participant, “Indian Voices in the Academy: Teaching and Writing Local and Reservation History: The Navajos,” a week-long seminar at Diné College, Tsaile, Arizona, June, 1995.
Archibald Hanna, Jr. Visiting Fellowship in American History, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, 1995.
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Fellowship, 1994.
Teaching Fellow, Oregon Humanities Center, “Columbus’s Legacy: Colonialism and the Peoples of Early America,” Fall 1992.
Oregon Humanities Center, University of Oregon, Fellow 1998, 1992.
Invited Participant, Ford Foundation project to integrate study of women of color into the curriculum, 1990-91.
Summer Research Award, Office of Research, University of Oregon, 1997, 1990.
Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, The Newberry Library, 1987-88.
New York State Historical Association Manuscript Award, for “Cultivating a Landscape of Peace: The Iroquois New World,” 1987.
Exxon Visiting Fellowship, The Huntington Library, 1987.
Guttridge Prize in Early American and British History, University of California, 1983.
Phi Beta Kappa, 1976.
Magna Cum Laude, University of California, Irvine, 1977.
Miscellaneous Writings
Book review contributor: The American Historical Review, Journal of American History, Environmental History, Journal of the Early Republic, William and Mary Quarterly, Journal of Social History, Ethnohistory, Journal of American Ethnic History, American Indian Quarterly, Massachusetts Historical Review, New York History,
Pennsylvania History, Virginia Quarterly Review, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Florida Historical Quarterly, Pacific Historical Review, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Western Historical Quarterly, Kansas History, Journal of the West, New Mexico Historical Review, Missouri Historical Review, Annals of Wyoming.
Pedagogical writings and lectures:
Invited presentation, “The Power of Words” at the UO Center for Diversity and Community conference, “What Is Cultural Competency?” January 13, 2006.
Contributor to Women of Color and the Multicultural Curriculum: Models for Transformation and Faculty Development, eds. Mariam K. Chamberlain and Liza Fiol-Matta (New York: Feminist Press, 1994), 188-200, and to “Feminist Pedagogy: An Update,” Women's Studies Quarterly, vol. 21, nos. 3-4 (Fall/Winter 1993), 214-26.
“Teaching American Indian History in a ‘New Age,’” Newberry Library Occasional Papers in
Curriculum, no. 19, Teaching and Writing Local and Reservation History (1996), 73-85.
Occasional op-ed and writings for popular audiences
“Texas A&M, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Academic Common Sense,” Nursing Clio, February 17, 2026, https://nursingclio.org/2026/02/18/texas-am-womens-and-gender-studies-and-academic-common-sense/
“The Modern Relics in Crow’s Cabinet of Curiosities,” History News Network, May 28, 2023, online at http://hnn.us/article/185764
“Why Colleges Should Hold Commencements in the Fall—Like They Used To,” The Washington Post, May 13, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/05/13/why-colleges-should-hold-commencement-fall-like-they-used/
“George Washington had a warning for the Senate as it considers impeachment: The dangers of partisanship in Donald Trump’s America,” The Washington Post, January 23, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/01/23/george-washington-had-warning-senate-it-considers-impeachment/
With Elizabeth Reis, “The Witch: Fear Itself,” critical essay accompanying the published screenplay for the 2015 film, The Witch, by Robert Eggers, forthcoming. [2000 words.]
“How Thanksgiving tells a story of America’s pluralism,” updated and revised for The Conversation, November 21, 2016: https://theconversation.com/how-thanksgiving-tells-a-story-of-americas-pluralism-50954; syndicated and republished, including at Salon.com; updated, republished November 23, 2017, Huffington Post at https://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-conversation-us/how-thanksgiving-tells-a_b_13155782.html
“Just in time: A holiday for unity, reconciliation,” The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.), November 24, 2016, and online: http://registerguard.com/rg/opinion/35017148-78/just-in-time-a-holiday-for-unity-reconciliation.html.csp
“2016’s Difficult Thanksgiving,” History News Network, November 21, 2016: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164469
“White Woman in Blackface as a Black Man in a White Coat? Scary,” online at Nursing Clio, November 4, 2016: https://nursingclio.org/2016/11/04/white-woman-in-blackface-as-a-black-man-in-a-white-coat-scary/comment-page-1/#comment-2687
“Rename Deady, Dunn Halls, The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.), Sunday August 21, 2016.
“Why Thanksgiving Tells a Story of America’s Pluralism,” The Conversation, November 25, 2015 https://theconversation.com/why-thanksgiving-tells-a-story-of-americas-pluralism-50954 Syndicated and widely republished in various online venues, including U.S. News & World Report, Civil Beat, and Nursing Clio.
“Nursing Thanksgiving,” Nursing Clio, November 24, 2015, http://nursingclio.org/2015/11/24/nursing-thanksgiving/.
“Where Are All the Celebrations for the War of 1812—Which Ended on Christmas Eve?” December 24, 2014, published and syndicated by Zócalo Public Square, appeared in numerous newspapers and periodicals online and in print, including Time and the Los Angeles Daily News.
“GTF Strike a Bad Sign for UO,” The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.), Sunday, December 7, 2014.
“Celebrating Thanksgiving With America’s First Rock Star: Plymouth Rock has been the subject of history lessons, songs, and speeches for 400 years. Why do we love it? Time, November 25, 2014. A contribution to the series “What It Means to Be an American: A National Conversation hosted by the Smithsonian and Zócalo Public Square and broadly syndicated.
“Have We Really Been Reading the Declaration of Independence Wrong?” History News Network, July 10, 2014, http://hnn.us/article/156277.
“Fear and ignorance fuel opposition to New York mosque,” The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.), Wednesday, Aug 25, 2010, reprinted History News Network, September 6, 2010, http://hnn.us/roundup/archives/1/2010/9/#131003.
“Immigration is the Foundation upon which Our Country Thrives,” The Register-Guard, Sunday May 16, 2010.
“The Seneca Nation’s Cigarette Fight with Congress,” History News Network, March 15, 2010, http://www.hnn.us/articles/124169.html
“Gaza Crisis Needs More than Cease-Fire,” The Register-Guard, January 2, 2009.
“What’s the best way to defend freedom of speech? Show some restraints, The Register-Guard, October 29, 2007.
“Constitution not the right target in debate over firearms,” The Register-Guard, March 25, 2007.
“Honor vets by recalling original meaning of Nov. 11, The Register-Guard, November 11, 2006.
“Remembering the Dead in Judging Merits of War,” The Arizona Republic (Phoenix), May 28, 2006.
“The Spanglish Anthem? It’s Truly All American,” The Register-Guard, May 5, 2006.
“Ben Franklin at 300,” The Register-Guard, January 15, 2006.
“Today [Thanksgiving], give thanks for our prosperity, then reach out,” The Register-Guard, Nov. 24, 2005.
“‘Liberal’ Professors Appear to Annoy Right, Left, and Center,” The Register-Guard, May 15, 2005.
“Prayer Breakfasts Have History of Excluding Faiths,” The Register-Guard, May 1, 2005; republished, History News Network, posted May 3, 2005.
“Inauguration belongs to the people, not the rich,” Register-Guard, Jan. 20, 2005.
“Don’t give anti-Semitism a chance to spread,” Register-Guard, Aug. 8, 2004.
“Our Politics has lost its honor,” the Burr-Hamilton duel, Register-Guard, July 11, 2004.
“‘Under God’ stays for all the wrong reasons, Register-Guard, June 20, 2004.
“Did President Bush Forget About Jesus Day?” History News Network, posted June 6, 2004 at http://hnn.us/articles/5489.html.
“Sorting out the missing pieces: Americans must assess the costs of war in Iraq,” Register-Guard, May 30, 2004.
“Pictures powerful tools in war,” Register-Guard, May 16, 2004.
“We must remember King’s vision,” Register-Guard, August 28, 2003, A13.
“Today Americans celebrate, lest they remember,” Register-Guard, May 26, 2003.
“The Fêtes of November,” Register-Guard, Nov. 2002.
“Phrase ‘under God’ excludes unbelievers,” Register-Guard, June 28, 2002.
“Letting Columbus Sail Off into Oblivion,” Portland (Ore.) The Oregonian, Oct. 14, 2002.
“Ashcroft tries to quell critics with his rhetoric,” Register-Guard, Dec. 12, 2001.
“Patriots unafraid to ask questions,” Register-Guard, Nov. 8, 2001.
“Labor Day’s Meaning has Faded,” Register-Guard, Sept. 3, 2001.
“‘B.C.’ Offensive to Jews, Christians Alike,” Register-Guard, April 19, 2001.
“Electoral College no longer serves our best interests,” Register-Guard, Nov. 20, 2000.
“Judaic Studies at the University of Oregon,” Register-Guard, Oct. 1999.
“Whaling and Makahs’ cultural survival,” Register-Guard, May 24, 1999; reprinted, “Makahs and Gray Whales: Not Black and White,” The Ecotone (Fall 1999), 3-4.
“Clinton’s Escapades,” a Presidents’ Day opinion piece, in Register-Guard, Feb. 13, 1998.
“Columbus: Two Sides Try to Fill Empty Vessel,” in Register-Guard, Oct. 11, 1992.
“Ambiguity of Thanksgiving,” Register-Guard, Nov. 24, 1994.
Scholarly Papers, Sessions, Lectures
Chair and comment, “American Cemeteries and Deathways in Black and White,” Organization of American Historians annual meeting, Philadelphia, April 18, 2026.
Comment, on Alexis McCrossen, “The Stroke of Midnight: The Emergence of New Year’s Eve in America, 1820-1929,” Malgeri Modern American Society and Culture Seminar, Massachusetts Historical Society Seminar, October 22, 2024.
“American Relics and the Politics of Public Memory,” Massachusetts Historical Society, September 6, 2023.
“Washington Irving’s Relicts,” Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane at 200 Symposium, Tarrytown, New York, April 3-4, 2020, paper presenter and roundtable chair [Canceled due to pandemic].
Comment, on Karen Kupperman, Pocahontas and the English Boys, for the Atlantic World Workshop, New York University, March 12, 2019.
“Holidays as History, History as Holidays,” lecture for the Inside/Out program, University of Oregon and the Oregon State Prison System, Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, January 30, 2018.
“Making the New Nation Old: Founding Objects, Relics and Nationalism,” Columbia Seminar in Early American History, Columbia University, December 4, 2017.
“The Politics and Ecology of Colonialism in the Early American Republic: Development, Conservation, and Seneca Sovereignty,” Atlantic World History Workshop, New York University, September 12, 2017.
“Dangerous Relic: ‘The Bloody Shirt’; a Material History of an American Trope,” Bard Graduate Center Seminar, April 12, 2016. http://www.bgc.bard.edu/news/events/dangerous-relic.html
“American Relics & the Material Culture of Public Memory,” Massachusetts Historical Society, November 9, 2012; research presentation to Board of Directors, MHS, April 17, 2013.
Co-organizer and keynote presenter, “Death in Oregon,” a one-day symposium sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Oregon, November 7, 2013. And subsequently guest editor of a special issue, “Death and the Settling and Unsettling of Oregon,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 115:3 (Fall 2014).
Commentator, “Early Republic Borderlands: Indian Removal, Slavery, and Non-State Actors,” Organization of American Historians annual meeting, San Francisco, April 11, 2013.
Chair and Comment: “Religion, Rhetoric, and Ritual in the Political Culture of the Early American Republic, 1776-1815,” American Historical Association annual meeting, January 6, 2013.
Invited Commentator, “New Directions: Emerging Research Inspired by Mary Beth Norton,” at Liberty’s Daughters and Sons: Celebrating the Legacy of Mary Beth Norton, Cornell University, September 28 & 29, 2012.
“‘O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie’? Relics, Mortal Remains, and the Colonial Landscape of the Dead in the American West,” Western History Association, Annual Meeting, Oakland, California, October 14, 2011.
“Development, Conservation, and Seneca Sovereignty: the Politics and Ecology of Colonialism in the Early Republic,” Society for Historians of the Early Republic (SHEAR) annual meeting, Rochester, New York, July 23, 2010.
American Indians in the Age of Jefferson, lecture at Louisiana State University, February 25, 2010.
Chair and comment, “Politics by Other Means: Imagining Violence in Early America,” Society for the History of the Early American Republic annual meeting, Philadelphia, July 18, 2008.
Invited paper, “The Origins of Memorial Day,” Civil War Round Table, Friends of History, Portland State University, May14, 2008.
Invited paper, “From Longhouse to Farmhouse: Quakers and the Transformation of Seneca Rural Life,” Early American Origins Seminar, Early Modern Studies Institute, the Huntington Library and the University of Southern California, San Marino, California, April 5, 2008.
“May Day in History and Memory,” Eugene chapter of the IWW and International Socialist Organization, Eugene, Ore., May 1, 2007.
Memorial Day Oration, the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery, Eugene, Ore., Memorial Day 2006.
Invited comment, “Class and Class Struggles in North America and the Atlantic World, 1500-1820,” Montana State University, University of East Anglia, Big Sky, Montana, Sept. 2003.
Invited speaker, “The Ways We Celebrate: Holidays and Rituals as Seedbeds of Social Values,” a conference sponsored by the Communitarian Network, Washington, D.C., April 2003.
Invited paper, “Sorcery and Sovereignty: Senecas, Citizens, and the Contest for Power and Authority on the Frontiers of the Early American Republic,” for a conference, “New World Orders: Violence, Sanction, and Authority in the Early Modern Americas,” Oct. 2001, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, University of Pennsylvania.
Chair and commentator, “Indians—Pacified and Prosperous—and the Paradoxes of Post-Frontier Relations,” Western History Association annual meeting, Oct. 4, 2001.
Invited paper, Mortal Remains Symposium, University of Tulsa, April 19-22, 2001, “Patriotic
Remains: Nationalism and Bones of Contention in the Early Republic.”
Commentator, “‘Contact’ and the Collision of Landscapes: Environment, Identity, and Space in Three Colonial Contact Zones,” American Society for Environmental History, annual meeting, Tacoma, Washington, March 17, 2000.
“Post Historical Narratives of Native Americans and the West: A Critique,” paper presentation at the American Historical Association annual meeting, Washington, D.C., Jan. 1999.
“Seneca Possessed: Witch-Hunting, Revitalization, and Gender in Early 19th-Century New York,” presented at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting, San Francisco, Nov. 22,
1997, and at the American Historical Association annual meeting, Seattle, Jan. 9, 1998.
“Seneca Witch-Hunting: Colonialism, Revitalization, and the Contested Memory of Salem, 1799-1821,” presented at 2d annual Institute of Early American History and Culture Conference, May 31-June 2, 1996, Boulder, Colorado.
“Family Business: Frontiers of Kinship and Commerce in Colonial New Netherland,” invited paper, Shelby Collum Davis Center, Princeton, March 15-16, 1996.
“The 18th-Century Discovery of Columbus: The Columbian Tercentenary and the Creation of American Identity,” invited conference paper, “Festive Culture, and Public Ritual in Early America,” American Philosophical Society, April 12-13, 1996.
“Making History: The Invention of American Thanksgiving, 1621-1993,” invited lecture, Brandeis University, Nov. 1994.
Invited Comment, “The Buying and Selling of American Holidays,” Shelby Collum Davis Center, Princeton University, Nov. 4, 1994.
Chair and commentator, “Cultural Interaction among the Indians, Dutch, and English of Colonial New York,” Organization of American Historians annual meeting, April 1993.
“Resistance and Persistence: Native Americans and Colonialism,” invited lecture in “Reviewing the Indigentes,” Phi Alpha Theta Lecture Series, CSU-Chico, April 21, 1993.
Session organizer, presenter, “America (Re)Invents Itself: Centenary Celebrations of the Columbus, 1792-1992,” in “Centenary Celebrations and the Invention of New Nations: Australia and the U.S.,” American Historical Association annual meeting, 1992.
“America Discovers Columbus,” keynote lecture to mark the public opening of “Creating America,” a Quincentenary exhibition sponsored by Yale University and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Oct. 23, 1992.
Chair and commentator, “Teaching the Encounter,” Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association, annual meeting, Corvallis, Ore., Aug. 1992.
Convocation address, “The History and Ethnogastronomy of Thanksgiving,” Willamette University, Nov. 1989.
Historical Consulting and Media Presentations
“Who Gets Remembered? America’s Holiday and National Identity with Matthew Dennis,” Accent on America, the English language counterpart of Ameryka dla Zaawansowanych (America, Explained), a popular Polish-language podcast about the United States for an international audience. Created and hosted by Polish American journalist Marcin Firlejs. October 6, 2026. Online at https://open.spotify.com/episode/4aYRBtcdJSfUzXBaxxI9Eq.
Interview, CBS News Thanksgiving Special 2023, November 21, 2023, at
https://art19.com/shows/cbs-audio-network-specials/episodes/6e6a6cdc-5434-4757-a9f8-dbd20e835542
Contributing writer for SmartHistory.org, including “Seeing America, Social Structures: Family, Community, Society,” at https://smarthistory.org/seeing-america-2/social-structures/.
Live appearance as panelist, on hour-long National Public Radio program 1A, “‘Salute to America’: Stars, Stripes, and . . . Squadrons?” July 3, 2019.
Live, national TV interview on Independence Day, with Yasmin Vossoughian, MSNBC Live, July 4, 2017.
Featured interview in “Born Again: Religious Renewal in America,” Back Story, with the American History Guys, April 3, 2015, based on Seneca Possessed. Back Story is a public radio program broadcast on some 100 public radio stations in 38 states http://backstoryradio.org/shows/revival/.
Interview and podcast, on Seneca Possessed for New Books in Native American Studies: Discussions with Scholars of Native America about Their New Books, New Book Network, April 2012 at http://newbooksinnativeamericanstudies.com/2012/05/01/matthew-dennis-seneca-possessed-indians-witchcraft-and-power-in-the-early-american-republic-university-of-pennsylvania-press-2010/
Scholarly Adviser, “Thanksgiving,” Constitutional Hall Pass, online video lesson series by the National Constitutional Center, episode for November 2011; www.constitutioncenter.org/hallpass
Interview, “Native American Take on Independence,” on Weekend America, produced by American Public Media for National Public Radio, July 5, 2008. Archived at: http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/07/02/4th_rez/
Interview, guest on “Hurrah for the Red, White, and Blue,” Think Out Loud, on Oregon Public
Broadcast, July 4, 2008.http://action.publicbroadcasting.net/opb/posts/list/1215410.page
Workshop presentations, “The meaning and impact of the Declaration of Independence,” Teaching American History Program (a Department of Education grant for enhancement of high school teaching), Vancouver, Washington, February 8, 2008, December 15, 2009.
Consultant, National Geographic Society’s “Holidays Around the World Series,” including Deborah Heiligman, Celebrate Independence Day, with Parades, Picnics, and Fireworks (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2007).
Interview, “Fourth of July,” on Weekend America, produced by American Public Media for National Public Radio, July 4, 2007.
Presidents’ Day, guest on “To the Point, with Warren Olney,” a Public Radio International program heard nationwide on National Public Radio, February 19, 2007.
Regular appearances on Talking History, a national public radio program sponsored by the Organization
of American Historians, featured interviews throughout the year on each American public holiday, 2005. Shows archived at http://talkinghistory.oah.org, and the OAH website.
Interview, “Remembering Traditions” (Memorial Day), on Weekend America, produced by American Public Media for National Public Radio, May 27, 2006. http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/programs/index_20060527.html
Interview on Memorial Day, 2005 on “News and Notes,” hosted by Ed Gordon, National Public Radio, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4672349
“Red, White, and Blue Letter Days: An American Calendar,” Book TV, C-SPAN, March 8, 2003.
“Juneteenth,” radio essay on Northwest Passage, KLCC, Eugene, Ore. NPR affiliate, June 2001.
“Inventing Halloween,” radio essay on Talking History, Oct. 15, 1998; featured interview on history of Thanksgiving, Nov. 12, 1998.
“Kennewick Man: A Skeleton in America’s Closet,” radio essay on Northwest Passage, KLCC, Eugene, Ore. NPR affiliate.
Featured historian, Home for the Holidays: The History of Thanksgiving, a documentary produced for the History Channel, Arts & Entertainment Network, national premiere Nov. 1997.
Historical advisor, featured historian, Divided We Fall: The Iroquois, a documentary produced by 9K*USA and Discovery Productions for the Discovery Channel, part of the series, How West Was Lost, premiered nationally Jan. 3, 1995.
Advisory board member and consultant, Arapahoe Ledger Art Exhibition, University of Oregon Museum of Natural History, 1991-92.
Frequent newspaper, periodicals, and TV and radio interviewee on public historical topics, including BBC, MSNBC, NPR, CBS radio, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Boston Globe, Dallas Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News, Oregonian, Vancouver Sun and Canwest News, Palm Beach Post, Salon, the Huffington Post.
Professional Service
Frederick Jackson Turner Prize Committee, Organization of American Historians, 2025
University of Oregon, Departmental and university committees: History Department Advisory Committee (most recently, 2013-14, 2010-11 and 2006-7); Search committee chair, 2010-11; UO Student Conduct Hearing Board (2008-); University of Oregon Faculty Advisory Council (2009, 2005 [chair], 2004, 2003); UO Provost Search Committee (2005); UO President’s Executive Diversity Working Group (2005-6), University Senate and Senate Executive Committee (2005-7). Director of Graduate Studies, History Department (2007-9).
Environmental Studies Program, University of Oregon (executive committee, 2006-18); Interim Director, Environmental Studies Program, Spring 2014; Director of Graduate Studies, Environmental Studies, 2011-12, 2013-15.
Wayne Morse Center, advisor and steering committee member, 2009-11, 2011-13; dissertation fellowship selection committee, 2012-13.
Instructor, UO “Insight Seminar,” on the history of American and human rights, May 2009.
Co-Director, Schnitzer Program in Judaic Studies, 1999-2000; Executive Committee, 1998-2015.
Co-Organizer, “Earth on Fire: A Series of Fireside Conversations on Global Warming,” 2007-2008; Organizer, Environmental Studies Convocation, Oct. 2007, Oct. 2010.
Oregon Humanities Center Faculty Advisory Board (2004-7).
After 9/11 Committee, University of Oregon, 2001-2002.
Oregon Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa: President (1997-98), Executive Committee Member (1990-91, 1996-99), Membership Chair (1996).
Organizer, symposium on Native American history and culture, with Pawnee/Otoe writer Anna Lee Walters and Navajo anthropologist Harry Walters, University of Oregon, March 2, 2001.
Organizer, “1492-1992: Confrontations and the Construction of a ‘New World,’” a Columbian Quincentenary Conference, University of Oregon, April 1992.
Advisory Board: Seeing America Expanded (funded by the Alice L. Walton Foundation), a new feature of Smarthistory’s Seeing America, created with seventeen leading museum collections, examining the long history of the United States, from before European settlers to the modern era via online essays, images, and videos.
Gomes Book Prize Committee, Massachusetts Historical Society, 2017.
Editorial and Advisory Boards: Journal of Festive Studies, H-Celebration; Resistance: A Journal of Radical Environmental Humanities (formerly) Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities; Seeing America: A portal to American history and art, at smarthistory.org.
External evaluator, postdoctoral fellow selection committee, 2013-2015, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg.
Board of Advisors, Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and
Economic History, 4 vols. (New York: East River Books and M.E. Sharpe, 2006).
Manuscript book referee: Harvard University Press, Oxford University Press, Cornell University Press, Columbia University Press, University of Massachusetts Press, University of Pennsylvania Press, St. Martin’s Press, Harcourt, Brace College Publishers, D.C. Heath, Addison-Wesley Longman’s, Rowman & Littlefield.
Manuscript journal referee: Journal of American History, William and Mary Quarterly, Journal of the Early Republic, Early American Studies, Journal of Early American History, Pennsylvania History, Massachusetts Historical Review, Ethnohistory, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, American Indian Quarterly, Landscape Review, Western Historical Quarterly, Oregon Historical Quarterly, Journal of Festive Studies, Arcadia (Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich).
Promotion-tenure external referee for associate professor and professor candidates: University of Massachusetts-Amherst, UCLA, Cornell University, Louisiana State University, University of Nebraska, UMass-Dartmouth, University of North Texas, Colorado State University.