June 2008

         Benjamin Heber Johnson 

Associate Professor of History and
Associate Director, Clements Center for Southwest Studies

Southern Methodist University

Clements Department of History

P.O. Box 750176

Dallas, TX 75275-0176

214/768-2709; fax 214/768-2404

bjohnson@smu.edu

      Education

Ph.D., Yale University, 2000

M.A., Yale University, 1996

B.A., summa cum laude, Carleton College, 1994

 

      Positions Held

      Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Associate Director, 2008-present

Southern Methodist University, Associate Professor, 2007-present

Southern Methodist University, Assistant Professor, 2002-2007

University of Texas at San Antonio, Assistant Professor, 2001-2002

California Institute of Technology, Instructor in History, 2000-2001

     

      Books

Bordertown: The Odyssey of an American Place.  With photographs by Jeffrey Gusky. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.

 

“Escaping the Dark, Gray City:” How Conservation Re-made City, Suburb, and Countryside in the Progressive Era.  Under contract Yale University Press.

 

Revolution in Texas:  How a Forgotten Rebellion and Its Bloody Suppression Turned Mexicans into Americans.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.

                                

 

Edited Volumes

Bridging National Borders in North America.  Co-edited with Andrew Graybill.  Under contract Duke University Press.

Making of the American West: People and Perspectives.  Santa Barbara, CA:  ABC-CLIO, 2007.
                             

Steal this University:  The Labor Movement and the Corporatization of Higher Education.  Co-edited with Kevin Mattson and Patrick Kavanaugh.  Oxford: Routledge, 2003. 

 Journal Articles and Review Essays 

“Problems and Prospects in North American Borderlands History,” History Compass 4 (2006):  1-7

“Engendering Nation and Race in the Borderlands,” Latin American Research Review 37:1 (2002): 259-271

“The Dark Side of American Environmentalism.”  Reviews in American History (June 2001): 215-221

“Subsistence, Class, and Conservation at the Birth of Superior National Forest.”  Environmental History 4:1 (January 1999).  Republished in Louis Warren, ed., American Environmental History (Blackwell, 2003).

Chapters in Anthologies and Encyclopedias

“California Environmentalism, 1870-1920,” in William Deverell and David Igler, eds., Blackwell Companion to California History (Blackwell, under contract).

Co-author (with Andrew Graybill), “Borders and Their Historians in North America,” in Graybill and Johnson, eds., Bridging National Borders in North America (Duke University Press, under review).

“Wilderness Parks and Their Discontents,” in Michael Lewis, ed., American Wilderness (Oxford University Press, 2007).

“Environment and Ecology,” in Mark Busby, ed., The Southwest: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures (Greenwood, 2004): 81-109

 “The Plan de San Diego and the Making of the Modern Texas-Mexico Borderlands,” in Samuel Truett and Elliott Young, eds., Continental Crossroads: Frontiers, Borders and Transnational History in the US-Mexico Borderlands, 1821-1940.  (Duke University Press, 2004)

“The Drain-o of Higher Education: Casual Labor and University Teaching,” in Benjamin Johnson, Kevin Mattson, and Patrick Kavanaugh, eds., Steal This University: The Labor Movement and the Corporatization of Higher Education.  (Routledge, 2003)

“Red Populism?  T.A. Bland, Agrarian Radicalism, and the Debate over the Dawes Act.”  In The Countryside in the Age of the Modern State:  Essays in Twentieth-Century Rural Political History, eds. Catherine McNicol Stock and Robert D. Johnston (Cornell University Press, 2001)

Co-author (with Thomas McCarthy), “Graduate Student Organizing at Yale and the Future of the Labor Movement in Higher Education.”  Social Policy 30:4 (Summer 2000)

Co-author (with Thomas McCarthy), “Teaching Assistants and the Casualization of Academic Labor.”  Thought and Action (May 2000)

Other Publications

“Plan of San Diego,” Encyclopedia of U.S. Latino/a History.  Facts on File, forthcoming.

“Legacies of Forgotten Rebellion Linger,” Dallas Morning News, May 16, 2005

“The Other Texas Revolution,” Houston Chronicle, April 9, 2004

“Forestry,” “Lumber Industry,” “Irrigation,” “Water Pollution,” “California Gold Rush,” and “United Farm Workers,” Dictionary of American History.  Scribner’s Sons, 2003. 

“Segregation and Steel.”  Book review article on Diane McWhorter’s Carry Me Home for Texas Observer, December 7, 2001.

“The United States Rejoins the Americas.”  Book review article on Mike Davis’ Magical Urbanism:  Latinos Reinvent the Big U.S. City for Texas Observer, October 6, 2000.

“Celebrating Our New Rulers.”  Book review article on David Brooks’ Bobos in Paradise:  The New Upper Class and How They Got There for Texas Observer, February 2001

Reviews

Gary Clayton Anderson, The Conquest of Texas:  Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land, 1820-1875.  Book Review for Western Historical Quarterly (Spring 2007)

. Irving W. Levinson. Wars within Wars: Mexican Guerrillas, Domestic Elites, and the United States of America, 1846–1848.  Book review for American Historical Review (April 2006).

Jerry Thompson and Lawrence T. Jones III, Civil War and Revolution on the Rio Grande Frontier:  A Narrative and Photographic History.  Book review for Journal of Southern History (Spring 2006).

Charles Harris III and Louis R. Sadler, The Texas Rangers and the Mexican Revolution:  The Bloodiest Decade, 1910-1920.  Book review for Southwestern Historical Quarterly (Fall 2005).

Elliott Young, Catarino Garza’s Revolution on the Texas-Mexico Border.

Book review for Texas Books in Review (Fall 2005).

Char Miller, ed., On the Border: An Environmental History of San Antonio.  Book Review for H-Enviro (September 2004).

Patrick J. Carroll, Felix Longoria’s Wake:  Bereavement, Racism and the Rise of Mexican American Activism.  Book review for The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (Spring 2003).

Michael Lind, Made in Texas:  George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics.  Book Review for Texas Books in Review (Summer 2003).

John L. Kessell, Spain in the Southwest:  A Narrative History of Colonial New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California.  Book review for Southern California Quarterly (2003).

William Shutkin, The Land that Could Be:  Environmentalism and Democracy in the Twenty-First Century.  Book review for Culture and Agriculture (2003).

Murray Wickett, Contested Territory:  Whites, Native Americans and African Americans in Oklahoma, 1865-1907.  Book review for Journal of American Ethnic History (2003).

William Henry Kellar, Make Haste Slowly:  Moderates, Conservatives, and School Desegregation in Houston.  Book review for Texas Books in Review (Spring 2003).

Dennis Shirley, Valley Interfaith and School Reform:  Organizing for Power in South Texas.  Book review for Texas Books in Review (Fall/Winter 2002).

Neil Foley, The White Scourge.  Book review for the Hispanic American Historical Review (2000).

Nigel Sellars, Oil, Wheat, and Wobblies.  Book review for The Annals of Iowa (2000).

Robert Woodmansee Herr and Richard Herr, An American Family in the Mexican Revolution.  Book review in the New Mexico Historical Review (2000).

Presentations and Papers

“Borderlands and the Making of the American West,” The West and the Shaping of America:  A Teacher’s Institute, Texas Christian University, May 2007.

“The Problem of Statelessness and the Origins of LULAC,” Gay LULAC Chapter Meeting, Dallas, November 2006.

“The Plan of San Diego,” Casa Linda Public Library, Dallas, September 2006.

“Becoming American:  How a Doomed Rebellion Turned Mexicans Into American Citizens,” California State University, Long Beach, April 2006 

“How South Texas Changed America:  A Doomed Rebellion that Turned Mexicans into Americans,” Texas A & M Corpus Christi, March 2006 

“Rethinking Conservation:  City, Suburb, and Countryside in Progressive-Era Los Angeles,” Western History Seminar, Autry National Center, February, 2006 

Commentary on “Race, Nation, and Incorporation in Nineteenth-Century North America,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 2006

Panelist, “The Wind that Swept Mexico:  Views of the Mexican Revolution,” Texas Book Festival, Austin, Texas, October 2005 

“The Cosmic Race in Texas:  Intermarriage, White Supremacy, and Civil Rights Politics,” Western History Association Annual Meeting, Scottsdale, Arizona, October 2005

“Borderlands: Mexicans and the Shaping of Texas History,” Teaching History Conference, University of North Texas, September 2005.

“Becoming American:  How a Doomed Rebellion Turned Mexicans Into American Citizens,” Brookhaven Community College, September 2005.

Commentary on “Struggle for Rights:  Black Populists and Texas Suffragists,” Texas State Historical Association, Annual Meeting, Ft. Worth, Texas, March 2005.

“Forget the Alamo:  How a Doomed Rebellion Turned Mexicans Into American Citizens,” Old City Park, Dallas, Texas, November 2004

Commentary on “Vigilantism, Lynching, and Citizenship in the Southwest, 1870-1921,” Western History Association Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, Nevada, October 2004

“Becoming American:  How a Doomed Rebellion Turned Mexicans Into American Citizens,” Museum of South Texas History, Edinburg, Texas, September 2004

“Revolution in Texas:  How a Doomed Rebellion Turned Mexicans Into American Citizens,” Kenedy Ranch Historical Museum, Sarita, Texas, September 2004 

“Becoming American:  How a Doomed Rebellion Turned Mexicans Into American Citizens,” SMU-in-Taos Summer Lecture Series, July 2004

“The Cosmic Race in Texas:  Mexican American Politics and Transnational Identities,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., January 2004

“Nature, Modernism, and the Control of Space in Progressive America,” paper delivered to Dallas Area Social Historians, Dallas, Texas, December 2003

“Citizenship, Transnationalism, and the Making of Mexican American Politics,” in “Citizenship Unbound,” Symposium at the Glasscock Humanities Center, Texas A & M University, November 2003

“From American History to Texana:  Webb, Paredes, the Rangers, and the Decline of Texas History,” Western Historical Association Annual Meeting, Ft. Worth, Texas, October 2003

“The Strange Career of Citizenship in South Texas,” Cornell University, Institute for Latino Studies, March 10, 2003

“The Plan de San Diego, the United States Army, and the Question of Citizenship,” Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting, El Paso, Texas, March 2003 

“The Other Texas Revolution:  Aniceto Pizaña’s Memories of the Plan de San Diego Uprising,” South Texas Ranching Heritage Symposium, Kingsville, TX, February 2002

“The Other Texas Revolution.”  Hispanic Genealogical Society, Houston Texas, September 15, 2001

“The Plan de San Diego as Tejano Civil War,” paper presentation at the Western Historical Association Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, October, 2000

 “Red Populism?  T.A. Bland, Agrarian Radicalism, and the Debate over the Dawes Act,” paper presentation at American Historical Association, Chicago, Illinois, 2000

 “The Plan de San Diego as Tejano Civil War,” paper presentation at X Reuniòn de Historiadores Mexicanos y Norteamericanos, Fort Worth, Texas, 1999

 “Sedition and Citizenship in South Texas,” paper presentation at “Contested Terrain:  Five Centuries of Communities Staking Their Claims on the Land,” Beinecke Library, Yale University, 1998

“Conservation and Class in Superior National Forest,” paper presented at Graduate Student History Conference, Cornell University, 1997

“Red Populism?  T.A. Bland, Agrarian Radicalism, and the Debate over the Dawes Act,” paper presented at Western Historical Association Conference, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1996

Courses Taught

North American Borders

Modern U.S.-Mexican Borderlands

Out of Many:  The U.S. through 1877

Out of Many:  The U.S. Since 1877

Global and Comparative Environmental History

North American Environmental History

The American Indian

The Problem of Freedom in Modern America

Texas History

Northwoods Studies and Wilderness Research

North American Environmental History:  The Quetico-Superior

U.S. West Since 1850

Awards and Fellowships

Summer Fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities, March 2007

Canadian Studies Conference Grant Program, Government of Canada, awarded to support Bridging National Borders in North America, March 2007

Finalist, Hiett Prize in the Humanities, the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, March 2006

University Research Council, SMU, Faculty Travel Award, April 2006

University Research Council, SMU, Faculty Research Award, January 2006

Honorable Mention for Revolution in Texas, Caroline Bancroft Prize for Western History, Denver Public Library, 2004

Haynes Research Fellowship, Huntington Library, May-August 2003

SSRC Area Studies Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies, June-December 2002.

Ralph W. Hidy Award, given by the Forest History Society for the best article in the journal Environmental History, March 2001

Marshall/Baruch Fellowship, Marshall Foundation, grant for book research, November 2000

Frederick Beinecke Prize for best dissertation in western history, Yale University, May 2000

Mellon Dissertation Fellowship, Yale University, 1999-2000

Research Travel grant, John Perry Miller Research Fund, Yale University Graduate School, 1999

Dissertation Research Grant, Mellon Foundation Grant, Yale University History Department, 1998

Beinecke Library Summer Fellowship, 1997

Research Grant, Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University, 1997

Professional Affiliations and Service

Advisory Board, American Lynching:  A Documentary Film

Editorial Board, Encyclopedia of American Environmental History (Facts on File)

Fellow, Dallas Institute of Humanities

Manuscript and Proposal Referee:

            Western Historical Quarterly (2006)
National Science Foundation (2005
Yale University Press (2005)
Texas A & M University Press (2005)
Journal of Southern History (2005)
University of Texas Press (2004, 2006)
Prentice-Hall (2004)
Journal of Policy History (2004)
Social Science History (2004)
Journal of Ethnic History (2004)
University of Arizona Press (2003)
Journal of Higher Education (2003)

Executive Board Member, Clements Center for Southwest Studies, 2002-present

Postdoctoral Fellow Selection Committee, Clements Center for Southwest Studies, 2003-present

Member, Local Arrangements Committee, American Society for Environmental History Annual Conference, Houston, Texas, March 2005

Member, Hiring Committee for U.S. Southwest/Mexican American History Search, University of Texas at San Antonio, 2001

Organizer and Panelist, A Teach-In on the Current Crisis, University of Texas at San Antonio, 2001

American Historical Association; American Studies Association; American Society for Environmental History; Western Historical Association; Texas State Historical Association; American Association of University Professors

Other Positions

Graduate Employees and Students Organization, Director of Research, 1999-2000

Associated Colleges of the Midwest Field Station, Instructor, 1997-1999

Yale University, Teaching Assistant, 1995-1997

Lifetime Learning, Inc., Writer and Researcher, 1995