Richard Francaviglia

 Professor

 

Address: 

   
                    Work: 
                             Center for Greater Southwestern Studies and the
                                    History of Cartography          
                             University of Texas at Arlington, Box 19497, 
                             Arlington, TX 76019-0497

                     Home: 
                             5119 Kee Brook Drive, 
                             Arlington, TX 76017; 
                             Phone: 
                             817/478-5080

Telephone:  (817) 817/272-3997

E-Mail:          francaviglia@uta.edu

Fax:                  817-272-5797

 Overview:

Is an historian and geographer interested in the way the American landscape has changed through time, and how this change is depicted in maps, literature, and popular culture. Background includes experience as a historical resources consultant, college professor and administrator, and historical museum director.

Education:

Received A.A. from Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, California (1965), B.A. from University of California at Riverside (1967), and M.A. and Ph.D. (1970) from the University of Oregon (Cultural/Historical Geography major, Art History minor).

Teaching Experience:

Has taught at the University of Minnesota, Antioch College, University of Arizona, and Wittenberg University, and is currently a Professor of History at the University of Texas at Arlington. Courses taught include U.S. history, historical geography, the history of cartography, history and geography of the West/Southwest, history and film, historical methods, and public history.

COURSES:

History 3300       --	Approaches to the Study of History
History 3351       --	Reading the Landscape
History 3352       --	The Southwest
History3358        --	The Later Frontier
History 3370       --	The Image of the American West
History 3371       --	Images of the Southwest
History 4301       --	Historical Geography and Cartography
Geography 3350 --	Reading the Landscape
Geography 3371 --	Images of the Southwest
Geography 4301 --	Historical Geography and Cartography
Geography 4310 --	Geography of the Greater Southwest
History 5342       --	Seminar in Regional/Topical History of the U. S.
History 5345       --	Introduction to Public History
History 5655       --	Public History Internship
History 6301	Colloquium in Exploration, Discovery, and the History  of Cartography
History 6321       --	Seminar in Transatlantic Exploration, Discovery, and the History of Cartography ("Landscapes of Encounter")

Publications:

He has written seven books: Mapping and Imagination in the Great Basin: A Cartographic History (2005); Believing in Place: A Spiritual Geography of the Great Basin (2003); The Cast Iron Forest: A Natural and Cultural History of the North American Cross Timbers (2000); From Sail to Steam:  Four Centuries of Texas Maritime History, 1500-1900 (1998); Main Street Revisited: Time, Space, and Image Building in Small Town America (1996); The Shape of Texas: Maps as Metaphors (1995); Hard Places: Reading the Landscape of America’s Historic Mining Districts  (1991); The Mormon Landscape: Existence, Creation and Perception of a Unique Image in the American West (1978); served as guest editor, Journal of the West (Summer, 1998); co-edited Essays on the Changing Images of the Southwest (1994) and Dueling Eagles: Reinterpreting the U.S.-Mexican War (2000); and Lights, Camera, History: Portraying the Past in Film (2007); and has written numerous articles in geographical and historical journals, including "Texas History and Texas Theme Parks," "History After Disney: The Significance of 'Imagineered' Historical Places," "Main Street Revisited," "The Cemetery as an Evolving Cultural Landscape," "Rediscovering Your County's Historical Atlases," and "The City of Zion in the Mountain West."

Administrative Service:

He has served in both academic settings and in public history positions, including Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer (Ohio 1984-88), Director of the Ohio Historical Society’s Local History Office (1988-91), and is currently Director of the Center for Greater Southwestern Studies and the History of Cartography at University of Texas at Arlington (1991-present).  He was President of the Mining History Association (2002); President of the Friends of the UTA Libraries (2003-2004); and currently serves as President of the Society for the History of Discoveries (2003-2005), and past President of the Association for Arid Lands Studies (2003-2004).

Other Service:

He served on Arizona Governor’s Task Force for Historic Preservation (1981-82); Arizona Historic Sites Review Board (1981-84); Manager of Regional and Environmental Planning Programs for the Southeastern Arizona Governments Organization (1979-83); City of Arlington Mayor’s Urban Design Award Committee (1994 and 1995); Southwest Railroad Historical Society board member (1997-2001), and Western History Association Student Scholarship Committee (1998-99).

Research Interests:

Include the ways in which the American landscape has been shaped by individuals, corporations, and religious groups (notably the Mormons); mining and transportation history; cartographic history; the history of exploration, and environmental history.