Fields
American West, Native America and Indigenous, Public, U.S. post-1865
Bio
Brian Hosmer is professor and head of the OSU History Department. Prior to joining OSU in the summer of 2020, he held the H.G. Barnard Chair in Western American History at the University of Tulsa, following academic positions at the University of Delaware, University of Wyoming and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Notably, he directed the Newberry Library’s prestigious D’Arcy McNickle Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies for six years.
Hosmer’s teaching interests range from a variety of classes covering Indigenous peoples of North America to topics on the North American West, environmental history, west of the imagination and the history of Oklahoma. I have developed seminars on representations by/about Indigenous people, American Indian ethnohistory (basically a methods class) and other topics touching upon the west.
My research pivots around intersections between economic change and Indigenous nationhood in the 20th century. My books (solely authored or edited) include: "American Indians and the Marketplace", "Native Pathways", "Tribal Worlds", "Native Americans and the Legacy of Harry S. Truman", and "Indians of Illinois", a book currently under contract and in the process of revisions. Most recently I’ve published on topics like reservation newsletters published during the 1930s, community-engaged scholarship in Indian country, and a study of Miami nationhood based on papers held in the Gilcrease Museum archives (which received an award from the Oklahoma Historical Society). My next project will be a history of travel and American identity, tentatively entitled: "A Trip to the States: An American Story".
In my spare time, I founded the University of Tulsa chapter of the American Association for University Professors, served on the Board of Education for Tulsa Public Schools and on boards for the Woody Guthrie Center, the TU Institute for Bob Dylan Studies, Gilcrease Museum, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and consulted for (among others) the National Endowment for the Humanities, the U.S. Department of Justice and the First Nations Museum in Oklahoma City.
Courses Taught
HIST 3703 Oklahoma History