Shae Smith Cox 

Academic Employment

January 2021-Present                            Assistant Professor of History, Nicholls State University

August 2018-December 2020                 Instructor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

August 2019-May-2020                         Graduate Assistant, Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association

May-August 2018                                 Teaching With Historic Places, National Park Service

August 2017-August 2019                     Deputy Director of Preserve Nevada, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

May 2017-August 2017                         Research Assistant for Dr. Elizabeth White Nelson’s Digital Newspaper Project, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Summer)

May 2017-September 2017                    Interim Curator, The Mob Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada

May 2016-August 2016                         Intern for the Content Department, The Mob Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada

August 2015-May 2017                         Discussion Leader, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Education

Ph.D., History, 2015- 2020 University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Dissertation: “The Fabric of Civil War Society: Uniforms, Badges, and Flags, 1861 to 1939”

Minor: Public History

Exam fields: United States History, Civil War History, Public History, Historical Theory and Methods, Memory 

Certification: Certificate in University Research, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Graduate College

M.A., History, 2013, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma

B.A., American History, 2010, East Central University, Ada, Oklahoma

Peer-Reviewed Publications

 The Fabric of Civil War Society: The Effect of Uniforms, Badges, and Flags, 1859-1939, Louisiana State University Press, forthcoming February 2024.

‘The Suffering and Groans of the Wounded and Dying Were Terrible to See and Hear’: Auditory Experiences of Civil War Suffering, in progress.

Shae Smith Cox, Evan Rothera, and Michael S. Green (eds.): A Companion to Abraham Lincoln, Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming 2025.

Publication for Collected Volumes

“Lincoln and Pop Culture: Representation in the Media,” in A Companion to Abraham Lincoln, Wiley-Blackwell, (eds.) Shae Smith Cox, Evan Rothera, and Michael S. Green, forthcoming 2025.

“Outfitting the Lost Cause: The Recreation of Memory, Identity, and Southern Sectionalism through Civil War Uniforms, 1865-1920s,” in Buying and Selling Civil War Memory in Gilded Age America, eds. James Marten and Caroline E. Janney, University of Georgia Press, 2021.

Book Reviews

“The Southern Legacy of White Supremacy,” Reviews in American History, Spring 2023

John M. Sacher, Confederate Conscription and the Struggle for Southern Soldiers, (Louisiana State University Press, 2021), The Kentucky Historical Society, forthcoming.

Bradley Clampit, Lost Causes: Confederate Demobilization and the Making of Veteran Identity, (Louisiana State University Press, 2022), The Journal of the Civil War Era, forthcoming.

James Gill and Howard Hunter, Tearing Down the Lost Cause: The Removal of New Orleans Confederate Statues, (University Press of Mississippi, 2021), The Journal of Southern History, May 2022.

Caroline E. Janney, Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox, (University of North Carolina Press, 2021), The Civil War Monitor, January 2022.

“A Trojan Horse, Monument Men, and the Cultural Landscape of Historic Sites,” Reviews in American History 49, no. 3 (2021): October.

Adam H. Domby, The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory, (University of Virginia Press, 2020), H-net, September 2020.

Thavolia Glymph, The Women’s Fight: The Civil War’s Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation, Littlefield History of the Civil War Era Series, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020), H-net, July 2020.

Nicole Maurantonio, Confederate Exceptionalism: Civil War Myth and Memory in the Twenty-First Century, (University of Kansas Press, 2019), Indiana Magazine of History, September 2020.

Steve Inskeep, Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Fremont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause the Civil War (Penguin Press, 2020), The Civil War Monitor, March 2020.

Robert M. Sandow, ed., Contested Loyalty: Debates Over Patriotism in the Civil War North (New York: Fordham University Press, 2018), H-net, May 2019.

Conference Section Organizer/Co-Organizer (Selected)

  • Panel: “Cultures of Occupations: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Resentment During Early Reconstruction.” Sponsored by the Society of Civil War Historians, American Historical Association (AHA) Annual Meeting, January 2020, New York, New York.

  • Round Table: “Levels of Collaboration: Presenting University Research through Public and Private Institutions.” Presented at the Organization of American Historians (OAH) Annual Meeting, April 2018, Sacramento, California.

  • Round Table: “Public History and Popular Culture: Complicating the Flapper and the Prohibition Era Gangster,” The Far West Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (FWPCA-ACA), February 2017, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Conference Presentations (Selected)

·       Paper: “‘Custodian of the Crosses of Honor’: Badges of the United Daughters of the Confederacy,” on the Panel: “Badges, we don’t need no stinking badges”: Civil War Memory in Unexpected Places, British Association for American Studies, April 2023.

·       Round Table: A Community History of Smith Ridge Louisiana, Louisiana Historical Association (LHA), March 2023, Alexandria, Louisiana.

·       Dissertation Writing and Beyond, Sponsored by the WHA Graduate Student Caucus, Western History Association (WHA), October 2022, San Antonio, Texas.

·       Paper: “The Suffering and Groans of the Wounded and Dying Were Terrible to See and Hear”: An Auditory History of Civil War Suffering, Presented on the Panel: “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Feel no Evil: Women, Senses, and Emotion in the Civil War Era,” Society of Civil War Historians, June 2022.

  • Southern Historical Association, The SAWH Professional Development Committee “Navigating the Job Market in the Academy and Beyond,” November 2021.

  • Paper: “God Will Prove Us to be In the Right”: The Rise of the Women’s Relief Corps and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Junior Scholars Panel Sponsored by the Alexander Hamilton Institute (AHI), St. George Tucker Society, Virtual Conference, July 2021.

  • Lightening Round: The Future of the Field, Society of Civil War Historians, Virtual Conference, June 2021.

  • Paper: “‘INDIANS WILL ATTEND REUNION’: The Complicated Story of Indigenous Commemoration of Civil War Service and Sacrifice,” Presented on the Panel: Destruction and Reconstruction: Remapping and Rebuilding the Physical Environment in the Post-Civil War United States, Presented at the Organization of American Historians (OAH) Annual Meeting, April 2021, Virtual due to Covid.

  • Paper: “‘So Far Away From ‘Dixie Land’”: Place and Confederate Identity Construction,” Presented on the Panel: Quest for the West: Gender, Race, and Military Service in American Civil War Remembrances, Western History Association (WHA), October 2020, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

  • Paper Session: “Memory on Parade: African Americans in the Grand Army of the Republic and the Crafting of Memory and Post-Civil War Identity for Veterans, 1865-1920,” Presented on the Panel: “Life After War: Race, Gender, and Neglected Narratives After the American Civil War,” Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association (PCB-AHA),August 2019, Las Vegas, Nevada.

  • Paper Session: “Many Badges of Gallant Service”: The Significance of Badges to Union Veterans, 1880s to 1930s,” Microhistories of the Civil War Era, May 2019, Blacksburg, Virginia.

  • Paper Session: “Manufactured Identity: The Recreation of Memory, Identity, and Southern Sectionalism through Civil War Uniforms, 1865-1913,” Presented on the Panel: “Crafting Identity, Memory, and Public Remembrance” Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association (PCB-AHA), August 2018, Santa Clara, California

  • Exhibit Session: “Vintage Vegas: A Pop-Up Fashion Exhibition,” National Council of Public Historians (NCPH), April 2018, Las Vegas, Nevada

  • Paper Session: “Regalia-Rivalry: Re-enactors Battling Identities in Civil War Uniform through Historical Interpretation, Identity-formation, and the Logistics of Nevada, 1862-2017,” Phi Alpha Theta (PAT) Biennial Convention, January 2018, New Orleans, Louisiana

  • Panel Session: “Consuming the Past: Representing Prohibition Era Material Culture with Public History,” Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association (PCB-AHA), August 2017, Northridge, California

  • Paper Session: “Dueling Duds: The Economic, Social, and Societal Effect of Civil War Uniforms.” Presented on the Panel: “Social Fabrics and Fabrics of Society,” at CUNY Early American Republic Seminar Grad Student Conference (EARS), May 2017, New York City, New York

Peer Reviewer for Journals

·       Journal of Arizona History

·       Popular Culture Review

·       Material Culture: The Journal of the Pioneer America Society

Public Talks and Media Contributions (Selected)

March 2023, Public Lecture: The Methods of Memory Machines: Remembering the Civil War Through Objects, Civil War Round Table of Central Louisiana

October 2022, Guest Lecture: Outfitting the Lost Cause and Civil War Memory, Auburn University

April 2022, Our Only “Felt” History: Civil War Series Lecture, University of Arkansas, Fort Smith

September 2021, Constitution Day/Rothbaum Lecture, East Central University

May 2019, Mob U-Prohibition Fashion, The Mob Museum

May 2019, College of Liberal Arts Emeritus Faculty Reunion, UNLV

January 2019, Confederate Uniforms and Memory, 10 Minute History

July 2018, Friends of Nevada State Museum, Preserving Nevada, Nevada State Museum

May 2018, Preserve Nevada, 11 Most Endangered Places list, Las Vegas Review-Journal

February 2018, National Council of Public Historians, “Remembering the Civil War in Nevada,” author

January 2017, Ready to Roar Promotion, Channel 13, The Morning Blend

December 2016, Mob Museum, “Prohibition: An Interactive History,” researcher and contributing author

November 2016, The Mob Museum, “In the 1920s, American Women Were Ready to Roar,” Author

Spring 2016-2020, UNLV Public History Website. Web Design and Content Editor.

Awards and Grants

April 2023,                               Winner of the Student Organization “Advisor of the Year” Award.

January 2023,                           Nominated for the "Student Affairs Faculty Merit Award" and "Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award." 

October 2022,                           College of Liberal Arts Travel Grant, Nicholls State University ($450)

July 2021,                                 BOEM Center for Excellence Grant, Human Dimension Support Faculty, Nicholls State University ($30,000)

May 2021,                                Digital History Grant, Co-Investigator, Nicholls State University ($6,000)

April 2021,                               Outstanding Non-STEM Dissertation Award, UNLV ($1,000)

Fall 2020,                                 College of Liberal Arts Best Dissertation Award, UNLV

Spring 2020,                             Cooper & Ledbetter Public History Scholarship, UNLV ($1,225)

Society of Civil War Historians Outreach and Membership Committee Sponsorship for the AHA ($750)

Fall 2019,                                 Graduate and Professional Student Association, UNLV, Conference Funding ($1,102)

Spring 2019,                             Jerry Lodge and Robert E. Clark Scholarship ($2,000)

National Society of the Colonial Dames of America ($5,000)

Summer 2018,                          Nancy Disher Baird Fellowship, Western Kentucky University, Library Special Collections ($750)

                                                PCB-AHA Presidents' Graduate Student Travel Award ($300)

Spring 2018,                             John Pine Memorial Award, Phi Alpha Theta National Organization ($1,000)

Outstanding Doctoral Student, UNLV History Department 

Summer Doctoral Research Fellowship, UNLV Graduate College ($7,000)

                                                Hal K. Rothman Doctoral Research Award, UNLV ($2,000)

Graduate and Professional Student Association, UNLV Research Funding ($600)

Fall 2017,                                 Graduate and Professional Student Association, UNLV Conference Funding ($400)

Fall 2017,                                 PCB-AHA Presidents' Graduate Student Travel Award ($200)

Summer 2017,                          Graduate and Professional Student Association, UNLV Emergency Conference Funding ($400)

Spring 2017,                             Harold & Judith Boyer History Student Scholarship (Oral History) ($3,000)

Hal K. Rothman Doctoral Research Award, UNLV ($750)

Jerry Lodge and Robert E. Clark Scholarship ($200)

College of Liberal Arts Ph.D. Student Summer Faculty Research Stipend ($3,000)

Fall 2016,                                 Hal K. Rothman Doctoral Research Award, UNLV ($1,500)

Spring 2016,                             Author and Recipient, Nevada Humanities Mini Grant ($950)

Teaching

Courses Taught at Nicholls State University:

  • History of the South

  • The U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction

  • Museum Studies

  • Southern Women

  • American Women’s History

  • American Women’s Fashion     

  • Extraordinary Women since 1700

  • US History to 1865

  • US History Since 1865

  • The Modern History of Toys

 Courses Taught at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas:

  • US History to 1877 (Instructor of record both online and in Person)

  • Introduction to Public History (Instructor of Record)

  • Southern Women (Instructor of Record)

Graduate Assistant Discussion Leader at UNLV

  • “Revolutions and Constitutions: US, Russia, and Iran”

  • “Historical Issues in Contemporary Society: The Meaning of Freedom in America”

  • “Hitler and the Constitution”

Public History—Museum Experience—Exhibit Training

Summer 2021

  • Coordinator for the Acadian Cultural Center Waterway History Harvest in Partnership with the National Park Service and Smithsonian, Thibodaux, Louisiana

Spring 2020

  • Collection Inspection and Cleaning, Team-member

Fall 2019

The Mob Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada

  • The Underground, Researcher and Assistant to Curator, Permanent Exhibit

November 2016-May 2017

The Mob Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada

  • Ready to Roar, Co-Curator and Project Manager            

Nevada Humanities, Las Vegas, Nevada

  • Doom Towns, Install Assistant

Spring 2016, Las Vegas, Nevada

  • Training in artifact preservation and storage, lighting, cleaning, and install.

  • Maintained records of accession, condition, and location of objects in the museum collection.

  • Rehoused objects by creating custom support trays, custom boxes, and stabilized objects by securing them to their support boards using appropriate mechanisms and cavity packing to limit the possibility of abrasion to the object.

Professional Service

January 2023-Present    Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, Program Committee Chair

January 2022-Present    Society of Civil War Historians, Executive Council Member

July 2022-Present          Society of Civil War Historians, Outreach Committee Member

July 2022-Present          Society of Civil War Historians, Early Career Committee Member and Chair

July 2021-Present          CLIO History Club Advisor, Nicholls State University

June/July 2020              Society of Civil War Historians, Micro-Grant Relief Committee

July/August 2019          Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association, Graduate Registration Volunteer, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

2018-2020                    UNLV History Department Ph.D. Candidate Representative

2018-2019                    Phi Alpha Theta Vice President of Administration and Recruitment

2018-2019                    Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association, Local Arrangements Committee Student Representative for the 2019 Conference

2018-2019                    Western History Association, Local Arrangements Committee Student Representative for the 2019 Conference

August 2018                 Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association, Graduate Registration Volunteer, California State University, Santa Clara

April 2018                    National Council of Public Historians, Graduate Registration Volunteer, Las Vegas, Nevada

2018-2020                    Society of Civil War Historians Graduate Student Connection Committee Member

2017-2018                    National Council of Public Historians, Local Arrangements Committee Student Representative for the 2018 Conference 

October 2017                American Society for Legal History, Graduate Registration Volunteer, Las Vegas, Nevada

August 2017                 Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association, Graduate Registration Volunteer, California State, Northridge

2016-2018                    Phi Alpha Theta Secretary and Event Coordinator, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

2016-2020                    Graduate Student Workshop Coordinator, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

November 2015            Ethno History Conference, Reception Assistant, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

2009-Present                 Member, Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society, East Central University, Oklahoma State University, and University of Nevada, Las Vegas