Richard Slatta
Professor
B.A. Pacific Lutheran University
M.A. Portland State University
Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin
277 Withers Hall
Phone: (919) 513-2229
Email: slatta@ncsu.edu
FALL 09 OFFICE HOURS:
T H 1:15-2:15pm and by appointment
link to personal webpage: http://www.cowboyprof.com Online essays, research tools and primary source links for Western American history, and much more. Be certain to take a ride around my virtual ranch, the Lazy S.
link to teaching webpage: http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/ Includes links to currently taught courses and information about all other courses. Of special interest to students are webpages provides help with writing, learning, notetaking, evaluating websites, coping with college, studying history, researching Latin American history, and more.
Research Interests
Professor Slatta has spent three decades riding various frontier ranges, researching cowboy and ranch life throughout North and South America, and, mostly recently, in Hawaii. His comparative history approach has taken him on research trips to Argentina, Alberta, Canada, Hawaii, Mexico, Venezuela, and throughout the American West. Going back to the early 1980s, he has researched and published articles on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), often cooperating with his wife, Dr. Maxine. P. Atkinson. He also writes about the application of computer technologies to writing, research, and teaching. During the spring 2007 semester, Dr. Slatta will be in the Caribbean to examine approaches to tourism and historical site development.
In order to bring history to a wider audience, he has published a number of popular trade books, such as Cowboy: The Illustrated History (2006), The Mythical West: An Encyclopedia of Legend, Lore and Popular Culture (2001), and The Cowboy Encyclopedia (1994, 1996). He has also written for popular magazines, including Cowboys & Indians, Persimmon Hill, and Montana: The Magazine of Western History.
Slatta also presents his work through scholarly outlets, with books from Yale University Press (Cowboys of the Americas, 1990), University of Nebraska Press (Gauchos and the Vanishing Frontier, 1983, 1992), University of Oklahoma Press (Comparing Cowboys and Frontiers: New Perspectives on the History of the Americas, 1997, 2001), and Texas A&M University Press (Simón Bolívar's Quest for Glory, 2003, coauthored with Jane Lucas de Grummond). In addition, he has published more than 200 articles and reviews in a wide range of journals, magazines, and newspapers.
Teaching Interests
Professor Slatta has taught at NCSU since 1980, after earlier stints at the University of Colorado, Texas Lutheran College, and The University of Texas at Austin. He teaches surveys of colonial and modern Latin American history, focusing, in the latter course, on the theme of human rights abuses. He also teaches an advanced course on US-Latin American relations and occasional seminars on comparative frontiers. He taught the history department’s first online course in 1999 and integrates a wide range of technologies into all his classes. Teaching awards include a national award, Grand Prize Winner, Computer Learning Month Higher Education Faculty Papers for “Teaching historical research methods with microcomputer software” (1988) and the Lonnie and Carol Poole Award for Excellence in Teaching, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, NC State University (2000). He presents teaching workshops at NCSU and elsewhere, mostly recently in San Antonio, Texas.
