Rachel D. Shaw
shawracheld [at] gmail [dot] com
❀ Education ❀
University of California, San Diego M.A. – History |
Trained in indexing through the American Society for Indexing |
Wildbranch Workshop |
National Outdoor Leadership School |
❀ Professional Affiliations and Links ❀
❀ Work History ❀
Academic positions are listed separately below.
Freelance Photography portfolios available at Zenfolio and RedBubble. |
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George Washington Ferry Farm and Kenmore Plantation Foundation |
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Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center |
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DePauw University |
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Platt College San Diego Assistant to Registrar and Placement Offices San Diego, California. January 2004 – May 2005 |
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AppleOne Employment Services Assignments included:
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Academic Employment |
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Indiana University East Adjunct Professor of American History Fredericksburg, Virginia. 2007 – 2008 DePauw University St. Olaf College University of San Diego University of California, San Diego Teaching Assistant and Instructor, Department of History |
❀ EXPERIENCE and SKILLS ❀
Indexing Prepared accurate back-of-the-book indexes under tight publishing deadlines ◈ Special facility with scholarly books, particularly on the following topics: U.S. history |
Other topic areas I have worked with include Spanish and Latin American nationalism, Japanese popular culture, and Indian postcolonial literature. |
Editing Assessed and corrected grammar, style and content, including ESL-specific editing ◈ Worked with authors to refine their ideas and enhance their effectiveness ◈ Presented feedback on web page design including technical advice ◈ Taught workshops in effective writing. |
Writing Wrote and edited a book manuscript based on original historical research ◈ Wrote and presented conference papers ◈ Authored book reviews for professional journals ◈ Produced grant and funding proposals ◈ Developed comprehensive instructions for project assignments ◈ Produced analytical summaries of others’ performances and writing ◈ Developed instructional manuals and organizational rubrics ◈ Authored non-fiction articles for scholarly and popular audiences ◈ Attended Wildbranch Workshop in 2006 and 2007. |
Research Located and assessed historical documents in private, county and federal institutions ◈ Analyzed collected data using a range of methodologies and conceptual frameworks ◈ Fact-checked sources ◈ Employed a range of search engines to locate visual and textual information ◈ Established good working relationships with archivists, librarians and other knowledge workers. |
Organization Developed and maintained databases using ClarisWorks, ClassWin, PastPerfect and Excel ◈ Developed and maintained filing rubrics ◈ Maintained files of student performance at seven academic institutions ◈ Strong organizational skills overall. |
Data Analysis Employed Excel spreadsheets to track student progress ◈ Assessed historical documents to identify and monitor trends ◈ Produced reports on library holdings. |
Graphics Used digital and manual SLR cameras to produce original color and black and white illustrations and to duplicate original documents ◈ Employed Photoshop to edit original, scanned and downloaded images ◈ Used Excel to produce custom graphs and tables ◈ Developed websites using DreamWeaver and weblog templates ◈ Produced handouts and slideshows for presentations. |
Public Speaking Experienced public speaker ◈ Employed PowerPoint, overhead projectors, computerized Smart Carts and slide projectors to enhance presentations ◈ Trained students in effective public communication, including appropriate PowerPoint design and execution. |
Training and Management Oversaw student production of original content websites, local history museum exhibits, fieldwork reports and research papers ◈ Coordinated efforts of cooperative teams working as part of a larger group ◈ Resolved conflicts among group members ◈ Assisted team members in developing and adhering to production schedules and deadlines ◈ Oversaw employees responsible for assessing and monitoring student work ◈ Managed and trained student employees. |
Museum Work Sorted and assessed documents in preparation for cataloging, including ephemera, original artwork, newsletters, periodicals, photographs, maps and published books ◈ Accessioned collection of antique and classic cameras for the San Diego Historical Society: identified and re-labeled items; wrote detailed descriptions of each item accompanied by identifying sketches; assessed condition of each item including mechanical operation ◈ Added accessioned objects to computer database using Past Perfect software ◈ Assisted in materials processing in the archaeology lab at the George Washington Ferry Farm. |
❀ PUBLICATIONS ❀
◈ Essay: “Settling,” in Wildbranch: An Anthology of Nature, Environmental, and Place-Based Writing, Florence Caplow and Susan A. Cohen, eds. (The University of Utah Press, 2010.)
My essay is mentioned in reviews by Barbara J. King, “Reading Restless Nature: Wildbranch and Nature Stories” (http://www.bookslut.com/features/2011_02_017187.php) and Jennifer McStotts, “‘I want its poetry to overtake us’—On the Power of Place-Based Writing” (http://www.terrain.org/reviews/27/wildbranch_anthology.htm).
◈ Essay: “Virtuality: The Splenda of Existence,” at Terrain.org. 31 March, 2010.
◈ Book Review: Bruce M. Pavlik, The California Deserts: An Ecological Rediscovery. (University of California Press, 2008).
Ecological Restoration. 27:3 (September 2009): 362-64.
http://er.uwpress.org/content/27/3.toc
PDF available for download here (requires payment): http://er.uwpress.org/content/27/3/362.full.pdf+html◈ Book Review: Reading the Roots: American Nature Writing before Walden. Michael P. Branch, ed. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004.)
H-Environment, H-Net Reviews. October 2007.
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=13752◈ Book Review: Daniel Tyler, Silver Fox of the Rockies: Delphus E. Carpenter and Western Water Compacts. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003).
Southwestern Historical Quarterly. 107:3 (January 2004): 490-91.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/30240407◈ Book Review: Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz, Lands of Promise and Despair: Chronicles of Early California, 1535-1846. (Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books, 2001).
H-West, H-Net Reviews, October 2002.
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=6841◈ Book Review: Mansel G. Blackford, Fragile Paradise: The Impact of Tourism on Maui, 1959-2000. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001).
Western Historical Quarterly. 33:2 (Summer 2002): 235-36.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4144824◈ Book Review: Lawrence Hogue, All the Wild and Lonely Places: Journeys in a Desert Landscape (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2000), and Diana Lindsay, Anza-Borrego A to Z: People, Places, and Things (El Cajon, CA: Sunbelt Publications, 2001).
The Journal of San Diego History. 48:3 (Summer, 2002): 273-76.◈ Book Review: Mary Hill. Gold: The California Story. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).
Journal of the West. 40:3 (Summer 2001): 84.◈ Book Review: John D. Wirth . Smelter Smoke in North America: The Politics of Transborder Pollution. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000.)
H-ASEH, H-Net Reviews, March 2000.
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=3937◈ Dissertation: Evolving Ecoscape: An Environmental and Cultural History of Palm Springs, California, and the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation, 1877-1939.
University of California, San Diego. 1999.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/41942987
❀ PRESENTATIONS ❀
◈ “A Walk on the Wild(branch) Side.”
A roundtable presentation for the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment Ninth Biennial Conference “Species, Space, and the Imagination of the Global.” 21-26 June, 2011. Downloadable PDF of program.◈ “The Virtues of the Virtual: Using Blogs.”
A roundtable for the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment Eighth Biennial Conference, “Island Time.” 3-6 June, 2010. Downloadable PDF of program.◈ “Feathers, Fronds and Fantasy: Creating and Deploying the Tourist Ecoscape in Desert Palm Springs, California.”
A paper for the Arid Lands Studies division of the Western Social Science Association 45th Annual Conference, 9-12 April 2003.◈ “In the Garden for Good and Evil: An Environmental History of America.”
Talk given as invited speaker for Earth Week at St. Olaf College, 22-26 April, 2002.◈ “Trail Shrines and Survey Mounds: Ritual Stone Piling in Palm Valley, California.”
A paper for the Western Humanities Alliance conference “The Pious and the Profane: Religion and Public Culture,” at the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, 12-14 October, 2000.◈ “‘So might the Indian of yore have surveyed his domain’: Creating the Tourist Ecoscape in Palm Springs, California, 1880s-1930s.”
A paper for the American Heritage Center conference, “Packaging Places: Imagining, Remembering and Promoting Landscapes.” 28-29 September, 2000.◈ “A Matter of Scale: Rapid Transformation and Conflict in Palm Springs, 1920s-1930s.”
Southern California Environment and History Conference II, at California State University, Northridge, California. 18-20 September, 1997.◈ “Living in a Continuum: Landscape Formation and Failure in Palm Valley.”
Southern California Environment and History Conference, at California State University, Northridge, California. 20-22 September, 1996.◈ “Nature and Culture in the Desert: A Study of Landscape Formation and Failure in Palm Valley, California, 1887-1907.”
Western Association of Women Historians Conference XXVI, at Pacific Grove, California. The paper appeared on a panel entitled “California Places, California Dreams.” 2-3 June, 1995.