| 1 | Name: | Dr. Richard White | |
| Institution: | Stanford University | ||
| Year Elected: | 2016 | ||
| Class: | 3. Social Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 303. History Since 1715 | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1947 | ||
I was born in New York City, and grew up in and around Los Angeles. I attended the University of California at Santa Cruz and received my Ph.D. from the University of Washington. I am an accidental historian inspired by my involvement in Indian fishing rights controversies in Washington in the late 1960s. One thing led to another, and my interest in Native American and Western history led me to environmental history. I have more recently become interested in memory and history and in political economy. I find it hard to specialize, and equally hard to stay within my own discipline. Maybe I just have a short attention span. I have also found it hard to stay in one place. I have taught at Michigan State, the University of Utah, the University of Washington, and Stanford University, where I have remained largely because the university has treated me well and my wife became a born-again Californian. She has no intention of leaving. I have always been interested in the techniques of writing history and the crafting of narratives; after receiving a Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award in the Humanities, I used the grant to co-found the Spatial History Project at Stanford and became fascinated by digital visualizations as a way to analyze and present historical data. This, in turn, has increased my interest in photography. Although I am primarily a historian of the United States, I have written about Mexico, Canada, and France as well as Ireland. I also have an interest in New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific World but this has not, so far, led to publications. | |||