Alicia Barber
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, 2003
Office: Mack Social Sciences, MSS 109
Phone: (775) 682-6466
Email: barber@unr.edu
Alicia Barber completed a Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin in 2003 and serves as the Departmental Director of Public History and Director of the University of Nevada Oral History Program. Her research and teaching interests include American cultural history, public history, oral history, urban studies, memory and place, Nevada and the American West, and tourism.
While at UNR, Dr. Barber has developed several courses and opportunities dedicated to providing undergraduate and graduate students with hands-on experience presenting history to public audiences in a variety of formats. She coordinates student internships with area museums and other cultural institutions, and supervises independent student public history projects ranging from temporary installations in local venues to online exhibits.
Dr. Barber is involved in a number of organizations and activities that aim to bring history to broader audiences and to strengthen the link between UNR and the surrounding community. She has served on the City of Reno's Historical Resources Commission and on the Board of Directors of Preserve Nevada, a statewide historic preservation advocacy group. She appears regularly in public forums and media broadcasts as an expert on history and cultural tourism in Northern Nevada and is the author of Reno’s Big Gamble: Image and Reputation in the Biggest Little City, published by the University Press of Kansas in 2008. She is the co-editor of the oral history book, We Were All Athletes: Women's Athletics and Title IX at the University of Nevada, published in 2011 by the University of Nevada Oral History Program.
Courses:
- HIST 101: U.S. History to 1865
- HIST 102: U.S. History since 1865
- HIST 217: Nevada History
- HIST 309: Museum Studies
- HIST 310: Museum Training for Historians
- HIST 311: Public History
- HIST 315: The Trans-Mississippi West – The American West in Popular Culture
- HIST 417C/617C (Capstone): West As National Experience
- HIST 483/683: Studies in Urban History – The American City Since 1850
- HIST 487/687: Topics in American Studies – Introduction to Public History
- HIST 786: Oral History Methodology
- CH 203: The American Experience