VITA

 REBECCA SHARPLESS

 Department of History                                 

Texas Christian University                           

Fort Worth, Texas  76129                             

Telephone: (817) 257- 5645

Fax: (817) 257- 5650                                      E-mail: R.Sharpless@tcu.edu

 Education

Ph.D. (American Studies), Emory University, 1993

M.A. (American Studies), Baylor University, 1983

B.A. (English), Magna cum Laude, Baylor University, 1978

 Honors

Phi Beta Kappa

      Zeta of Texas chapter president, 1998-2000

Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize for best book on Texas history, Texas State Historical Association, 2000

Liz Carpenter Award for Research in the History of Women and Texas, Texas State Historical Association, 2000

T. R. Fehrenbach Book Award, Texas Historical Commission, 2000

Phi Alpha Theta (history)

Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts Fellowship, Emory University, 1987-88 and 1988-89

Andrew W. Mellon Dissertation Fellowship in Southern Studies, 1991

 Present Position

Associate Professor of History, Texas Christian University, 2010 (Assistant Professor, 2006-2010)

 Employment History

Director, Baylor University Institute for Oral History, 1993-2006; Senior Lecturer, Department of History, Baylor University, 2004-2006

Interim Director, Program for Regional Studies, Baylor University, 1990-93

Instructor of History, part-time, Central Texas College, 1990

Instructor of History, part-time, Temple Junior College, 1990, 1993

Associate Director/Full-time Lecturer, Baylor University Institute for Oral History,

     1985-89 (on leave 1987-89); Assistant Director for Administration, 1982-85

Coordinator for Administrative Activities, Baylor University Program for Oral History,

     1979-82

American History to 1865/1877                   History of American Women

American History since 1865/1877              Introduction to Women’s Studies

History of Working People in America        Texas History

Seminar in Oral History                                The United States in the World

Student Direction

Texas Christian University: director of Honors Program theses, 2007-2008, 2008-2009; service on thesis and dissertation committees, Departments of History and English.

Baylor University, director of Honors Program thesis, 1999; director of master’s theses, American Studies Program, 2003, 2005; service on thesis and dissertation committees for American Studies Program; Departments of English, History, Communication Studies, and Museum Studies; and School of Education.

Texas A&M University, service on dissertation committee, Department of History.

Professional Organizations

American Historical Association

Labor and Working Class History Association

Oral History Association

      President, 2005-2006; Vice president/first vice president, 2003-2005

      Executive Secretary, 1994-98

      Executive Council, 1986-89

       Nominating Committee, 2000-2002

      Cochair, Program Committee, Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1991; Chair, Ad-hoc Committee on Scholarships, 1994-95; Member, Program Committee, Annual Meeting, Birmingham, Alabama, 1993; Galveston, Texas, 1989; Lexington, Kentucky, 1984; Associate Editor, Oral History Association Newsletter (quarterly), 1979-87; Finance Committee, 1999-2000

Organization of American Historians

     Editorial Board, OAH Newsletter, 1998-2002 (chair, 2000)

Southern Association for Women Historians

     Second Vice President, 2010-2011

     Executive Council, 2006 -2009

     Audit Committee (chair, 1997-2000); Finance Committee, 1999-2000; Fund-raising Committee (chair), 2002

Southern Historical Association

     Committee on Women in the SHA, 1994-97 (chair, 1996-97)

     Program Committee for 2010 annual meeting

Texas Oral History Association

     Secretary-Treasurer, 1982-87

Texas State Historical Association

     Executive Council, 2010 -

     Program Committee for 2004, 2008, and 2011 annual meetings

     Nominating Committee, 2008-2009

 Publications (Books Written)

Cooking in Other Women’s Kitchens: Domestic Workers in the South, 1865-1960. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.

Fertile Ground, Narrow Choices: Women on Texas Cotton Farms, 1900-1940. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

 (with Lois E. Myers and Clark G. Baker) Rock beneath the Sand: Country Churches in Texas. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2003.

 Publications (Books Edited)

(with Melissa Walker) Work, Family, and Faith: Rural Women in the Twentieth-Century South. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2006. 

(with Lois E. Myers and Thomas L. Charlton) Handbook of Oral History. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.

(with Joe C. Yelderman, Jr.) The Texas Blackland Prairie: Land, History, and Culture. Waco, Tex.: Baylor University, 1993.

 (with David Stricklin) The Past Meets the Present: Essays on Oral History. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1987.

 Current Research

Women and work in the American South

Women and food entrepreneurs

 Selected Publications (Articles)

(with Lu Ann Jones, Adrienne Petty, Mark Schultz, and Melissa Walker) “Complicating the Story: Oral History and the Study of the Rural South.” Agricultural History, spring 2011. 

 “‘Us Has Ever Lived De Useful Life’: African American Women in Texas, 1874-1900.”  In Black Texas Women, ed. Bruce Glasrud and Merline Pitre. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008. 

 (with Melissa Walker) “‘Pretty Near Every Woman Done a Man’s Work’: Women and Field Work in the Rural South.” In Work, Family, and Faith: Rural Women in the Twentieth-Century South, ed. Melissa Walker and Rebecca Sharpless. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2006.

“The History of Oral History.” In Handbook of Oral History, ed. Lois Myers, Rebecca Sharpless, and Thomas Charlton. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.

“Women and Work during the Great Depression in Texas.”  In Invisible Texans: Women and Minorities in Texas, ed. Donald Willett and Stephen Curley. Dubuque, Iowa: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 

 (with Lois E. Myers) “Of the Least and the Most”: The African American Rural Church.” In African American Life in the Rural South, 1900-1950, ed. R. Douglas Hurt, 54-80. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003. 

“Hester Calvert, Texas Farm Wife.” In The Human Tradition in Texas, ed. Ty Cashion and Frank de la Teja, 115-28. New York: Scholarly Resources, 2001; reprinted in The Human Tradition in the New South, ed. James Klotter, 67-78.  Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. 

Book reviews in Agricultural History, American Historical Review, Great Plains Quarterly, International Journal of Oral History, Journal of American History, Journal of Southern History, Journal of Mississippi History, Journal of Western History, Oral History Review, Public Historian, Southwestern Historical Quarterly, and others.

Selected Professional Activities and Presentations

“Remembering Past One Another: Idella Parker, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and Autobiography at Cross Creek,” keynote address, Southern Association for Women Historians Annual Meeting, Louisville, Kentucky, November 2009

Panelist, “Complicating the Picture: Oral History and the Study of the Rural South,” Organization of American Historians, Seattle, Washington, March 2009

C. Vann Woodward Dissertation Prize Committee, Southern Historical Association, 2009

T. R. Fehrenbach Award Committee, Texas Historical Commission, 2009

H. Bailey Carroll Award Committee, Texas State Historical Association, 2007-2009

Everett E. Edwards Award Committee, Agricultural History Society, 2007-2010

Paper, “‘Mirations’ or Mockeries: Cooks, Employers, and Memory in the New South,” Organization of American Historians, Boston, Massachusetts, April 2004

Editorial board, Elma Dill Russell Spencer Series in the West and Southwest, Texas A&M University Press, 2003 -

Paper, “‘She Ought to Taken Those Cakes’: Market Relationships of Urban and Rural Women, 1900-1940,” Southern Association for Women Historians, Athens, Georgia, June 2003

Southern Association for Women Historians, Willie Lee Rose Prize Committee, 2003-2004

Southern Historical Association, H. L. Mitchell Award Committee, 2002-2004

Paper, “Remembering the Land: Stories of Southern American Sharecroppers,” Twelfth International Oral History Conference, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, June 2002

Texas Council for the Humanities Speakers Bureau, 2000 -

Texas Institute of Letters Dallas Public Library award committee, 2000-2001

Paper, “Oral History and Identity: The Reconstruction of Farm Women’s Life Histories in the Southern U.S.,” American Historical Association, Boston, Massachusetts, January 2001

Paper, “Living by the Book: Recipes as Texas Women’s Biography,” Texas State Historical Association, Austin, Texas, March 2000