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Program Faculty

Public History Program Faculty and Affiliated Scholars

Katrine Barber (Ph.D., Washington State University, 1999)
Associate Professor

Katy Barber has directed oral history projects for the Suislaw National Forest, the Oregon Military Museum, the Washington County History Museum, and the Chinook Nation. She has also developed digital exhibits and organized public programs for the Center for Columbia River History, which she directed for five years. Her first book, Death of Celilo Falls, was published in 2005 by the University of Washington Press. She is also co-editor (with Andrew Fisher) of a special issue of the Oregon Historical Quarterly on the history of Celilo Falls and co-author (with William Robbins) of Nature's Northwest: The North Pacific Slope in the Twentieth Century (University of Arizona Press, 2011). Currently, her work has focused on the history of the Chinook Indian Nation.

 

Patricia A. Schechter (PhD, Princeton, 1993)
Professor of History

Patricia A. Schechter is Professor of History at Portland State University, where she has taught since 1995.  Her public history work involves oral history, archival collection development, and exhibits. Professor Schechter has worked on projects for the YWCA of Greater Portland, the Oregon Nurses Association, the Oregon Trail Chapter of the American Red Cross, and the Cambodian American Community of Oregon. Since 2007, she has been engaged in archiving civil rights materials in Oregon, including oral histories, in partnership with PSU’s Black Studies Department and leading families within the Portland African American community.  One result of this effort, an oral memoir of Avel Louise Gordly, Remembering the Power of Words (OSU Press), has been designated an Outstanding University Press Title for Undergraduates, 2011, by Library’s Choice.   

 

 

Affiliated Scholars

Greg Shine (MA, San Francisco State University, 2000)
Chief Ranger & Historian, Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Vancouver, Washington
and Historian, Northwest Cultural Resources Institute

At Fort Vancouver, Greg serves as chief ranger and historian, overseeing the public history program and managing historic site interpretation (history-based special events, tours and talks, living history, costumed interpretation, cultural demonstrations, education programs and other public programs).

In 2006, he helped to establish the Public History Field School (HST 511 Public History Lab) as a partnership program between Portland State University and the National Park Service.

Greg has published numerous studies, reports, and technical papers for the National Park Service as well as articles for several journals and magazines.

 

Donna Sinclair (MA, Portland State University, 2004)

Donna Sinclair completed her MA thesis in history entitled “Contested Visions of Place: People, Power, and Perception on the Columbia's North Shore, 1805-1913.” She is currently an independent oral historian whose has worked with a number of local and state-wide organizations, most recently Reed College and the US District Court of Oregon Historical Society. She also teaches capstones in partnership with the U.S.D.A. Forest Service and is in the Ph.D. in Urban Studies program at Portland State University.