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Shae Smith Cox
Cell: (405) 919-4049
Email: [email protected]
Website: shaesmithcox.com
Academic Employment
August 2024-Present Assistant Professor of History, Texas A&M University
January 2021-May 2024 Assistant Professor of History, Nicholls State University
August 2018-December 2020 Instructor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
August 2019-May-2020 Graduate Assistant, Pacific Coast Branch of the American
Historical Association
May-August 2018 Teaching With Historic Places, National Park Service
August 2017-August 2019 Deputy Director of Preserve Nevada, University of Nevada, Las
Vegas
May 2017-August 2017 Research Assistant for Dr. Elizabeth White Nelson’s Digital
Newspaper Project, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Summer)
May 2017-September 2017 Interim Curator, The Mob Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada
May 2016-August 2016 Intern for the Content Department, The Mob Museum, Las
Vegas, Nevada
August 2015-May 2017 Discussion Leader, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Education
Ph.D., History, 2015- 2020 University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Dissertation: “The Fabric of Civil War Society: Uniforms, Badges, and Flags, 1861 to 1939”
Minor: Public History
Exam fields: United States History, Civil War History, Public History, Historical Theory and
Methods, Memory
Certification: Certificate in University Research, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Graduate
College
M.A., History, 2013, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma
B.A., American History, 2010, East Central University, Ada, Oklahoma
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Books:
The Fabric of Civil War Society: The Effect of Uniforms, Badges, and Flags, 1859-1939, Louisiana State
University Press, forthcoming February 21, 2024.
‘The Suffering and Groans of the Wounded and Dying Were Terrible to See and Hear’: Auditory
Experiences of Civil War Suffering, in progress.
Edited Books
Shae Smith Cox, Evan Rothera, and Michael S. Green (eds.): A Companion to Abraham Lincoln, Wiley-
Blackwell, forthcoming 2025.
Book Chapters and Essays
“Lincoln and Pop Culture: Representation in the Media,” in A Companion to Abraham Lincoln, Wiley-
Blackwell, (eds.) Shae Smith Cox, Evan Rothera, and Michael S. Green, forthcoming 2025.
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“Outfitting the Lost Cause: The Recreation of Memory, Identity, and Southern Sectionalism through Civil
War Uniforms, 1865-1920s,” in Buying and Selling Civil War Memory in Gilded Age America,
eds. James Marten and Caroline E. Janney, University of Georgia Press, 2021.
Online Publications
Smithridge, 64 Parishes, August 5, 2024, https://64parishes.org/entry/smithridge
Book Reviews
Matthew J. Clavin, “Symbols of Freedom: Slaver and Resistance Before the Civil War,” The Journal of
the Civil War Era, (New York University, 2023), Forthcoming.
“The Southern Legacy of White Supremacy,” Reviews in American History, Spring 2023
John M. Sacher, Confederate Conscription and the Struggle for Southern Soldiers, (Louisiana State
University Press, 2021), The Kentucky Historical Society.
Bradley Clampit, Lost Causes: Confederate Demobilization and the Making of Veteran Identity,
(Louisiana State University Press, 2022), The Journal of the Civil War Era.
James Gill and Howard Hunter, Tearing Down the Lost Cause: The Removal of New Orleans Confederate
Statues, (University Press of Mississippi, 2021), The Journal of Southern History, May 2022.
Caroline E. Janney, Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox, (University of
North Carolina Press, 2021), The Civil War Monitor, January 2022.
“A Trojan Horse, Monument Men, and the Cultural Landscape of Historic Sites,” Reviews in American
History 49, no. 3 (2021): October.
Adam H. Domby, The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory,
(University of Virginia Press, 2020), H-net, September 2020.
Thavolia Glymph, The Women’s Fight: The Civil War’s Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation,
Littlefield History of the Civil War Era Series, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
2020), H-net, July 2020.
Nicole Maurantonio, Confederate Exceptionalism: Civil War Myth and Memory in the Twenty-First
Century, (University of Kansas Press, 2019), Indiana Magazine of History, September 2020.
Steve Inskeep, Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Fremont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and
Helped Cause the Civil War (Penguin Press, 2020), The Civil War Monitor, March 2020.
Robert M. Sandow, ed., Contested Loyalty: Debates Over Patriotism in the Civil War North (New York:
Fordham University Press, 2018), H-net, May 2019.
Conference Section Organizer/Co-Organizer (Selected)
• Paper: “The Wonderful World of Color”: Disneyland’s Negative Portrayals of Indigeneity on
Property, Presented on the Panel: “The World of Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Fantasy: Race,
Representations, and Reconciliation in Disney Parks, Films, and Resorts, PCB-AHA, August
2024.
• Round Table: Beyond the Academy, Society of Civil War Historians, June 2024.
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• Paper: “The Suffering and Groans of the Wounded and Dying Were Terrible to See and Hear”:
An Auditory History of Civil War Suffering, Presented on the Panel: “See No Evil, Hear No Evil,
Feel no Evil: Women, Senses, and Emotion in the Civil War Era,” Society of Civil War
Historians, June 2022.
• Panel: “Cultures of Occupations: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Resentment During Early
Reconstruction.” Sponsored by the Society of Civil War Historians, American Historical
Association (AHA) Annual Meeting, January 2020, New York, New York.
• Round Table: “Levels of Collaboration: Presenting University Research through Public and
Private Institutions.” Presented at the Organization of American Historians (OAH) Annual
Meeting, April 2018, Sacramento, California.
• Round Table: “Public History and Popular Culture: Complicating the Flapper and the Prohibition
Era Gangster,” The Far West Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association
(FWPCA-ACA), February 2017, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Conference Presentations (Selected)
• Moderator/Chair, History Beyond the Essay: Community Based Public History and Pedagogy, H-
net Teaching Conference, August 20, 2024, Virtual.
• Paper: “Tending to ‘the fires of patriotism’: Caring for the Legacy of the Grand Army of the
Republic,” on the Panel: “Care for him who shall have borne the battle”: The Limitations of
Pension Care in Post-Civil War America,” Society of Civil War Historians (SCWH), June 2024,
Raleigh, North Carolina.
• Presentation: Smithridge, Louisiana: A Collaborative History of a Historically Black Community
in Terrebonne Parish, Bayou Studies Conference March 2024, Thibodaux, Louisiana.
• Paper: “Clothing and Political Memory: Indigenous Women in the Woman’s Relief Corp and the
United Daughters of the Confederacy,” on the Panel: “Women Engaging in War and Public
Memory: Remembering Forgotten Indigenous Histories,” Western History Association (WHA),
October 2023, Los Angeles, California.
• Paper: “‘Custodian of the Crosses of Honor’: Badges of the United Daughters of the
Confederacy,” on the Panel: “Badges, we don’t need no stinking badges”: Civil War Memory in
Unexpected Places, British Association for American Studies, April 2023.
• Round Table: A Community History of Smith Ridge Louisiana, Louisiana Historical Association
(LHA), March 2023, Alexandria, Louisiana.
• Dissertation Writing and Beyond, Sponsored by the WHA Graduate Student Caucus, Western
History Association (WHA), October 2022, San Antonio, Texas.
• Southern Historical Association, The SAWH Professional Development Committee “Navigating
the Job Market in the Academy and Beyond,” November 2021.
• Paper: “God Will Prove Us to be In the Right”: The Rise of the Women’s Relief Corps and the
United Daughters of the Confederacy, Junior Scholars Panel Sponsored by the Alexander
Hamilton Institute (AHI), St. George Tucker Society, Virtual Conference, July 2021.
• Lightening Round: The Future of the Field, Society of Civil War Historians, Virtual Conference,
June 2021.
• Paper: “‘INDIANS WILL ATTEND REUNION’: The Complicated Story of Indigenous
Commemoration of Civil War Service and Sacrifice,” Presented on the Panel: Destruction and
Reconstruction: Remapping and Rebuilding the Physical Environment in the Post-Civil War
United States, Presented at the Organization of American Historians (OAH) Annual Meeting,
April 2021, Virtual due to Covid.
• Paper: “‘So Far Away From ‘Dixie Land’”: Place and Confederate Identity Construction,”
Presented on the Panel: Quest for the West: Gender, Race, and Military Service in American
Civil War Remembrances, Western History Association (WHA), October 2020, Albuquerque,
New Mexico.
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• Paper Session: “Memory on Parade: African Americans in the Grand Army of the Republic and
the Crafting of Memory and Post-Civil War Identity for Veterans, 1865-1920,” Presented on the
Panel: “Life After War: Race, Gender, and Neglected Narratives After the American Civil War,”
Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association (PCB-AHA), August 2019, Las Vegas,
Nevada.
• Paper Session: “Many Badges of Gallant Service”: The Significance of Badges to Union
Veterans, 1880s to 1930s,” Microhistories of the Civil War Era, May 2019, Blacksburg, Virginia.
• Paper Session: “Manufactured Identity: The Recreation of Memory, Identity, and Southern
Sectionalism through Civil War Uniforms, 1865-1913,” Presented on the Panel: “Crafting
Identity, Memory, and Public Remembrance” Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical
Association (PCB-AHA), August 2018, Santa Clara, California
• Exhibit Session: “Vintage Vegas: A Pop-Up Fashion Exhibition,” National Council of Public
Historians (NCPH), April 2018, Las Vegas, Nevada
• Paper Session: “Regalia-Rivalry: Re-enactors Battling Identities in Civil War Uniform through
Historical Interpretation, Identity-formation, and the Logistics of Nevada, 1862-2017,” Phi Alpha
Theta (PAT) Biennial Convention, January 2018, New Orleans, Louisiana
• Panel Session: “Consuming the Past: Representing Prohibition Era Material Culture with Public
History,” Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association (PCB-AHA), August 2017,
Northridge, California
• Paper Session: “Dueling Duds: The Economic, Social, and Societal Effect of Civil War
Uniforms.” Presented on the Panel: “Social Fabrics and Fabrics of Society,” at CUNY Early
American Republic Seminar Grad Student Conference (EARS), May 2017, New York City, New
York
Peer Reviewer for Journals
• The Journal of the Civil War Era
• Journal of Arizona History
• Popular Culture Review
• Material Culture: The Journal of the Pioneer America Society
Public Talks and Media Contributions (Selected)
August 24, 2024, Watkins Museum of History Live Lecture, The Fabric of Civil War Society: Uniforms,
Badges, and Flags, 1859-1939
March 2024, LSU Facebook Live Lecture, The Fabric of Civil War Society: Uniforms, Badges, and
Flags, 1859-1939
March 2023, Public Lecture: The Methods of Memory Machines: Remembering the Civil War Through
Objects, Civil War Round Table of Central Louisiana
October 2022, Guest Lecture: Outfitting the Lost Cause and Civil War Memory, Auburn University
April 2022, Our Only “Felt” History: Civil War Series Lecture, University of Arkansas, Fort Smith
September 2021, Constitution Day/Rothbaum Lecture, East Central University
May 2019, Mob U-Prohibition Fashion, The Mob Museum
May 2019, College of Liberal Arts Emeritus Faculty Reunion, UNLV
January 2019, Confederate Uniforms and Memory, 10 Minute History
July 2018, Friends of Nevada State Museum, Preserving Nevada, Nevada State Museum
May 2018, Preserve Nevada, 11 Most Endangered Places list, Las Vegas Review-Journal
February 2018, National Council of Public Historians, “Remembering the Civil War in Nevada,” author
January 2017, Ready to Roar Promotion, Channel 13, The Morning Blend
December 2016, Mob Museum, “Prohibition: An Interactive History,” researcher and contributing author
November 2016, The Mob Museum, “In the 1920s, American Women Were Ready to Roar,” Author
Spring 2016-2020, UNLV Public History Website. Web Design and Content Editor.
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Awards and Grants
October 2023, College of Liberal Arts Travel Grant, Nicholls State University ($500)
August 2023, Nominated for the "Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award"
April 2023, Winner of the Student Organization “Advisor of the Year” Award.
January 2023, Nominated for the "Student Affairs Faculty Merit Award" and
"Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award."
October 2022, College of Liberal Arts Travel Grant, Nicholls State University ($450)
July 2021, BOEM Center for Excellence Grant, Human Dimension Support Faculty,
Nicholls State University ($30,000)
May 2021, Digital History Grant, Co-Investigator, Nicholls State University
($6,000)
April 2021, Outstanding Non-STEM Dissertation Award, UNLV ($1,000)
Fall 2020, College of Liberal Arts Best Dissertation Award, UNLV
Spring 2020, Cooper & Ledbetter Public History Scholarship, UNLV ($1,225)
Society of Civil War Historians Outreach and Membership Committee
Sponsorship for the AHA ($750)
Fall 2019, Graduate and Professional Student Association, UNLV, Conference
Funding ($1,102)
Spring 2019, Jerry Lodge and Robert E. Clark Scholarship ($2,000)
National Society of the Colonial Dames of America ($5,000)
Summer 2018, Nancy Disher Baird Fellowship, Western Kentucky University, Library
Special Collections ($750)
PCB-AHA Presidents' Graduate Student Travel Award ($300)
Spring 2018, John Pine Memorial Award, Phi Alpha Theta National Organization
($1,000)
Outstanding Doctoral Student, UNLV History Department
Summer Doctoral Research Fellowship, UNLV Graduate College
($7,000)
Hal K. Rothman Doctoral Research Award, UNLV ($2,000)
Graduate and Professional Student Association, UNLV Research
Funding ($600)
Fall 2017, Graduate and Professional Student Association, UNLV Conference
Funding ($400)
Fall 2017, PCB-AHA Presidents' Graduate Student Travel Award ($200)
Summer 2017, Graduate and Professional Student Association, UNLV Emergency
Conference Funding ($400)
Spring 2017, Harold & Judith Boyer History Student Scholarship (Oral History)
($3,000)
Hal K. Rothman Doctoral Research Award, UNLV ($750)
Jerry Lodge and Robert E. Clark Scholarship ($200)
College of Liberal Arts Ph.D. Student Summer Faculty Research Stipend
($3,000)
Fall 2016, Hal K. Rothman Doctoral Research Award, UNLV ($1,500)
Spring 2016, Author and Recipient, Nevada Humanities Mini Grant ($950)
Teaching
Courses Taught at Nicholls State University:
Senior Writing Seminar
History of the South
The U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction
Civil War Travel Sites
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Museum Studies
Southern Women
American Women’s History
American Women’s Fashion
Extraordinary Women since 1700
US History to 1865
US History Since 1865
The Modern History of Toys
Courses Taught at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas:
US History to 1877 (Instructor of record both online and in Person)
Introduction to Public History (Instructor of Record)
Southern Women (Instructor of Record)
Graduate Assistant Discussion Leader at UNLV
“Revolutions and Constitutions: US, Russia, and Iran”
“Historical Issues in Contemporary Society: The Meaning of Freedom in America”
“Hitler and the Constitution”
Public History—Museum Experience—Exhibit Training
Fall 2023
• Supervised the Student Led Exhibit for Museum Studies, The Fabric of Civil War Society,
Ellender Memorial Library, Nicholls State University
Summer 2023
• Normandy Academy Historical Guide for the National WWII Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana
2021-2023
• Oral Historian, BOEM Center for Excellence Grant, Human Dimension Support Faculty,
Nicholls State University
Summer 2021
• Coordinator for the Acadian Cultural Center Waterway History Harvest in Partnership with the
National Park Service and Smithsonian, Thibodaux, Louisiana
Spring 2020
• Collection Inspection and Cleaning, Team-member
Fall 2019
The Mob Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada
• The Underground, Researcher and Assistant to Curator, Permanent Exhibit
November 2016-May 2017
The Mob Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada
• Ready to Roar, Co-Curator and Project Manager
Nevada Humanities, Las Vegas, Nevada
• Doom Towns, Install Assistant
Spring 2016, Las Vegas, Nevada
• Training in artifact preservation and storage, lighting, cleaning, and install.
• Maintained records of accession, condition, and location of objects in the museum collection.
• Rehoused objects by creating custom support trays, custom boxes, and stabilized objects by
securing them to their support boards using appropriate mechanisms and cavity packing to limit
the possibility of abrasion to the object.
Professional Service
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June 2024 Early Career Committee/Graduate Student Luncheon: Navigating the Early
Years, Society of Civil War Historians.
January 2023-Present Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, Program
Committee Chair
January 2022-2025 Society of Civil War Historians, Executive Council Member
July 2022-Present Society of Civil War Historians, Outreach Committee Member
July 2022-2024 Society of Civil War Historians, Early Career Committee Member and Chair
July 2021-2024 CLIO History Club Advisor, Nicholls State University
June/July 2020 Society of Civil War Historians, Micro-Grant Relief Committee
July/August 2019 Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association, Graduate Registration
Volunteer, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
2018-2020 UNLV History Department Ph.D. Candidate Representative
2018-2019 Phi Alpha Theta Vice President of Administration and Recruitment
2018-2019 Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association, Local Arrangements
Committee Student Representative for the 2019 Conference
2018-2019 Western History Association, Local Arrangements Committee Student
Representative for the 2019 Conference
August 2018 Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association, Graduate Registration
Volunteer, California State University, Santa Clara
April 2018 National Council of Public Historians, Graduate Registration Volunteer, Las
Vegas, Nevada
2018-2020 Society of Civil War Historians Graduate Student Connection Committee
Member
2017-2018 National Council of Public Historians, Local Arrangements Committee Student
Representative for the 2018 Conference
October 2017 American Society for Legal History, Graduate Registration Volunteer, Las Vegas,
Nevada
August 2017 Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association, Graduate Registration
Volunteer, California State, Northridge
2016-2018 Phi Alpha Theta Secretary and Event Coordinator, University of Nevada, Las
Vegas
2016-2020 Graduate Student Workshop Coordinator, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
November 2015 Ethno History Conference, Reception Assistant, University of Nevada, Las
Vegas
2009-Present Member, Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society, East Central University,
Oklahoma State University, and University of Nevada, Las Vegas
