Greg O'Brien
Education
Ph.D. History, University of Kentucky
M.A. History, James Madison University
B.A. History, Political Science minor, Randolph-Macon College
Courses Taught
HIS 211: US History before 1865
HIS 322: American Indian History after 1840
HIS 323: American Indians and Nature
HIS 333: American Indian History to 1840
HIS 334: Environmental History of the United States
HIS 335: Colonial America
HIS 434: The American Revolution
HIS 411A: Seminar in Historical Research and Writing: “American Indian History before 1840”
HIS 520: Southern History: Southeastern Indian History
HIS 522: Revolts and Rebellions in Colonial America
HIS 701: Colloquium in US History to 1865
HIS 722: Topics in Early American History: Deep and Vast Early America
HIS 722: Topics in Early American History: Early American Indian History
HIS 722: Topics in Early American History: The American Revolution
HIS 723: Topics in 19th Century U.S. History: The Market Revolution
Research
Greg O’Brien’s research interests lie in ethnohistory, American Indians of the Southeast, American environmental history (particularly in the South), the American Revolutionary era, and the history of New Orleans. He has focused extensively on Choctaw Indian history before the 1830s.
“Pre-removal Choctaw History with Greg O’Brien,” an interview by the Choctaw Nation Historic Preservation Office, October 6, 2020.
Academic Positions
- Head, Department of History, UNC-Greensboro, 2019-present
- Associate Head, Department of History, UNC-Greensboro, 2017-2019
- Associate Professor, Department of History, UNC-Greensboro, 2008-present
- Executive Editor, Native South journal, 2013-2018
- Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History, UNC-Greensboro, 2010-2015
- Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi, 1998-2008
- Visiting Professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College, 2004
- Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History, U. of Southern Mississippi, 2002-2004
Selected Publications
- The Native South: New Histories and Enduring Legacies (University of Nebraska Press, 2017).
- “The Fly-Fishing Engineer: George T. Dunbar, Jr. and the Conservation Ethic in Antebellum America,” in Bryon Borgelt, Samuel Snyder, and Elizabeth Tobey, eds., Backcasts: A Global History of Fly Fishing and Conservation (University of Chicago Press, 2016).
- “Satire and Politics in the New Orleans Flood of 1849,” in Cindy Ermus, ed. Environmental Disaster in the Gulf South: Two Centuries of Catastrophe, Risk, and Resilience. (LSU Press, 2018).
- Pre-Removal Choctaw History: Exploring New Paths (University of Oklahoma Press, 2008).
- Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, 1750-1830 (University of Nebraska Press, 2002, 2005).
- Other publications listed on Vitae.
Dissertations Directed at UNCG
- Katie Duckworth (M.A. from UNCG), “Disease, Healing and Resilience: Cherokees and Moravians before Removal” (2024) Behavorial Health Psychologist, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Arlen Hanson (MA from UNCG), “Troubled Voices: Choctaws in Mass Deportation and Ethnic Cleansing” (2021) Instructor at UNC-Pembroke
- Stuart Marshall (M.A. from UNCG), “The Age of Junaluska: Eastern Cherokee Sovereignty in the Long Civil War Era” (2023) Visiting Assistant Professor at Sewanee: University of the South
- Sarah McCartney (MA from William & Mary), “O’er Mountains And Rivers’: Community And Commerce In The Greenbrier River Valley In The Late Eighteenth Century” (2018) Assistant Teaching Professor for NIAHD (National Institute of American History & Democracy), College of William & Mary
- Jamie Mize (MA from North Georgia), “Sons of Selu: Manhood and Gendered Power in Cherokee Society, 1775-1846” (2017) Associate Professor of History at UNC-Pembroke
- Jewel Parker (MA from Appalachian State University), “The Intercultural Origins of Health Care in the Antebellum South” (2024) Full-time Lecturer at Appalachian State University
- Steven Peach (MA from Northern Illinois), “‘The Three Rivers Have Talked’: The Creek Indians and Community Politics in the Native South, 1753-1821” (2016) Associate Professor of History at Tarleton State University
- Jason Stroud (MA from N.C. State), “Crime, Justice, and Order in the North Carolina Piedmont, 1760-1806” (2019) Assistant Professor of History at Greensboro College, NC
- Monica R. Ward (MA from Rutgers), “Little Tallassee: A Creek Indian Colonial Town” (2019) Full-time Lecturer at Bryant University, Rhode Island