Current Semester
Dissertation Research
History PhD Student Smith Serves as LA Times 2010 History Book Prize Judge
Email: dianesmithmt@montana.edu
Research Interests
National parks, zoos, and museums
Wildlife and conservation biology
Women in science
Late 19th-early 20th century models of informal learning and education
Education
Montana State University, MA, History, 2004
Awards, Honors, and Affiliations
National Science Foundation, Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: A History of Animal Exchanges and Displays in Yellowstone National Park and the Nation's Leading Zoos (2008)
Montana State University, Department of History research travel award (2007)
One Book Montana (selects one book each year for all Montanans to read) for Letters from Yellowstone (2006)
Washington Foundation Award for Historical Excellence, awarded by the Montana Historical Society for “What One Knows, One Loves Best,” MA thesis (2004)
Northern Arizona University Campus-wide Read (selects one book each year for all students, faculty and staff to read and discuss) for Letters from Yellowstone (2003)
Montana Book Award (honors one book of any genre) for Pictures from an Expedition (2001)
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award for Fiction for Letters from Yellowstone (1999)
Recent Publications
“Tough Trips to Publication: Andrew Garcia’s Tough Trip through Paradise and his Beautiful Wives,” Montana: The Magazine of Western History, vol. 58, no. 4, Winter 2008
“The National Parks as Nature’s Classrooms,” in preparation for the Journal of the History of Biology
“Charles Doolittle Walcott: Forgotten Microbe Researcher,” with E. Yochelson, Yellowstone Science, vol. 14, no. 4, Fall 2006
Designing 21st Century Learning Environments: An Introduction, Estrella Mountain Community College and Educause (2005)
Best Practices and Lessons Learned: Highlights from the NSF Collaboratives for Excellence in Teacher Preparation Program, co-editor, Montana State University (2005)
A New Digital Divide: Emerging Technologies and America’s Classrooms, National Science Teachers Association(2004)
Journal of Discovery: A Report by Project IBS-Core [report on a new undergraduate biology curriculum], co-author, University of Montana (2003)
SEEDS: Strategies for Ecology Education, Development and Sustainability, Ecological Society of America, United Negro College Fund, and Institute of Ecosystem Studies (2003)
Bioscience: Creating Arizona’s Future, Maricopa Community Colleges Center for Workforce Development (2002)
Community College Best Practices: The Diversity Challenge, Estrella Mountain Community College (2002)
Pictures from an Expedition, Viking/Penguin (2002).
Letters from Yellowstone, Viking/Penguin (1999).
