Taylor Spence

Visiting Assistant Professor

Department of History

Painter and Muralist

Sewanee: The University of the South

735 University Avenue, Sewanee, TN 37383

taspence@sewanee.edu

Education

Yale University, Ph.D., American History, 2012

Yale University, M. Phil. with distinction, American History, 2008

Yale University, MA, American History, 2008

School of Visual Arts, M.F.A., Painting, 1998

Clark Honors College, University of Oregon, B.A., History, cum laude, 1990

Yale University Graduate Teaching Center, Certificate of College Teaching Preparation, 2012

Yale Writing Center, Teaching Writing in the Humanities and Social Sciences Course, 2012

Dissertation

“The Endless Commons: Indigenous and Immigrant in the British-American Borderland, 1835-1848” 

My project chronicles the story of the formation of the border between the United States and the British Empire in the decades after the Revolution.  It brings together and reveals the interconnections between five revolts and one revolution which took place in a contested zone, the British-American Borderland, which existed for a time between empires and at the center of an Indigenous homeland, Iroquoia.  In seeking to understand why these rebellions took place in this region, how they were connected, and what they portended for the future of indigenous people and settlers in North America, I argue that they arose out of the evolving belief on the part of settlers to a share of “The People’s” domain -- the commons. This belief came to comprise an ideology of land-right -- the justification for taking and possessing land – fundamental to American colonialism by mid-century. 

Committee:     John Mack Faragher, Claire Priest (Law), Ned Blackhawk

Awards and Fellowships (History)

Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies, Summer Institute, Newberry Library, 2012

John F. Enders Award, Yale University, Summer 2011

Doctoral Student Research Award, Canadian Government, 2011

Laureat, Association Internationale des Etudes Québecoises, 2011

Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders Fellowship, 2009

Macmillan Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, Yale University, 2008-09

Research Fellowship, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University 2008

Pre-Prospectus Fellowship, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University 2007

Dominick Fellow, Yale University 2006-2008

Agrarian Studies Fellowship, Yale University, 2006

Ganzfreid Family Foundation Research Fellowship, Yale University 2006

Awards and Fellowships (Visual Arts)

Worldviews Studio Program, World Trade Center, New York, NY, 1999

Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Mt.San Angelo, VA 1999   

Exhibition Grant, Ministry of Culture, Republic of Slovenia, 1998

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, scholarship, 1998

Scholarship for Excellence, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, 1996-98  

Fulbright Fellowship, Institute of International Education, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 1995   

Liquatex Excellence in Art Award, 1995   

Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation (NEA), Works on Paper, 1992   

Art Matters, Inc., 1992   

Publications (History)

“Shays’s Rebellion,” Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment (forthcoming 2012), Mark. G. Spencer, Ed., Co-authored with Claire Priest.

 “Jeffersonian Jews: The Jewish Agrarian Diaspora and the Assimilative Power of the Western Land, 1882-1930,” Western Historical Quarterly (Fall 2010), 327-.353.

Book Reviews

Western Historical Quarterly, Jews of the Pacific Coast:  Reinventing Community on America’s Edge, by Ellen Eisenberg, Ava F. Kahn, and William Toll, Summer 2011.

Military History of the West, Rebellious Younger Brother: Oneida Leadership and Diplomacy, 1750-1800, by David J. Norton, Vol. 40, 2010.

Journal of the West,, “Seeing Yellowstone in 1871: Earliest Descriptions & Images from the Field,” and  “Immigrant Women in the Settlement of Missouri,” Vol. 44, No. 4, Spring 2006.

The Encyclopedia of United States Political History, dictionary entries for “Frontier,” “Land Policy” and “Honor” (forthcoming) 

Public Mural Projects (Artist)

Radio Tower, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, WTC 1, New York, 1999

Fresco Bello Jan 1998, Contemporary Art Museum of Celje, Celje, Slovenia 1998

Serre Macroscape, fresco installation, Serre di Rapolano, Italy, 1996   

The Chinese Massacre of 1885, Comm. Fine Arts Center, Rock Springs, WY, 1992   

(Made for Marjetica Potrc)

Fresco, Sculpture. Projects in Muenster, curated by Kasper Konig, fresco for installation, "Magadan” of Marjetica Potrc, Muenster, Germany 06-22-97-9-28-97. (Catalog)

Fresco, Pittsburgh Fine Arts Center, Environments, fresco for installation of Marjetica Potrc, “Iram,” Curator Robert Racza, Pittsburgh, PA 1997

Fresco, Modern Art Museum of Slovenia, “Sarajevo 2000,” fresco for installation for piece, “Kampala” of Marjetica Potrc, Ljubljana, Slovenia. (Catalog) 1996

Selected Exhibitions (Artist)

Independent Curators International, Up in the Air, curated by Moukthar Kocache, 01-04-2004

450 Broadway Gallery, Paper Works, New York, NY 01-03-03-01-14-03              

Fine Arts Work Center, Invitational Show, Hudson B. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA, 11-22-02-01-02-03.2002   

Art Alliance Gallery, Fresh Fresco, New York, NY 01-10-01-02-07-01  

Clementine Gallery, Space Invaders, New York, NY 01-13-00-02-22-00

Bellwether, Inaugural Exhibition, Brooklyn, NY, 11-14-99-12-01-00   

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, WorldViews , 11-7-99-11-99.

White Columns, Outer Boroughs, Curator by Paul Ha and Lauren Ross,09-06-99-10-18-99.

Lower East Tenement Museum, Hallowed Halls, Curator by Timothy D. Bellavia, 10-07-99-11-17-99

Artlink, Young Art International, Sotheby’s Chicago, Tel Aviv, 01-22-99

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Radio Tower, 03-99

MFA Special Projects curated by Dan Cameron, New York, NY, 04-02-98-04-18-98

Teaching Experience (History)

Instructor, Civil Conflict in America, 1776-Present, Yale University Summer Session, June 4-July 6, 2012

Instructor, History of the American West, Yale University Summer Session, July 5-Aug 5, 2011

Teaching Assistant, Yale University, Introduction to American Environmental History, Professor Paul Sabin, Spring 2012

Teaching Assistant, Yale University, Civil War and Reconstruction, Professor David Blight, Spring 2010

Teaching Assistant, Yale University, American Indian Federal Law and Policy, Professor Ned Blackhawk, Fall 2009

Teaching Assistant, Yale University, The American Revolution, Professor Rebecca Tannenbaum, Spring 2008

Teaching Assistant, Yale University, The American West, Professor John Mack Faragher, Fall 2007

Selected Professional Presentations (History)

Panelist/Presenter: “The Haudenosaunee Borderland: The Law as a Weapon of Resistance in the History of the Seneca Nation,” for the panel and roundtable: “Indigenous-Defined Landscapes: Reorienting Views of Borderlands, Boundaries and Boundary-Making, Western History Association Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, October 4-7, 2012.

Panelist/Presenter: “What Can Beauchamp’s “Aboriginal Place Names of New York”(1907) Tell Us about Haudenosaunee Land-Right Culture?”, Annual Conference, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, Mohegan Sun, June 3-6, 2012

Public Lecture: “Structures of Conquest: The Fall of Samuel Hinman and Greater (Re)constructionin the Lakota/Dakota Homeland, 1851-1890” Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Montana, October 18, 2011.

Public Lecture: “Exiled from Niobrara: The Fall of Samuel Hinman and the Civil War in Sioux Country, 1862-1930,” Tesoro Cultural Center, Morrison, Colorado, May 1, 2011.

Presenter: “The Stretched Longhouse: An Alternate map of Iroquoia during the Period of the Bordering of British Canada and the United States, 1800-1850, Western History Association Annual Meeting, Incline Village, NV, October 12-15, 2010

Presenter: “The Canada Thistle: Progress and the Pestilence of Liberalism across the Northern Borderland,” Society for the Historians of the Early American Republic Annual Meeting, Rochester, New York, July 22-25, 2010

Presenter: “Transnational Values: The Panic of 1837 in that ‘Other North American Country,’ British and French Canada” Agricultural History Society Annual Meeting Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida June 10-13, 2010.

Presenter: “A Home for the Wandering Jew: Diasporic Jews on the Land of North America,” Western History Association Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, October 22-25, 2008

Professional Activities/Professional Service (History)

Selected Participant, Summer Institute “Territory, Commemoration, and Monument: Indigenous and Settler Histories of Place and Power,” Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies, Summer Institute, Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois, July 16-Aug 10, 2012

Invited Participant, Comparative History Workshop, The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, York University, Toronto, March 19-21, 2010.

Co-Chair The Past’s Digital Presence: Database, Archive, and Knowledge Work in the Humanities, Symposium, Yale University, February 19-20, 2010.

Convener, Westerners Lunch, Lamar Center for the Frontier and Borders, Yale University, 2009-2010.

Co-Convener (with Adam Tooze) Historical Theory Reading Colloquium 2010-2011. 

Organizer, Graduate Student Breakfast to recruit Professor Ned Blackhawk, Yale University, 2009.

Regular Attendee, The Native American Cultural Center, Yale University, 2007-present. 

Organizer “Disarming Images/Protest Methodologies,” film screening and round table, Yale School of Art, October 2005

Websites:

Personal

www.taylorwyoming.com

The Chinese Massacre of 1885, Community Fine Arts Center, Rock Springs, WY http://www.cfac4art.com/cfacinfo.htm

Theory and History at Yale

http://theoryandhistory.yale.edu

Languages

French (fluent), Spanish (reading knowledge)

Professional Memberships

Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA), The Society for the Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR), Western Historical Association (WHA), Agricultural History Association (AHS), American Historical Association (AHA)

References

John Mack Faragher, Arthur Unobskey Professor of American History

Director, Howard R. Lamar Center

P.O. Box 208324

New Haven, CT 06520-8324

Phone:  (203) 432-3311, 432-2328 (Lamar Ctr.)

Email:    john.faragher@yale.edu

Claire Priest

Professor of Law

Yale Law School

P.O. Box 208215

New Haven, CT 06520

Phone: (203) 432-4851

Email:    claire.priest@yale.edu

Malcolm Morley, Painter and Sculptor

PO Box 613

Brookhaven, NY 11719

Phone: (631) 286-7957

Email: lidahk@optonline.net

Adam Tooze, Professor of History

P.O. Box 208324

New Haven, CT 06520-8324

Phone:  (203) 432-1378

Email:    adam.tooze@yale.edu

Ned Blackhawk, Professor of History & American Studies 

P.O. Box 208324

New Haven, CT 06520-8324

Phone:  (203) 432-8530

Email:    ned.blackhawk@yale.edu