Rate My Professor Will Stoutamire

Dr. Will Stoutamire serves as Associate Professor of History and Graduate Program Chair for Public History at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where he directs the undergraduate public history minor and the M.A. program in public history launched in 2023. He earned a Ph.D. in History with a public history concentration from Arizona State University in 2013 and a B.A. in History from Florida State University in 2008. Originally from Tallahassee, Florida, Stoutamire developed an early passion for museums and historic sites through family visits. During his graduate studies, he interned at the Museum of Florida History and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, and contributed to National Park Service projects on public lands in the American West, shaping his expertise in heritage issues, museum theory, historic preservation, cultural resource management, and heritage tourism.

Stoutamire joined UNK in 2014 as the first full-time director of the G.W. Frank Museum of History and Culture, overseeing its reinvention with expanded programming, exhibits, and student involvement in museum operations until 2019; he also served as a graduate lecturer in history. Following a year as assistant professor and co-director of the Center for Public History at the University of West Georgia, he returned to UNK in 2020 as assistant professor, advancing to associate professor. His research focuses on early museums and preservation efforts in the American West, emphasizing the Antiquities Act's origins amid settler colonialism, Progressive-era nationalism, and regional identities; he is completing a book manuscript, Imagining Antiquity: A New History of the American Antiquities Act. Key publications include the C.L. Sonnichsen Award-winning “‘Every Yard Boasted a Metate’: Pothunting, Archaeology, and the Creation of the Museum of Northern Arizona” (Journal of Arizona History, 2022), “Past, Present, and Heritage” (2023), “Imagined Heritage: A Local History of Walnut Canyon National Monument” (The Public Historian, 2016), and National Park Service reports such as “Creating the Monuments” (2013). Awards include the University of Nebraska KUDOS Award and National Council on Public History New Professional Award (both 2016). He holds leadership roles as treasurer of the Mountain-Plains Museums Association, co-chair of the National Council on Public History’s Long Range Planning Committee, and member of editorial boards for The Journal of Arizona History and the American Association for State and Local History series; he also serves on the Center for Great Plains Studies Board of Governors.