Matthew Basso
Assistant Professor, History
Director, American West Center
Assistant Professor, US History
Assistant Professor, Colonialism and Imperialism
Assistant Professor, Comparative Gender and Sexuality
History
Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Building
215 S. Central Campus Dr. Rm 310
Salt Lake City, Ut 84112
Office: 231 CTIHB
Office Hours: by Appt
Office Phone: 587-9575
Email:
>> Curriculum Vitae
My Website: www.awc.utah.edu
Degrees:
2001 Ph.D. University of Minnesota
1996 MA University of Montana
1990 AB Vassar College
Matt Basso, jointly appointed in History and Gender Studies at the University of Utah, received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota’s Program in American Studies in 2001, his MA in history from the University of Montana in 1996, and taught in various roles at both those universities as well as in the U.S. Army while serving in Germany during the Gulf War. He retired as a Captain in 1994. Prior to his stint in uniform he spent four glorious years at Vassar College where his keen interest in gendered relations of power was born. He is currently working on a book project, “Metal of Honor: Montana’s World War II Homefront, Movies, and the Social Politics of White Male Anxiety,” which will be published by the University of Chicago Press. The relationship between place and the instrumental wartime role of masculinity, whiteness, religion, and working class subjectivity, and the part played by cultural artifacts in the process of defining exclusionary (and inclusionary) social and political practices, forms the core of the study. He is also the coeditor of _Across the Great Divide: Cultures of Manhood in the U.S. West_ (New York: Routledge, 2001) and is editing a lost Federal Writers’ Project Manuscript from the 1930s. He spent the 2003-2004 academic year in New Zealand as a Senior Fulbright Scholar beginning work on his next project: a comparative transnational exploration of racial and gender formations among Pacific settler societies (New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the U.S.). He counts cheering on his beloved Houston Astros, New Zealand’s “Black Caps” Cricket side, riding his scooter, and skiing as critical to his mental health (though the latter hasn’t been too kind to left ACL).
Research Keywords, Regions of Interest and Languages:
Keywords:
Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Class (9); History of the U.S. West; Transnational and Comparative History
Regions:
Oceania (Including Australia) (4); Polynesia
Courses I Teach
HIST 1700 American Civilization
HIST 3750 Recent America
HIST 7870 Sem-Amer Western Hist
Awards
2007
Dee Grant - Dee Council
2006
ASUU Student Choice Award - Associated Students - Univ Of Utah
2006
Charles Redd Center Award for Western Studies - Brigham Young University
2004
Senior Fulbright Research Fellowship - Fulbright