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Doctor DeSpain is scholar of the American West and
Native American history. His past research explores
the imagined West and the varying meanings and political
utility embedded in the West’s earliest mythic
icon of the mountain man. His more recent research focuses
on various institutions of violence in the West and
how masculine ideals and identity among differing groups
contributed greatly to creating a West of cultural collision.
In particular, Dr. DeSpain is studying how practices
of violence and masculine ideals familiar to the antebellum
South were carried westward and became the foundations
of individual identity and social standing among fur
trade men during the Jacksonian period. He is also the
editor of The Journal of Chickasaw History and Culture
and co-editor of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal.
Dr. Despain offers a wide variety of courses on American
history, the American West, American Frontiers, and
Native American history for both the history department
and Native American Studies. He received his Ph.D. from
the University of Oklahoma
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