RICHARDSON, Texas (August 3, 2005) — Dr. R. David Edmunds, a professor of American history in the School of Arts and Humanities at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), has been named president of the prestigious Western History Association.
As president, Edmunds will focus on the association’s main goal — promoting the study of the North American West. He will assume the office next year and will serve as president-elect until then.
Dr. David Edmunds
Edmunds, who joined UTD in 1998 and holds the Anne and Chester Watson Chair in History, conducts research about the history of Native American people, focusing in particular on biographies. He also has studied the history of the Indian people of the Great Lakes region, the Ohio Valley and Oklahoma.
Edmunds has written or edited 10 books and more than 100 articles or essays that have appeared in journals or other scholarly publications. Of his books, several have received awards. The Potawatomis: Keepers of the Fire won the Francis Parkman Prize in 1978, The Shawnee Prophet was awarded the Ohioana Prize for Biography in 1984 and The Fox Wars: The Mesquakie Challenge to New France (co-authored by Joseph L. Peyser) received the Heggoy Prize from the French Colonial Historical Society.
Edmunds has served as a consultant to museums, documentary film producers and commercial and university presses. During the past two decades, he also has worked as a historical consultant on behalf of tribal governments in major land cases against both state and local governments.
Edmunds’ research has been supported through grants or fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Newberry Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Guggenheim Foundation, Texas Christian University Research Foundation, Indiana University and UTD. In 1985, he was named “Honorary Tribal Historian” of the Citizen Band Potawatomi Nation, and in 1998 he received the Award of Merit from the American Indian Historians Association. In 2002-2003, he served as the president of the American Society for Ethnohistory.
Prior to joining UTD, Edmunds taught at the University of Wyoming, Texas Christian University and Indiana University. He also has served as a visiting professor at several universities.
Edmunds received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Milliken University, a Master of Arts degree from Illinois State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma.
The Western History Association, which as established in 1961, currently is housed on the campus of the University of New Mexico.
About UTD
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor®, enrolls more than 14,000 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s web site at www.utdallas.edu.