Nicholas Aieta
Professor

Biography

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Pr. Aieta has taught in public and private institutions in Massachusetts, Nebraska, Tennessee, Connecticut, and California. Pr. Aieta joined Westfield State in 2008.

Education

  • Ph.D., History, with Geography as an outside field, University of Nebraska (2007)

  • M.A., History, University of Connecticut (1993)

  • B.A., History, College of the Holy Cross (1992)

Courses Taught

  • First Year Journey courses: Games without Frontiers and Power and the Glory, World Cup!

  • HIST 0121: The Historian

  • HIST 0131: U. S. History to 1900

  • HIST 0132: U. S. History Since 1900

  • HIST 0202: Introduction to Historical Research and Analysis

  • HIST 0251: American Colonial History, 1400-1763

  • HIST 0255: Jacksonian America, 1815-1848

  • HIST 0270: Topics in US History (Including U.S. Disaster History, U.S. Military History, American Religious History)

  • HIST 0272: The American West

  • HIST 0306: U.S. Immigration History

  • HIST 0352: The American Revolutionary Era and the Early Republic, 1763-1815

  • HIST 0362: Native American History

  • HIST 0432: Methods of Teaching History: Middle and Secondary

  • HIST 0495: Senior Seminar

  • HIST 0600: Readings: America, 1600-1815 (Graduate)

  • HIST 0605: Readings: America, 1815-1914 (Graduate)

  • HIST 0625: Research: United States before 1815 (Graduate)

  • HIST 0630: Research: United States 1815-1914 (Graduate)

  • HIST 0635: Research: United States 1915-present (Graduate)

  • HIST 0698: Thesis I (Graduate)

  • HIST 0699: Thesis II (Graduate)

Areas of Research

Current research projects focus on visual representation of Native Americans in print ephemera and re-examining community development on the Great Plains

Other areas of interest: Native American history, American West, American Colonial History, Revolutionary America, The Early Republic, Jacksonian America, U.S. Immigration, Pedagogy of History instruction

Publications

Agricultural History, Book Review of Elliot West, Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion

Historical Journal of Massachusetts, Book Review of Anne M. Becker, Smallpox In Washington’s Army: Disease, War, and Society During the Revolutionary War

Historical Journal of Massachusetts, Book Review of Douglas Hunter, The Place of Stone: Dighton Rock and the Erasure of America’s Indigenous Past

The White Church of Blandford (book)

Journal of American History, Book Review of Jacob F. Lee, Masters of the Middle Waters: Indian Nations and Colonial Ambitions along the Mississippi

Historical Journal of Massachusetts, Book Reviews of Eric. Hinderaker, Boston’s Massacre and Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, Citizen Sailors: Becoming American in the Age of Revolution

Community Engagement

Selected Presentations

  • In Focus with Patrick Berry for WWLP, discussions on the American Revolution
  • Westfield Athenaeum, “Westfield Responds to Lexington and Concord”
  • Blandford Historical Society, “Blandford and the coming of Revolution”
  • Westfield Athenaeum, “The Provincial Congress of 1774 and Westfield’s Connections”
  • Frequent speaker on WCPC, History Happens in Westfield
  • Western Hampden Historical Society, “Abijah Chauncey Owen and the Owen District of Westfield”
  • Pioneer Valley History Network, HistoryFest, “Preserving a Municipally Owned Property, the Wyben Schoolhouse of Westfield”
  • Sheffield Historical Society, co-presenting, “The Descendant’s Voice”
  • Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, “Electioneering in the Age of Jackson, How Americans Brought out the Vote in an Era of Disagreement”
  • Sheffield Historical Society, “Researching Sheffield’s African-American Population”
  • Westfield State University, “The White Church of Blandford”
  • Westfield State University, “The 2020 Presidential in Historical Perspective”
  • Westfield Athenaeum, “Presidential Campaigning in Jacksonian America”

Service and Community Engagement

  • University Curriculum Committee
  • MSCA chapter member and elected officer
  • Westfield Historical Commission member
  • Westfield Museum Inc. Board member
  • Westfield Theater Group Board member
  • Volunteer for New England Trail and Westfield River Water Association

Professional Service

  • Organization of American Historians
  • Society for Historians of the Early American Republic
  • Omohundro Institute
Headshot of Dr. Nicholas Aieta.