Nicholas Aieta

Department Chair

Joined Westfield State University in 2008

Education:
Ph.D., History, with Geography Minor, University of Nebraska (2007)
M.A., History, University of Connecticut (1993)
B.A., History, College of the Holy Cross (1992)

Courses Taught:
HIST120: The History/Social Studies Teacher 
HIST131: U. S. History to 1865
HIST132: U. S. History Since 1865
HIST251: American Colonial History, 1400-1763  
HIST255: Jacksonian America, 1815-1848  
HIST270: Topics in US History (Including American Popular Culture and American Religious History)
HIST272: The American West
HIST332: Methods of Teaching History
HIST352: The American Revolutionary Era and the Early Republic, 1763-1815  
HIST362: Native American History  
HIST600: Readings: America, 1600-1815 (Graduate)
HIST605: Readings: America, 1815-1914 (Graduate)
HIST625: Research: United States before 1815 (Graduate)
HIST630: Research: United States 1815-1914 (Graduate)

Research Interests:
Current research projects focus on visual representation of Native Americans in print ephemera and missionaries in Native American communities. Other areas of interest: Native American history, American West, American Colonial History, Revolutionary America, The Early Republic, Jacksonian America, American Popular Culture, American Religious History, Pedagogy of History instruction

Selected Scholarship/Professional Activities:

• National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute, “On Native Grounds: Studies of Native American Histories and the Land,” at the Library of Congress, June 2017. 
• Historical Journal of Massachusetts, Book Review of Cornelia Dayton and Sharon Salinger, Robert Love’s Warnings Searching for Strangers in Colonial Boston, June 2017.
• Professional development program workshop co-leader for the social studies department at Gateway Public School District, 2015-2017.
• Humanities Department Advisory Board Member, Lasell College, 2014-Present.
• Journal of American Ethnic History, Book Review of Linda M. Clemmons, Conflicted Mission: Faith, Disputes, and Deception on the Dakota Frontier, February 2016.
• History: Reviews of New Books, Book Review of Paul Escott Lincoln’s Dilemma: Blair, Sumner, and the Republican Struggle over Racism and Equality in the Civil War Era, February 2016.
• Currents in Teaching and Learning, Book Review of Donna Wilson and Marcus Conyers’ Five Big Ideas for Effective Teaching: Connecting Mind, Brain, and Education Research to Classroom Practice, Winter 2016.
• Reviewer for Oxford University Press project The American Indian Experience from Prehistory to the Present, by Donald Fixico, 2015.
• Reviewer for University of Wisconsin Press project Understanding and Teaching American Slavery edited by Bethany Jay and Cynthia Lynn Lyerly, 2015.
• External Program reviewer, History/Political Science Department, Worcester State University, 2015.
• Historical Journal of Massachusetts, Book Review of Benjamin L. Carp, Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party & the Making of America and Rebels Rising: Cities and the American Revolution, Winter 2014.