- Associate Professor of History
Biography
Visit my personal website (*See disclaimer).
Education
- Ph.D. Arizona State University, 2009
- M.A. Arizona State University, 2006
- B.A. Colby College, 2003
Teaching Interests
Ford teaches courses in public history, women’s history, and modern US history. She works with students on projects in these broad fields, as well as museum studies, local history, oral history, the American West & Midwest, popular culture, gender history, and queer history, and welcomes inquiries from graduate students who would like to pursue research in these areas. In the classroom, Ford encourages students to explore their local history and uses local stories and resources to help students engage with the historical process as researchers and writers.
Research Interests
Ford is a social and cultural historian interested in gender and sexuality in the American West and Midwest. Her book Rodeo as Refuge, Rodeo as Rebellion (University Press of Kansas, 2020) centers on questions of identity and memory in race- and group-specific rodeo circuits in the United States and reveals that, because of its historical connections, rodeo can be both a conduit for group cultural identity and a signifier of national citizenship. Ford’s second book, Slapping Leather (University of Washington Press, 2023) with Rebecca Scofield, looks more deeply at gay rodeo and examines the tensions between that community and the broader American and rodeo worlds, as well as those that developed within the queer rodeo arena.
Ford’s current projects include two edited collections that also explore questions related to culture, identity, and meaning. Women on the Edge brings together twenty-one scholars to follow the evolving notion of “extreme” sport for women from the 19th century into the present day. Her other collection uses clothing and fashion to tell the story of US history and is intended for classroom use.
As a public historian, Ford is interested in public history pedagogy and works to connect academic environments with cultural institutional partners to forge mutually beneficial relationships and develop collaborative public projects. From 2012 to 2026, she led the Nodaway County Digital History Project in Missouri, which is home to virtual exhibits, lesson plans, and oral histories created by community members, volunteers, and college students.
Prior to joining the faculty at Washington State University, Ford was a Professor of History at Northwest Missouri State University where she led the Honors Program and the Public History & Museum Studies Program.
Selected Publications
Books
- Forthcoming: Editor, Women on the Edge: American Women in Extreme Sports, Past and Present (University of Rutgers Press).
- Co-authored with Rebecca Scofield, Slapping Leather: Queer Cowfolx at the Gay Rodeo (University of Washington Press, 2023).
- Rodeo as Refuge, Rodeo as Rebellion (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2020).
Articles & Book Chapters
- “Creating a Queer Midwest & West through Celebrity Fashion,” Special Issue: Queer Celebrities: Fashion, Style and Influence in Popular Culture, Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, online version May 2026.
- “‘For Women Only!’: A Radical Message of the Black Middle Class in Kansas City,” Middle West Review, special edition: Midwestern Women’s History, 9:2 (Spring 2023): 77-89.
- “‘Fine Herds of Cattle’: Rural Nuns and Farmwork at a Missouri Convent, 1874–1963,” Missouri Historical Review 116:4 (July 2022): 275-287.
- “Woman Suffrage in the Midwest,” National Park Service (web 2019, print 2020).
- “Profession-Based Learning and Collaborative Community Projects with the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street Program,” Leading Professional Development: Growing Librarians for the Digital Age, ABC-Clio, 2020.
- “’We Sure Led the Parade’: Alma Nash, the Missouri Ladies Military Band, and the Push for Women’s Suffrage from Rural Missouri to the Nation’s Capital,” Missouri Historical Review 113:3 (April 2019): 145-165.
- “Becoming the West: Cowboys as Icons of Masculine Style for Gay Men,” Special Issue: Fashion and Style Icons, Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion 5:1-2 (May 2018): 41-53.
- “Bringing Town and Gown Together: Using Local History to Engage Students and Create Collaborative Partnerships,” Journal of Museum Education 41:4 (Oct. 2016): 262-274.
- “Pa‛u Riding in Hawai‛i: Memory, Race, and Community on Parade,” Pacific Historical Review 84:3 (Aug. 2015): 277-306.
Public History Projects
- 2026-2012, Project Lead, Nodaway County Digital History Project
- 2026-2023, Project Lead, Nodaway County Veterans Oral History Digitization Project
- 2026-2023, Project Lead, Ohio Cemetery Project
- 2026-2017, Project Lead, Oak Hill East Cemetery Project
- 2019, Project Lead, Veterans at Northwest Oral History Project
- 2017-2011, Project Lead, Northwest Employees Oral History Project
- 2013, Project Lead, Farmers in Nodaway County Oral History Project
Media & Public Engagement
- Advisor, American Cowboy Documentary Film, 2025-Current.
- “Missouri: The Music Beneath the March,” Her March to Democracy Podcast: National Votes for Women Trail, 2025.
- With Rebecca Scofield, “Colorado is Home to the Longest-Running Gay Rodeo in the West,” The Conversation, 02 July 2024. Also published on The Denver Post, 07 July 2024.
- With Rebecca Scofield, “Beyonce Backlash is Part of a Century of Cowboy Gatekeeping,” TIME Magazine, 12 April 2024.
- With Rebecca Scofield, “How Gay Rodeos Upend Assumptions about Life in Rural America,” The Conversation, 18 August 2022. Also published in Salon, 28 August 2022.
- “Alma Nash & the Maryville Milieu,” Our Missouri Podcast: State Historical Society of Missouri, 2020.
Selected Honors & Awards
- 2024-2020, Missouri Speakers’ Bureau
- 2024-2023, University Award for Student Support, Northwest Missouri State University
- 2023, John E. Miller Middle West Review Article Award Recipient
- 2023-2022 University Award for Student Support, Northwest Missouri State University
- 2022, Missouri Humanities Council Grant: History Alive Project
- 2022, James W. Goodrich and Lynn Wolf Gentzler Missouri Historical Review Article Award Recipient
- 2018-2017, University Award for Student Support, Northwest Missouri State University
- 2018-2016, State Scholar for Traveling Smithsonian Exhibit, Missouri Humanities Council
- 2012, Missouri Arts Council Grant
- 2011, Hollybush Postdoctoral Fellow in Public History, Rowan University, New Jersey
- 2010-2009, Fulbright Fellow, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania
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