Clif Stratton

 

• Associate Professor, career track
• Director, University Common Requirements (UCORE)

CONTACT

• Office: Wilson-Short Hall 320
• Phone: 509-335-2230
• Email: clif.stratton@wsu.edu

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., History, Georgia State University, 2010
• M.A., History, Auburn University, 2005
• B.A., History & Political Science, Presbyterian College, 2003
• Curriculum Vitae

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• “Bronze Hammer: Race and the Politics of Commemorating Henry Louis Aaron.” Atlanta Studies, February 2, 2021.
• Power Politics: Carbon Energy in Historical Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.
• Education for Empire: American Schools, Race, and the Paths of Good Citizenship. Oakland: University of California Press, 2016.

AWARDS

• Mid-Career Achievement Award for Career-Track Faculty, College of Arts and Sciences (2020)
• Teaching Excellence Award for Clinical Faculty, College of Arts and Sciences (2019)
• President’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Clinical Faculty, Office of the Provost (2019)
• Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award, American Historical Association (2014)
• Richard G. Law Excellence Award for Undergraduate Teaching, Office of Undergraduate Education (2014)

ROOTS OF CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

My version of History 105 centrally focuses on the ways in which unequal relations of power have shaped our modern world, particularly during the last two hundred years of colonial and neo-colonial rule. The course engages histories of slavery, race and racism, energy and industrialization, and anti-colonial resistance.

OTHER COURSES TAUGHT

• History 235 – African American History
• History 300 – Writing About History
• History 305 – The Roots of Contemporary Issues (for transfer students)
• History 314 – Immigration, Migration, and Ethnic Identity
• History 395 – United States Empire
• History 417 – The Rise of Modern America
• History 418 – United States History, 1914-1945
• Honors 270 – Sports and Politics in American Society and History
• Honors 280 – Race and Resistance in African American History

ABOUT ME

I joined Washington State University in 2010 after completing a Ph.D. in History at Georgia State University in Atlanta, where I was born and raised. In both my teaching and research, I am centrally interested in how race and racism have shaped the world we inhabit, including how it intersects with things ranging from education, environmental change, global politics, and popular culture.

My latest project is Race and the Atlanta Braves from Summerhill to Cobb County, will offer a historical analysis of the consequences of the arrival and departure of the Braves baseball franchise to and from its downtown Atlanta site from the late Civil Rights era to the present. Read a recent publication from this broader project at Atlanta Studies.

When I’m not on campus working with colleagues and students, I can be found spinning all kinds of musical genres on vinyl; reading nonfiction (I’m slowly coming around to fiction); hitting the road with my family for skiing, camping, hiking, paddle boarding, and other outdoor romps; and fastidiously – and sometimes insufferably – following the 2021 World Series Champion Atlanta Braves baseball exploits.

LAST FIVE BOOKS READ

• Ed Southern, Fight Songs
• Jon Meacham, His Truth is Marching On
• David Treuer, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee
• Michael Walker, Laurel Canyon
• Mahshid Mayar, Citizens and Rulers of the World