Staff/Volunteers

Debbie Lee

(Project Leader) is a Professor at Washington State University. She has been conducting research since 2005 in preparation to write a Selway-Bitterroot cultural history, which has resulted in five public readings, two keynote speeches, and five conference papers. Lee is an experienced writer of cultural histories: she is author of three interpretive historical books that have been well-reviewed and earned distinctions such as the Susanne M. Glasscock Humanities Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship and the ACLS Charles A. Ryskamp Fellowship. In addition, Lee has volunteered in Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness ranger stations these past five summers. This on-the-ground experience will enhance her work with historical documents.

Dennis Baird

(Project Co-Leader) is a Professor Emeritus at University of Idaho, where he was for many years head of the Library’s Reference Department. The success of the Selway-Bitterroot project is dependent on Baird’s extensive knowledge of the area’s archival sources. Three of his recent books Wild Places Preserved: The Story of Bob Marshall in Idaho (2009), In Nez Perce Country: Accounts of the Bitterroots after Lewis and Clark (2003) and The Early Years of the Bitterroot Forest Reserve: Major Frank Fenn Reports to Washington (1999) are the basis for many of the primary sources for our project. He has important contacts with the Nez Perce tribe through work on a third book, Faithful to their Tribe and Friends: Samuel Black’s Report from Fort Nez Perces (2000). Baird’s extra-scholarly activities also make him invaluable to the Selway-Bitterroot project. He participated in the negotiations for both the Gospel-Hump and the Frank Church River of No Return wildernesses and is founder of the Wilderness Archive at UI.

James Trout

is a PhD student at Washington State University where he is writing a dissertation that explores the relationship between literature, history, and the environment. His readings in current ecocriticism and ecological history as well as his former experience as a research assistant and digital archivist will be a great asset to the project. Trout has already worked one summer researching the documents of the Selway-Bitterroot Collection. Previous to his graduate work, he was employed by TIBCO, an American-based, multinational software company, where he helped the company’s legal department transition to a paperless system, which required him to collect information and digitize each physical contract before uploading it into the new database. By continuing work on the Selway-Bitterroot project, he will be able to further his dissertation by examining how nature is defined and manufactured in American culture.

Ben Bunting

is a PhD student at Washington State University where he is writing a dissertation that will investigate how the development of mass tourism in the last two centuries has affected our cultural concept of “nature,” as well as how globalization through Internet technology has changed our ideas of space and place. He will use a number of short narratives to introduce his arguments, including his own essays about backpacking on the Selway River. Bunting’s readings in ecocriticism and ecological history will aid the Selway-Bitterroot project as will his previous experience with computer applications (he holds a minor in computer science). Bunting has already worked one summer researching the documents of the Selway-Bitterroot Collection at UI. By continuing work on the project, he will be able to further his dissertation by examining how the relationship between nature and culture defines American identity.

Bill Kerr

is a Network Analyst at the University of Idaho, where he maintains the servers and digital backups of UI library content. Kerr’s technological experience and knowledge will be important to uploading and maintaining the web-exhibit once it is complete.

 

 

Larry Miller

has been interacting with computers since the early 1970's. He spent seventeen years at the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste, a scientific research center in La Paz, Mexico, where he “got to speak Spanish all day, play with fun toys, and help computers understand those complicated phenomena called scientists.” With formal training primarily in Bilingual Education, he sees computer interfacing as a similar process-- helping people learn to communicate with those most amazing tools in a foreign language-- and he has continued to work with the machines primarily because of the social benefit he can provide by acting as interpreter. Miller has recently moved north of the border and is currently residing in Seattle, where he's (once again) trying to shake the computer vice and decide what to do with his life. Miller has been involved in the wilderness since early childhood and has worked on fire crew, trail crew and other USFS positions in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, Gila Wilderness, and Northern California.

Jane Holman

was raised in the backwoods of Idaho, and is a University of Montana graduate. She spent 1968-72 at the Moose Creek Ranger Station within the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness before making the leap to Washington, DC, where she spent 29 years working for the U.S. Department of Education. Within a month of retirement in 2004, she bought a house in Moscow, ID and returned to her roots, and the far less humid climate of the Northwest. The Selway country captured her heart from the beginning, and she is delighted to be participating in the stewardship of this wonderful area. Holman's work on the project includes helping Debbie Lee with the oral histories in Idaho and Montana.

Erin Jepsen

is a graduate of the University of Idaho, and lives in Moscow, Idaho, where she spends most of her time homeschooling her offspring. Because she grew up hiking and camping in Idaho's national forests, she has a long-time interest in wilderness and its preservation, as well as passing on the love of the outdoors to upcoming generations. She first met Debbie Lee in 2008 on a women's writing and hiking workshop in the Eagle Cap Wilderness, and has collaborated with her on many projects since that time. Jepsen's work on the project includes transcriptions, editing podcasts, and fine-tuning web designs.

Anna Conditt

is a resident of Moscow, Idaho. She is helping with transcribing oral history interviews.