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Paul C. Rosier, PhD - Villanova University. Villanova , PA, US

Paul C. Rosier, PhD

Professor of History; Director, Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences | Villanova University

Villanova , PA, UNITED STATES

Paul C. Rosier, PhD, is an expert in American history, environmental history and sustainability studies.

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Paul C. Rosier, PhD Publication Paul C. Rosier, PhD Publication Paul C. Rosier, PhD Publication

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Areas of Expertise (7)

History

American History

Sustainability Studies

Global Environmental History

American Environmental History

History of American Capitalism

Native American History

Biography

Dr. Paul C. Rosier is a professor of history and the director of the Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest, which is founded on the belief that historical scholarship and historical perspective are central when examining contemporary global issues.

Education (2)

The University of Rochester: PhD

Hobart College: BA

Select Accomplishments (3)

2009 Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award (professional)

Awarded for "Serving Their Country: American Indian Politics and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century."

2009 John Topham and Susan Redd Butler Faculty Research Award

Awarded by Brigham Young University's Charles Redd Center for Western Studies for research increasing knowledge and understanding of the intermountain regions of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah or Wyoming.

2007 Arrell M. Gibson Award

Awarded by the Western History Association in recognition of the "Best Essay on the History of Native Americans."

Select Media Appearances (2)

Anger, Then Relief After Pentagon Restores Navajo Code Talker Webpages

The Washington Post  

2025-03-22

Native Americans have served in nearly every major U.S. military conflict for over 200 years, and tens of thousands served in the two world wars... The Navajo code talkers "were fighting in the name of freedom and democracy that they themselves didn't have at home," said Paul Rosier, a professor of history at Villanova University who has spent 20 years researching them. "They believed in the promise of America and that they'd eventually get those freedoms..."

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"Words Matter": The Complicated Language of Mass Shootings, Killings and Massacres

Philadelphia Daily News  

2017-10-12

After the Las Vegas massacre was deemed the deadliest mass shooting in modern history, criminologists and historians continue to debate how we catalog American tragedies, what we call them and who decides... Said Paul C. Rosier, a history professor at Villanova University: "All nations like to read a positive history [of themselves]. History's job is to complicate the narrative."

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Research Grants (3)

Native American Research Grant

Phillips Fund, American Philosophical Society 

Awarded in 2007.

Summer Research Fellowship/Summer Research Grant

Villanova University 

Awarded in 2010, 2013 and 2021.

Summer Stipend

National Endowment for the Humanities 

Awarded in 2005.

Select Academic Articles (2)

Crossing New Boundaries: American Indians and Twentieth-Century U.S. Foreign Policy

Diplomatic History

Paul C. Rosier

"Thomas W. Zeiler noted in his 2009 assessment of the 'State of the Field' of diplomatic history that scholarship by historians of foreign relations had increasingly converged with and contributed to the 'mainstream' profession. Zeiler highlighted new emphases on the study of ideology, international history, culture and identity and the 'migration of other scholars into diplomatic history' who have 'pollinated the study of U.S. foreign relations from other fields.' Scholars of American Indian history, and the perspectives and politics of Indians who have viewed themselves as both citizens and members of Indian nations with sovereign rights, can similarly enrich both the mainstream and the dynamic field of diplomatic history."

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"Modern America Desperately Needs to Listen": The Emerging Indian in an Age of Environmental Crisis

The Journal of American History

Paul C. Rosier

"American Indian leaders linked the past to the present in providing energy to their communities and preventing the problems of invasive resource development that had polluted those communities. In mediating the twin crises of environment and energy, American Indians worked to establish a common outlook and common principles with non-Indians via a green patriotism that reified and updated Indians' ecological values in modern America. As Navajo nation chairman Peter MacDonald put it in an essay on Navajo natural resources, Indians and non-Indians 'are bound up in the same future.' Emerging, American Indians contributed to a national conversation about progress, environment and justice not as ecological Indians but as ecological citizens, joining millions of like-minded Americans and other denizens in the interconnected global ecosystem."

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