Martha Norkunas holds a Ph.D. in Folklore from Indiana University’s Folklore Institute. She is the author of The Politics of Public Memory: Tourism, History and Ethnicity in Monterey, California (SUNY Press, 1993) and Monuments and Memory: History and Representation in Lowell, Massachusetts (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002/ Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2006). From 1999-2009 Norkunas directed the Project in Interpreting the Texas Past (ITP) at the University of Texas at Austin where she taught interdisciplinary teams of graduate students to think critically about memory, history, and culture and to apply their knowledge to social and cultural issues, including creating more diverse and inclusive  interpretations at Texas historic sites. ITP produced award winning films, web sites, exhibits, educational material, posters, brochures, oral history booklets, an in-depth oral history project with African Americans in Texas, and an oral history project exploring race and identity among college students.  In August 2009 Norkunas became Professor of Oral and Public History at Middle Tennessee State University in Mufreesboro, Tennessee. She is developing an oral history concentration for Masters in Public History students, and continues to direct the African American Oral History Project. Her current research involves listening, racial memory, and the relationship between familial memory and history.

Phone:  (615) 494-7701
E-mail:  martha.norkunas@mtsu.edu