ABIGAIL R.

GAUTREAU
802 EAST MAIN STREET, NO. 37
MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE 37130
571.239.2882 ABBY.GAUTREAU@GMAIL.COM
THEPASTPRESENTLY.ORG
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Public History, Middle Tennessee State University, 2015
M.St. History, University of Oxford, 2008
B.A. History, Randolph-Macon Womans College, 2006
WORK EXPERIENCE
Web Content Writer
Tennessee Historical Society
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Digital History
Center for Historic Preservation, MTSU

Aug 2016-present
July 2015-Aug 2016

Graduate Research Assistant, Center for Historic Preservation, MTSU

2011-5

Lead Investigator for the Selma Multiple Property Submission

Center for Historic Preservation, MTSU

2013

Visitor Use Assistant (Ranger), Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts

2007

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Adjunct Instructor of History, Motlow State Community College
U.S. History to/since 1877, traditional & accelerated

2015-6

Adjunct Instructor of History, Middle Tennessee State University

U.S. History to/since 1877, Intro to Global Studies: Cross-Cultural Experiences

2015-6

Adjunct Instructor of History, Lord Fairfax Community College

World History 1500 to the Present, traditional & hybrid online

2010

PUBLICATIONS
Forthcoming:
Radical Roots: Civic Engagement, Public History, and a Tradition of Social Justice Activism
This collaborative research project, led by Denise Meringolo, began in 2013 and brings
together more than 20 public history scholars. The goal is to develop a comprehensive,
peer-reviewed, digital and print resource identifying new historical precedents for core
values and practices that define public history and to develop new critical perspectives
on the ways those practices have sought to advance social justice both in the past and
today. I am writing an article for the project and co-authoring the introduction to the
section on grassroots public history practices.

Digital History/Public History Glossary

A collaborative digital resource designed to eliminate the linguistic barriers for public
historians doing digital work. This resource will be available on the National Council for
Public Historys website.
Complete:
Interview with Abigail Gautreau: PhD Candidate for the Advisory Council on Historic
Preservation, Summer 2013.
http://www.achp.gov/inclusiveness-abigail.html
Finding the Segregated Past in a Civil Rights Landscape in Selma, Alabama: Featured
Landscape, The Living Landscape Observer, June 2013
http://livinglandscapeobserver.net/civil-rights-landscape/
PROJECTS
Current:
Southern Places Digital History Initiative: Selma
Digitizing the Center for Historic Preservations extensive collection of material collected
during fieldwork in Selma, Alabama, including photographs and historic documents, as
part of the Southern Places Initiative, a partnership with Walker Library. Creating
metadata to improve accessibility. Utilizing a CONTENTdm platform.
Voices of Selma, Alabama Oral History Project
An oral history project dedicated to recording the narratives of youths involved in the
Voting Rights Movement in Selma, especially alumni of R.B. Hudson High School.
R.B. Hudson High School, Selma, Alabama. National Register of Historic Places Nomination
Form. (with Carroll Van West)
Gatlinburg Inn, Gatlinburg, Tennessee. National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form
(Susan Knowles, Heather Bailey, Abigail Gautreau)
Complete:
2013
The Civil Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama, 1865-1972. National Register of Historic
Places Multiple Property Submission Form. (Carroll Van West, Elizabeth Moore
Humphreys, Abigail Gautreau, Amber Clawson, Jessica French)
American Baptist Theological Seminary. National Register of Historic Places District
Nomination Form. (Carroll Van West, Elizabeth Moore Humphreys, Abigail Gautreau,
Amber Clawson, Jessica French)
Oak Hill Farm, Tipton County, Tennessee. National Register of Historic Places District
Nomination Form. (Abigail Gautreau, Carroll Van West, Elizabeth Moore Humphreys)
2012
African American Oral History Project
Completed a series of oral history interviews under the direction of Dr. Martha Norkunas,
director of the AAOHP.

Cragfont Historic Structures Assessment

Tennessee Historical Commission, Gallatin, Tennessee. (Carroll Van West, Elizabeth
Moore Humphreys, Spurgeon King, Michael Gavin, Abigail Gautreau, Angela Sirna, Claire
Ackerman, Leslie Couch, Dan Allen, David Sprouse, Julie Warwick)
2011
Glen Leven Historic House & Farm Interpretive Plan
Tennessee Land Trust Society, Nashville, Tennessee. (Caneta S. Hankins, Abigail
Gautreau, Kathryn Rosta)
Monteagle Sunday School Assembly Architectural Review
(Carroll Van West, Elizabeth Moore Humphreys, Abigail Gautreau, Hallie Fieser, Sean
Urrutia, Jessica Bandel, Amy Kostine, Jessica White, Leigh Ann Gardner)
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS & PROFESSIONAL ENGAGEMENT
2016
Digital Archives Roundtable: Intermuseum Council of Nashville
Organized & ran a digital archives roundtable for local museum professionals.
National Council on Public History Annual Meeting
Change Starts Within: Challenging Cultural & Structural Barriers to Inclusive Public
History: a structured conversation with Julie Davis, Lara Kelland, and Craig Stutman.
Co-facilitator for THATcamp session on building a Public History/Digital History glossary.
2015
Give Us the Ballot: The Alabama Voting Rights Campaign of 1965 and the Transformation of
Americas Political System. (Alabama State University)
"Voting Rights in the Alabama Black Belt: Dallas and Lowndes Counties with Charles
Mauldin, Sheyann Webb-Christburg, Catherine Flowers, and Joann Mants.
2014
National Council on Public History Annual Meeting
Sustaining Historic Preservation Through Community Engagement: a roundtable
discussion with Kristen Baldwin Deathridge, Rachel Boyle, Ginna Foster Cannon, Kimberly
Connolly Hicks, Theodore J. Karamanski, and Eileen MacMahon.
National Council on Public History Annual Meeting
Working Group: Toward a History of Civic Engagement and the Progressive Impulse in
Public History (N.B. This group has evolved into the Radical Roots project)
2013
Oral History Association Annual Meeting
Re-seeing Movement History in New Relationships, New Times, Old Landscapes: Hidden
Stories in the Life History Context
Popular Culture & American Culture Association in the South
TLC and the American Working Class
3

A Conference Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Desegregation of the University of North
Alabama
Selma Civil Rights Multiple Property Nomination Project
16th Annual US/ICOMOS International Symposium
Whose City?: Race and the Urban Landscape in Selma, Alabama
National Council on Public History Annual Meeting
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find: Landmarking the Civil Rights
Movement in Selma, Alabama with Amber Clawson, Jessica French, and Louretta
Wimberly
2012
Tennessee Regional Phi Alpha Theta Conference
Creating a Research Culture for Students through Experiential Learning with Spurgeon
King and Katie Randall
Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting
The Invention of Lying: George Psalmanazar, the Society of Jesus, and the Truth about
Asia in the Seventeenth Century
SERVICE AND RECOGNITION
Member, The Hermitage Community Committee
2016-present
Board Member & Vice President, Inter-museum Council of Nashville
2015-present
MTSU Bart McCash Memorial Scholarship
2013, 2014
History Day, Regional Judge, Middle Tennessee
2011-2, 2014
History Day, State Judge, Tennessee
2011-2, 2014-6
MTSU Committee on Disability Services
2012-2013
MTSU Graduate Student Association, co-chair of Library Committee
2012-2013
PhD/Faculty Liaison, MTSU History Department
2012
MTSU Graduate History Faculty Committee, PhD Representative
2011-2012
Outstanding Customer Service Award, Wolf Trap National Park
2007
Lura Lee Cannon Stephens Prize awarded to an Outstanding Senior History Major
2006