James Joseph Buss
Associate Professor of History
Department Chair
T: 405-208-5273
F: 405-208-5200
PCAS WC 221
jbuss@okcu.edu
Education:
B.A., M.A., Bowling Green State University
Ph.D., Purdue University
Background:
Dr. Buss comes to OCU by way of Ohio, where he previously taught as an instructor at Bowling Green State University (yes, BGSU is in Ohio and not Kentucky). Although new to the department, he is not new to the profession. Dr. Buss has been teaching for the past six years in a variety of settings, from large public state schools to smaller community colleges. Before spending the better part of his young adult life buried in books and taking graduate courses, Dr. Buss also worked as an assistant curator for a small museum in Ohio. Although his academic training focuses mainly on the United States during the nineteenth century, Dr. Buss also teaches advanced courses in public history and museum studies.
At Oklahoma City University, Dr. Buss has taught courses on early American history, the history of marriage and interracial marriages in the Americas, the history of race and racism in the performing arts, the history of American slavery, death and dying in early America, and nineteenth century American politics. In 2010 the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning awarded Dr. Buss its "Excellence in Teaching Award for Full-Time Faculty."
Dr. Buss also has published numerous book reviews, encyclopedia entries, book chapters, and articles. In 2005, he helped compile and co-author articles in an issue of the Organization of American Historians' Magazine of History that proposed exciting new ways to teach the early nineteenth century Market Revolution (as much as exciting new ways can be developed to teach economic history). In October 2008, he authored an article that was included in a special issue of "Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies" on the subject of Native Americans and interracial marriages. His book, Winning the West with Words: Language and Conquest in the Lower Great Lakes, will be published by the University of Oklahoma Press in October 2011.
While his previous research focused primarilly on the relationships between Americans and Native peoples in the lower Great Lakes, Dr. Buss has branched out to study other aspects of life in the nineteenth-century Great Lakes. Future projects include an environmental history of the Wabash and Maumee River watersheds in Indiana and Ohio and an examination of utopian and closed communities in the Midwest.
In his spare time, Dr. Buss enjoys running, golf, attending student performances and athletic events, and expanding his music collection (mostly grunge and punk).
