Dr. Lawson joined the History faculty at PSU in 2009 after serving as a visiting professor in the Dept. of History at Westminster College in Fulton, MO. She has also taught classes for the History Dept. at the University of Missouri and for various colleges in California. When she’s not working with her students who are doing undergraduate research or doing her own research into the history of healthcare in the Tri-State Mining District, Dr. Lawson is usually helping southeast Kansas kids with the Sunflower Kiwanis, crocheting scarves for Marines serving in Afghanistan, or traveling to wild and exotic places like Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri.
Education and Certifications
B.A., History, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, June 1999, Highest Honors. Texas Teacher Certificate (Lifetime Certification, issued May, 1999): Secondary History and Social Studies. Composite (Grades 6-12); Secondary English and English Language Arts (Grades 6-12)
M.A., History, University of Missouri, June 2001. Thesis: Unmasking the Flirt: Epidemic Influenza in Columbia, Missouri, 1918
PhD, University of Missouri, April 2008. Dissertation: Healing the Frontier: Catholic Sisters, Hospitals, and Medicine Men in the Wisconsin Big Woods, 1880-1920
Courses Taught
HIST 201: American History to 1865
HIST 202: American History from 1865
HIST 430: History Theory and Practice
HIST 608: Women in American History
HIST 620: History of the South
HIST 636: Native American History
HIST 660: Industrial America, 1865-1914
Advising
Phi Alpha Theta (History honor society)
Interests, Publications and Presentations
“The Birth of a Clinic: Picher, Oklahoma, the Bureau of Mines, and Healthcare as Social Control.” Phi Alpha Theta Biennial Convention, January 2012.
“The School Sisters of St. Francis and the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe: Missions of Culture, Education, and Health.” Rural Women’s Studies Association, September 2009.
“Gilded Age Healthcare and the ‘Good’ Doctor: Joseph P. Cox and Northern Wisconsin.” Mid-America Conference on History, September 2008.
“Healthcare as a Citizen’s Right: Public Health at the Hayward Indian School, Wisconsin, 1901-1920.” Midwest Junto for the History of Science, April 2008.
"Sacred Teas, a Sisters’ School, and an Indian Priest: Modern Medicine and Holistic Healthcare on the Lac Court Oreilles Ojibwa Reservation, 1885-1920." Midwest Junto for the History of Science, April 2007.
