H. at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, Portland, Oregon; photo by Neal D. Armstrong.

     Dr. H. Gelfand is Assistant Professor of History.  He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona, his M.A. and A. B. from the University of Georgia, and his M.A. from the Patterson School of Diplomacy.  He teaches courses in U. S. History and Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies.

     The University of North Carolina Press published his first book, Sea Change at Annapolis:  The United States Naval Academy, 1949-2000, in 2006.  H.’s other publications appear in the American Historical Review, the Georgia Historical Quarterly, the New Georgia Encyclopedia, the South Carolina Historical Magazine, and the International Journal of Naval History.  He is also the author of a state historic marker in Athens, Georgia.

     H. has experience in historic preservation and has held numerous preservation and archaeological positions with the U. S. Air Force Air Combat Command and the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places, specializing in architecture, aviation, and missile testing and development.  H. is also an active member of the environmental group Surfrider Foundation and its Snowrider Project.

     H. is interested in issues including environmental activism, business ethics, gender, race, ethnicity, sovereignty and activism of native peoples, film, athletics, business leadership, art, historic and environmental preservation, California, music, the American West, ecotourism, Hawai’i, and the Island Pacific.  These issues are all elements of H.’s current research on the cultural significance and history of the board sports of surfing, snowboarding, and skateboarding.

H. Michael Gelfand
( Full-time faculty)
History Department
MOODY 1A
MSC 2001
office phone: +1 540 568 4765
e-mail: gelfanhm@jmu.edu