Brenden W. Rensink

Historian of the North American West, Borderlands, Indigenous Peoples, and Environment

Teaching & Advising

Teaching, Mentoring, Advising, and Campus Service

 

Teaching Experience:

 Undergraduate Surveys

  • American History to 1877
  • American History since 1877
  • American Civilization

Upper-Division Undergraduate Courses

  • U.S. West to 1900
  • U.S. West to the Present
  • Nebraska and the Great Plains
  • Great Plains Indians
  • Western American Studies
  • American Indian History, 1890-present

Undergraduate Seminars

  • History and American Studies Senior Capstone Research/Writing Seminars
  • Western American Studies Seminar

Graduate Seminars

  • Native American History to the Present
  • 20th Century Native America
  • U.S.  West to 1900
  • 20th Century U.S. West
  • American Historiography
  • Native American Women’s History
  • Native American History to 1900
  • North American Borderlands 
  • Comparative Colonial / Indians and Empires

 Mentoring and Advising:

  • 2017-present
    • Intermountain Histories Internship Coordinator
      • Interns Supervised:
        • Samuel Watson (Fall 2024)
        • Megan Bailey (Winter 2024)
        • Isabella Holt (Fall 2023)
        • Abigail Beus (Winter 2023)
        • Sydney Wilson (Fall 2022)
        • Lindsey Meza (Winter 2022)
        • Makoto Hunter (Winter 2021)
        • Anna Bailey (Fall 2020)
        • Nikki Smith (Fall 2020)
        • Ryan Hallstrom (Winter 2020)
        • Josie Manwill (Winter 2020)
        • Sam Heywood (Fall 2019)
        • Ann Johnston (Winter 2019)
        • Allison Patterson (Winter 2019)
        • Sarah Rounsville (Fall 2018)
        • Rachel Hendrickson (Summer 2018)
        • Samuel Hauber (Winter 2018)
        • Natalie Larsen (Winter 2018)
        • Marc Wein (Winter 2018)
        • Dani Carmack (Fall 2017)
        • Joshua Franzen (Summer 2017)
  • 2015-present
    • Redd Center Research Assistant Supervisor
      • RAs Supervised:
        • Megan Bailey (Fall 2024-Winter 2025)
        • Abigail Beus (Fall 2023-Winter 2024)
        • Lindsey Meza (Fall 2022-Winter 2023)
        • Makoto Hunter (Fall 2021-Winter 2022)
        • Ryan Hallstrom (Fall 2020-Winter 2021)
        • Allison Patterson (Fall 2019-Winter 2020)
        • Rachel Hendrickson (Winter 2019)
        • Emily Cook (Spring 2018)
        • Joshua Franzen (Fall 2017-Winter 2018)
        • Aubrey Glazier (Summer 2017)
        • Tanner Tolman (Summer 2017)
        • Addison Blair (Winter 2017)
        • Drew Rupard (2016)

BYU Campus Service:

  • 2023-
    • Phi Alpha Theta Faculty Advisor, History Department
  •  2022-23
    • Newsletter Editor, History Department
  • 2022-24
    • Faculty Advisor, Trail Running Club
  • 2022
    • Student Awards Committee Chair, History Department
  •  2019-present
    • BYU Slavery Project, Steering Committee Chair
  • 2018-20
    • Constitution Day Committee Chair
  • 2019-19
    • The Theatean Faculty Advisor, History Department
  • 2016-17
    • Student Recruitment Committee, History Department
  • 2016
    • Student Awards Committee, History Department
  • 2015-18
    • Constitution Day Committee Member

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation Committee Service:

  • 2022-
    • Elisabeth Hyde. “Spanish Fork Indian Farm.” M.A. Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Brigham Young University
  •  2018
    • Brian Bevan. “An Oral History of Refugees in Utah.” M.A. Thesis, Department of Religious Education, Brigham Young University.
  • 2013
    • Robert Wilburn Brown Jr.  “Unsurpassed Courage and Determination: Pender’s Brigade from Richmond to Chancellorsville.”  M.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Nebraska at Kearney.
  • 2012
    • Shelley R. Frear.  “The Genoa Indian School, A Mixed Legacy: 50 Years of Transformation, survival, and Hope in a United States Government Indian Boarding School on the Nebraska Plains.”  M.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Nebraska at Kearney.
    • Freda Bradley, “Evolutionary Response to Federal Programs in the Rural Mid-Ohio Valley of West Virginia: From Economic Collapse to Valuable Wartime Partner.”  M.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Nebraska at Kearney.
    • Kaylene Vieselmeyer, “Sacred Soil: The Influence of the Family Farm in Shaping America’s Identity.” M.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Nebraska at Kearney.
    • Amber Alexander, “Fighting the War from Home: The Impact of the Fairmont, Harvard, and Bruning Army Air Fields on Rural Nebraska Residents.”  M.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Nebraska at Kearney.
    • Brian Chmielewski, “James Wilson: The Forgotten Founding Father,” M.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Nebraska at Kearney.
    • John Stratton, “Des Moines Ordinance Plant: Ankeny, Iowa, on the home Front During World War II.”  M.A. Thesis, Department of History, University of Nebraska at Kearney.
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