Faculty

Micah Rueber, Ph.D.

 Associate Professor of History
Department of Social Sciences
William A. Butts Building Room 17
Office Phone: 662-254-3358
Email:  rueber.mvsu@gmail.com
 

VITA

Biography

Dr. Rueber graduated from Mississippi State University in 2010. After serving as a post-doc at Auburn University, he joined the faculty at MVSU in 2012. Dr. Rueber’s primary focus is on the history of the United States from 1877 to 1945. He was written and presented on a wide variety of topics, but his emphasis is on agricultural and technological history. He is currently working on two projects: the first involving governmental programs aimed at reducing disease among African-Americans living in Mississippi during the 1930’s and 1940’s, and the second a history of the reintroduction of white-tailed deer to Mississippi in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Education

PH.D.              History, Mississippi State University (2010)

M.A.                History of Science and Technology, Iowa State University (2005)

B. S.                Mathematics, University of Oregon, Eugene (2001)

B. A.                Music, Carleton College (1994)

Positions Held

Associate Professor, History. Department of Social Sciences, Mississippi Valley State University, 2018 – present. 

Coordinator of General and University Studies, Mississippi Valley State University, 2018 – present.

Assistant Professor, History. Department of Social Sciences, Mississippi Valley State University, 2012– 2018.

Post-Doctoral Fellow, Honors College. Auburn University, 2010 – 2012.

Scholarly Presentations

  • “More Than One Way to Get a Buck: Black Powder Makes a Resurgence, 1970-2000,” paper presented at 2016 SoHOST Conference, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, April  2016.
  • “We Scream for Ice Cream: Dairy Queen Takes on America’s Dairyland,” paper presented at the Mississippi Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Mississippi Valley State University, Itta Bena, MS, February 2016.
  •  1890 Agricultural History Panel, Annual Conference of the Agricultural History Society, University of Kentucky, Frankfort, KY, June 2015.
  • “Cotton Pickin’ Pisano: Italians in the Mississippi Delta, 1890-1920,” paper presented at Third Annual Cotton Symposium, Mississippi Valley State University, Itta Bena, MS, October 2014.
  • “I Scream, You Scream, We All Sue: Dairy Queen and Wisconsin Dairy Farmers Go to Court,” paper presented 2014 SoHOST Conference, Georgia Tech University, Atlanta, GA, March 2014.
  • “Rage Against the Machine: Plantation Owners, the Mechanical Cotton Picker, and the Fear of Change,” paper presented Second Annual Cotton Symposium, Mississippi Valley State University, Itta Bena, MS, October 2013.
  • “Folding Money: Cotton as Currency in 19th Century Mississippi,” paper presented Cotton Symposium, Mississippi Valley State University, Itta Bena, MS, October 2012.
  • “Is Milk the Measure of All Things: Babcock Tests, Breed Associations, and Land Grant Scientists, 1890-1920,” paper presented USDA 150th Anniversary Celebration, Starkville, MS, October 2012.
  • “Don’t Give a Yam: The Auburn Sweet Potato Project, 1940-1960,” paper presented SoHOST Conference, Auburn, AL, April 2011.
  • “Power to the People: Stephen Babcock, Milk-Fat Testing, and Popular Science,” W paper presented HEATS Conference, Starkville, MS, October, 2009.
  • “Sputnik and Muttnik: Public Perception and the Soviet Satellite Launches,” paper presented Phi Alpha Theta Conference, Starkville, MS, March 2009.
  • “Out with the Old and In with the Moo: Cattle Judging, Modernity, and the Origins of Agri-business, 1930-1960,” paper presented Annual Meeting of the Agricultural History Society, Reno, NV, June 2008.
  • “Red Menace or Red Herring?  Sputnik, the Media, and Popular Opinion,” Annual paper presented Meeting of the Southern History of Science and Technology Society, Starkville, MS, April 2007.
  • “In One End and Out the Udder: Vitamins, Oleo Margarine, and American Dairy Science,” paper presented Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society, Vancouver, BC, November 2006. 
  • “The Birth of a New Machine: Technological Innovation and Application on American Dairies,” paper presented Annual Meeting of the Agricultural History Society, Cambridge, MA, June 2006.
  • “Milking Time: Dairy Farms, Expertise, and Technological Change,” paper presented Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Minneapolis, MN, November 2005.
  • “Swiftly If Not Surely: Race, Class, Gender, and Technology in the Tom Swift Books,” paper presented Annual Meeting of the Midwest Junto for the History of Science, Kansas City, MO, April 2004.
  • “Black, White, and Read All Over: The Sputnik Launch in American Newspapers,” paper presented Annual Meeting of the Midwest Junto for the History of Science, Minneapolis, MN, April 2003.

Publications

  • “Is Milk the Measure of All Things: Babcock Tests, Breed Associations, and Land Grant Scientists, 1890-1920” in Science as Service: Establishing and Reformulation American Land-Grant Universities, 1865-1930, edited by Alan I Marcus (University of Alabama Press, 2015).
  • “The Man in the Grey Metal Suit: Doctor Doom, the Fantastic Four, and the Costs of Conformity,” essay in You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
  • Learn more Comics as History, Comics as Literature: Roles of the Comic Book in Scholarship, Society, and Entertainment, edited by Anessa Babic (Fairleigh Dickinson, 2013).
  • “Post-Modern Punks?  The Libertines’ Up the Bracket,” essay in Please Allow Me to Introuduce Myself: Essays on Debut Albums, edited by George Plasketes (Ashgate Press, 2013).