David Benac
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5334 USA
- Ph.D., History, University of Missouri, 2003
- M.A., Public history: Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, 1997
- B.A., History: Michigan State University, 1995
- The American environmental movement of the late-twentieth century.
- The heritage and history of the timber industry in culture and landscape, especially in the Pacific Northwest.
David Benac is an environmental and public historian of the post-WWII United States. His research investigates how people act on their perceptions of nature, the science of ecology, and the philosophy of ecocentrism. His first monograph, Conflict in the Ozarks: Hill Folk, Industrialists, and Government in the Courtois Hills (Truman State University Press, 2010), investigates how the contested value of land and forests shaped development in Missouri’s Ozarks. His second monograph, Rainforest Radicals: A History of Rainforest Action Network and Transnational Organizing(University of Nebraska Press, 2026), explores the radical environmental movement of the late twentieth century and the formation of international coalitions of grassroots groups devoted to supporting indigenous rights and environmental protections. He is currently working on a study of outdoor recreation in the Northwoods and a history of the native plant movement as a form of direct action motivated by popular ecology.
Teaching
David Benac teaches environmental and public history at the graduate and undergraduate levels and serves as the Department of History’s public history coordinator and internship supervisor.
Courses he teaches include:
- HIST 3105: The United States in the Global Era
- HIST 3180: American Environmental History
- HIST 3404: Introduction to Public History
- HIST 4010: The American Environmental Movement
- HIST 4080: Museum Studies
- HIST 4100: Historic Preservation
- HIST 5150: Heritage Tourism
- HIST 6250: Topics in Cultural Resources Management
- HIST 6440: Material Culture
- HIST 6730: Research Seminar in Public History
Benac advises graduate students in environmental and public history, including cultural resources management, environmental movements, heritage tourism, historic preservation, and oral history.