Noel Stowe

Dr. Noel Stowe is the senior and founding director of Arizona State University’s Public History Program. Established in 1980, the program prepares students for careers in the public practice of history. More than 250 students have participated in this graduate program. Historic Preservation is one area of emphasis. Through its students, graduates and faculty, the program has produced internships, administrative histories, research reports, thesis and dissertation research, and books related to historic preservation.

Noel is one of the foremost figures in the public history movement in the United States. Over the last thirty years this movement has reshaped the profession of history and the role of the professional historian in society. Most of Arizona’s current National Register nominations are prepared by or reviewed by former Public History students. Noel has also taken great interest in planning for the state’s centennial in 2012 being the driving force behind five annual centennial workshops, acting as president of the Coordinating Committee for History in Arizona (CCHA) and as a member of the Arizona Historical Advisory Commission. [Photo source: Tom Story.]