Nathan Drake
Nathan Drake, Ph.D.
Director of Graduate Programs
The Graduate School
Adjunct Professor
Department of History
Mississippi State University
Education
Ph.D., Mississippi State University, Spring 2020, United States Environmental History
Dissertation Title: “Swamp Thing: Alligators, Symbolism, and the Meaning of Animals in the American South”
Major Professor: Peter C. Messer
Master of Arts, East Tennessee State University, 2009-2011, United States History
Bachelor of Science, University of Southern Indiana, 2004-2009, History
University Service
Graduate Policy and Advisory Committee
Graduate Council
University Committee on Courses and Curricula
Calendar Committee
Registration and Scheduling Committee
Panel Judge, 2021 Graduate Research Symposium
Mississippi State University
Humanities, Business, and Education Division
Instructor of Record
Mississippi State University
Early American History
Summer 2014, Fall 2014, and Summer 2015
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Mississippi State University
August 2011-Summer 2014
Executive Assistant
Agricultural History Society
June 2012-June 2015
Graduate Assistant
East Tennessee State University
August 2009-May 2011
Grants and Awards
James W. Garner Scholarship, Mississippi State University Department of History, Fall 2011-Spring 2015
Graduate Student Travel Grant, Agricultural History Society, Summer 2013-14
Conference Presentations
“Old Butler and the Tennessee Valley Authority” 2011 Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee
“East Tennessee Be Damned: Rural Dislocation and the Tennessee Valley Authority” 2012 Southern Forum on Agricultural, Rural, and Environmental History, Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi
“Embracing the ‘Exotic’: Satsumas and the Southern Imagination” 2013 Meeting of the Agricultural History Society, Banff, Alberta
“From These Depths: Alligators, Symbolism, and the American Culture of Violence” 2014 Meeting of the American Society for Environmental History, San Francisco, California
“Swamp Thing: Alligators and Early American Nature Writers” 2014 Southern Forum on Agricultural, Rural, and Environmental History, Orlando, Florida
“Feral Attraction: The Naturalization of an Exotic Species” 2014 Meeting of the Agricultural History Society, Provo, Utah
“Tail Gator: Alligator Meat Processing in the Twentieth Century South” 2015 Meeting of the Agricultural History Society, Lexington, Kentucky
Solicited Presentations
“Swamp Thing: Alligators, Nature Writers, and the Early American Wilderness,” Center for the History of Agriculture, Science, and Environment of the South (CHASES), Mississippi State University, February 2014
Professional Affiliations
Agricultural History Society
American Society for Environmental History
Phi Alpha Theta
Southern Historical Association
Western History Association
Publications
Swamp Thing: Alligators, Symbolism, and the Meaning of Animals in the American South (LSU Press, forthcoming)
Review of, Empire of Brutality: Enslaved People and Animals in the British Atlantic World, by Christopher Michael Blakley, Journal of Mississippi History (Spring/Summer 2025)
Review of, The Atchafalaya River Basin: History and Ecology of an American Wetland, by Bryan P. Piazza, Louisiana History (Vol. 57, No. 1, Winter 2016)