Todd Shallat
Idaho Professor of the Year
2002 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Todd directs the Center for Idaho History and Politics at Boise State University. He also supervises the Office of the City Historian at Boise City Hall. Born in Chicago and raised in San Mateo, California, he received the Ph.D. in Applied History and Social Science from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1985. He is the winner of the Henry Adams Book Prize from the Society for Federal History, the Abel Wolman Book Award from the American Public Works Association, the Idaho Book Award from the Idaho Library Association, the Independent Publishing Association’s “honorable mention” for history publishing, and the Gold Medal for feature writing from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Book publications include Structures in the Stream: Water, Science, and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (1994), Water and the Rise of Public Ownership on the Fresno Plain (1978), and Ethnic Landmarks: Ten Historic Places That Define the City of Trees (2007). He is the editor and primary author of Snake: The Plain and Its People (1994); Harrison Boulevard: Preserving the Past in Boise's North End (1987), and Secrets of the Magic Valley and Hagerman's Remarkable Horse (2002). A 1988 contract history of the Birds of Prey National Area won the Secretary of the Interior’s Outstanding Service Award. From 1997 to 2000, Todd was a visiting scholar with the U.S. Mississippi River Commission. His book on the hurricane-flood threat was published as Hope for the Dammed: An Historical Assessment of The Corps of Engineers Environmental Work on the Mississippi River.
Todd’s public history work has been nationally featured in The New York Times, Money Magazine, The Economist, The Houston Chronicle, and National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. In 2002 he was the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Education's "Idaho Professor of the Year." Shallat also won the university’s “top ten” teaching award. Named “City Historian” by the Boise Mayor and City Council, he founded the city department of art and history and its signature programs, including The Boise City Walking Series and First Thursday Fettuccini Forum. In 2007, at the request of university president Robert Kustra, Todd led a citywide investigation concerning the plight of Boiseans evicted from mobile home parks. Meanwhile his production work on Idaho Yesterdays received the Idaho Heritage Trust Media Award. In 2006, Shallat won his university’s social science “researcher of the year” award. In 2007, he won the University Foundation Scholar Award for public service.
| Office | L-152F |
| Phone | 208/426-3701 |
| tshalla@boisestate.edu | |
| Office Hours & Courses taught (PDF) | |