Gene Rhea Tucker

Professor


Department

History

Courses Taught
  • HIST 1301, United States History I
  • HIST 1302, United States History II
  • HIST 2301, History of Texas
Education
  • Ph.D. in Transatlantic History, The University of Texas at Arlington, 2011
  • M.A. in History, Tarleton State University, 2006
  • B.A. in History, Tarleton State University, 2003
Teaching Experience
  • Temple College, 2013–Present
  • Texas A&M University–Central Texas, 2014–2018, 2021
  • Navarro College, 2010–
  • The University of Texas at Arlington, 2008–2013
  • Tarleton State University, 2005-2008
Professional Experience
  • Graduate Instructor, The University of Texas at Arlington, 2008–2011
  • Graduate Teaching Assistant, The University of Texas at Arlington, 2006–2008
  • Graduate Assistant, W. K. Gordon Center for Industrial History of Texas, Tarleton State University, 2004–2006
Professional Publications

Books

  • Oysters, Macaroni, and Beer: Thurber, Texas, and the Company Store. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2012.

Journal Articles

  • “Place-Names in Nuevo Santander: José de Escandón, Indians, and the Power of Names.” Journal of South Texas 24, no. 2 (Fall 2011): 4-23.
  • “The Discovery of Germany in America: Hans Staden, Ulrich Schmidel, and the Construction of a German Identity.” Traversea: Journal of Transatlantic History 1 (2011): 26-45.
  • “Re-Naming Texas: Competing Mexican and Anglo Placenaming in Texas, 1821–1836.” Names: A Journal of Onomastics 59, no. 3 (September 2011): 139-151.
  • “La Salle Lands in Texas: La Salle and the Historians.” East Texas Historical Journal 48, no. 1 (Winter 2010): 40-58.
  • “Coronelli’s Texan Mississippi: A Reinterpretation of the America Settentrionale of 1688.” Terrae Incognitae 40 (2008): 82-101.

Articles in Books

  • “Frank William Funk.” In Wanted in America: Posters Collected by the Fort Worth Police Department, 1894–1903, edited by LeAnna S. Schooley and Tom Kellam, 107-108. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 2019.
  • “Henry and Rogers Gingery.” In Wanted in America: Posters Collected by the Fort Worth Police Department, 1894–1903, edited by LeAnna S. Schooley and Tom Kellam, 109-110. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 2019.
  • “Samuel M. Findley.” In Wanted in America: Posters Collected by the Fort Worth Police Department, 1894–1903, edited by LeAnna S. Schooley and Tom Kellam, 46-47. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 2019.

Book Reviews

  • Review of Buying America from the Indians: Johnson v. McIntosh and the History of Native Land Rights by Blake A. Watson. Terrae Incognitae. 55, no. 3 (December 2023): 313-314.
  • Review of Zebulon Pike, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West edited by Matthew L. Harris and Jay H. Buckley. Terrae Incognitae. 55, no. 2 (August 2023): 209-210.
  • Review of Codex Sierra: A Nahuatl-Mixtec Book of Accounts from Colonial Mexico by Kevin Terraciano. Terrae Incognitae. 54, no. 3 (October 2022): 306-307.
  • Review of The Globe on Paper: Writing Histories of the World in Renaissance Europe and the Americas by Guiseppe Marcocci. Terrae Incognitae. 54, no. 2 (August 2022): 219-220.
  • Review of The Great Ages of Discovery: How Western Civilization Learned About a Wider World byStephen J. Pyne. Terrae Incognitae. 54, no. 1 (April 2022): 102-103.
  • Review of Cartographic Humanism: The Making of Early Modern Europe by Katharina N. Piechocki. Terrae Incognitae. 53, no. 2 (August 2021): 165-166.
  • Review of Mapping Indigenous Land: Native Land Grants in Colonial New Spain by Ana Pulido Rull. Terrae Incognitae. 53, no. 1 (April 2021): 74-75.
  • Review of Indigenous Persistence in the Colonized Americas: Material and Documentary Perspectives on Entanglement edited by Heather Law Pezzarossi and Russell N. Sheptak. Terrae Incognitae. 52, no. 2 (August 2020): 237-238.
  • Review of Capturing the Landscape of New Spain: Baltasar Obregón and the 1564 Ibarra Expedition by Rebecca A. Carte. Terrae Incognitae. 52, no. 2 (August 2020): 233-235.
  • Review of Indigenous Persistence in the Colonized Americas: Material and Documentary Perspectives on Entanglement edited by Heather Law Pezzarossi and Russell N. Sheptak. Terrae Incognitae. (Forthcoming.)
  • Review of General Alonso de León’s Expeditions into Texas, 1686–1690 edited by Lola Orellano Norris. Terrae Incognitae. 51, no. 3 (December 2019): 297-298.
  • Review of Sight Unseen: How Frémont’s First Expedition Changed the American Landscape by Andrew Menard. Terrae Incognitae 51, no. 2 (August 2019): 179-180.
  • Review of Entangled Empires: The Anglo-Iberian Atlantic, 1500–1830 by Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra. Terrae Incognitae 51, no. 1 (April 2019): 97-99.
  • Review of The Savage Shore: Extraordinary Stories of Survival and Tragedy from the Early Voyages of Discovery by Graham Seal. Terrae Incognitae 50, no. 2 (October 2018): 193-194.
  • Review of Antipodes: In Search of the Southern Continent by Avan Judd Stallard. Terrae Incognitae 50, no. 1 (April 2018): 80-81.
  • Review of Imagining the Americas in Medici Florence by Lia Markey. Terrae Incognitae 49, no. 2 (September 2017): 190-191.
  • Review of The Mapmakers’ World: The Cultural History of the European World Map by Marjo T. Nurminen. Terrae Incognitae 49, no. 1 (April 2017): 96-98.
  • Review of Christopher Columbus’s Naming in the diarios of the Four Voyages (1492–1504): A Discourse of Negotiation by Evelina Gužauskytė. Terrae Incognitae 47, no. 2 (September 2015): 169-171.
  • Review of Return to Aztlan: Indians, Spaniards, and the Invention of Nuevo México, by Danna A. Levin Rojo. Terrae Incognitae 47, no. 1 (April 2015): 75-77.
  • Review of Maps of Paradise, by Alessandro Scafi. Historical Geography 42 (2014): 415-417.
  • Review of Secret Science: Spanish Cosmography and the New World, by María M. Portuondo. Historical Geography 41 (2013): 210-212.
  • Review of Juan Domínguez de Mendoza: Soldier and Frontiersman of the Spanish Southwest, 1627–1693, edited by France V. Scholes, Marc Simmons, and José Antonio Esquibel. Terrae Incognitae 45, no. 2 (October 2013): 149-150.
  • Review of Early American Cartographies, edited by Martin Brückner. Terrae Incognitae 45, no. 1 (April 2013): 70-71.
  • Review of The Ópatas: In Search of a Sonoran People, by David A. Yetman. Bulletin of Latin American Research 32, no. 2 (April 2013): 236-238.
  • Review of The Eve of Spain: Myths of Origins in the History of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Conflict, by Patricia E.Grieve. Historical Geography 40 (2012): 225-226.
  • Review of Where the West Begins: Debating Texas Identity, by Glen Sample Ely. Fronteras. 21 (Fall 2012): 5.
  • Review of The Image of the World: 20 Centuries of World Maps, by Peter Whitfield. Terrae Incognitae 43, no. 2 (September 2011): 185-186.
  • Review of Promised Land: Solms, Castro, and Sam Houston’s Colonization Contracts, by Jefferson Morgenthaler. Agricultural History 85, no. 3 (Summer 2011): 426-427.
  • Review of The Wrecking of La Salle’s Ship Aimable and the Trial of Claude Aigron, by Robert S. Weddle. Terrae Incognitae 42 (2010): 82-83.
  • “The Interconnected Atlantic World.” Review of The Atlantic World: A History, 1400–1888, by Douglas Egerton, Alison Games, Donald R. Wright, Kris E. Lane, and Jane G. Landers. H-TGS, H-Net Reviews. April 2010, http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=26172.
  • Review of The Wrecking of La Salle’s Ship Aimable and the Trial of Claude Aigron, by Robert S. Weddle. East Texas Historical Journal 48, no. 1 (Winter 2010): 105-107.
  • Review of The Birth of a Texas Ghost Town: Thurber, 1886–1933, by Mary Jane Gentry, T. Lindsay Baker, ed. The Mining History Journal (2009): 78-79.

Other Publications

Professional Presentations

Papers

  • “From Tejas to Texas: Mexicans, Anglos, and the Battle of Place Names, to 1845” – Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Name Society, January 7, 2017
  • “The Politics of Exploration: The Uses and Abuses of La Salle” – Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the History of Discoveries, October 31, 2014
  • “Explorers, Charts, and Borders: La Salle, Delisle, and the French Mapping of Texas” – Paper presented at biannual meeting of the Texas Map Society, October 9, 2010
  • “Re-Naming Texas: Mexicanization of Texas Place Names, 1821–1836” – Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Texas State Historical Association, March 4, 2010
  • “‘7 o’clock and Pay-Day’: The Company Store Employees of Thurber, Texas” – Paper presented at the combined meeting of the East Texas Historical Association and West Texas Historical Association Meeting, February 26, 2010
  • “Place-Names and Power: José de Escandón, Indians, and the Naming of Nuevo Santander” – Paper presented at the Conference on Latin American History annual meeting in conjunction with the AHA, January 10, 2010
  • “La Salle, the Mississippi, and the Historians” – Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the History of Discoveries, October 13, 2009
  • “Coronelli’s Texan Mississippi: A Reinterpretation of Coronelli’s 1688 Map of North America” – Paper presented at the Mid-America Conference on History, September 27, 2007
  • “Booze, Brawls, and Big Business: The Importance of Alcohol and Saloons to the Company Town of Thurber, Texas” – Paper presented at the annual meeting of the West Texas Historical Association, March 30, 2007
  • “The Death and Casual Rebirth of Thurber” – Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Texas State Historical Association, March 8, 2007
  • “Oysters, Macaroni, and Beer: The Business Enterprises of the Texas Pacific Mercantile & Manufacturing Company of Thurber, Texas” – Paper presented at the annual meeting of the West Texas Historical Association, March 31, 2006

Presentations

  • “Untangling the Challenges of AI-Created Student Work: Faculty Roundtable Discussion” – Professional Development Presentation (with Heather Chandler and Nick Kocurek, Facilitator: Kim George), Temple College, Temple, TX, January 9, 2024
  • “Texas and the American Revolution, America and the Texas Revolution” – Presentation for the Sons of the American Revolution, Heart of Texas Chapter, Salado, TX, September 10, 2022
  • “Duels and Dueling in the Early 1800s” – Presentation for the United States Daughters of the War of 1812, Jordan Bass Chapter, Temple, TX, October 5, 2019
  • “A History of Texas Cowboys” – Presentation at the Bell County Museum, Belton, TX, November 15, 2018
  • “The Flags of the Texas Revolution” – Presentation at the Bell County Museum, Belton, TX, April 26, 2018
  • “La Salle Lands in Texas” – Presentation at Encountering Texas History Conference: Prehistory to 1835, sponsored by the Texas State Historical Association, Donaldson Child Nutrition Center, Aldine ISD, Houston, TX, July 26, 2016
  • “Booze and Bootlegging in Thurber and Beyond” – Presentation for the Community Workshop Series, sponsored by the Center for Texas Studies at TCU and the Fort Worth Library, Tandy Lecture Hall, Fort Worth Central Library, Fort Worth, TX, May 3, 2014
  • “The Company Store in Thurber” – Presentation at the W. K. Gordon Center for Industrial History of Texas, Tarleton State University, June 16, 2013
  • “Oysters, Macaroni, and Beer: Thurber, Texas, and the Company Store” – Presentation and book signing at the Mineral Wells Public Library, Mineral Wells, TX, November 10, 2012
  • “Oysters, Macaroni & Beer: The Company Store in Thurber” – Presentation and book signing at the W. K. Gordon Center for Industrial History of Texas, Tarleton State University, October 14, 2012
  • “Oysters, Macaroni, and Beer: Thurber, Texas, and the Company Store” – Presentation and book signing at Tarrant County College, Southeast Campus Library, October 11, 2012
  • “Submitting and Presenting Papers at Academic Conferences” – Brown Bag Presentation to Transatlantic History Student Organization, UTA, February 22, 2012
  • “Researching Your Dissertation” – Brown Bag Presentation to Transatlantic History Ph.D. Students, UTA, December 1, 2010
  • “The Spanish Name the New World” – Presentation to UTA’s Phi Alpha Theta, October 13, 2010
  • “The Syncretization of Place-Names: Spanish and Amerindian Conceptions of Place in the New World” – THSO’s Second Annual Prospectus/Dissertation Workshop for Ph.D. Students, UTA, April 20, 2009
  • “The Cosmology and Cartography of the Inca” – Guest lecture in Dr. Douglas Richmond’s class, Modern Latin America (HIST 4367), UTA, March 13, 2009
  • “Booze and Bootlegging in Thurber” – Presentation at the W. K. Gordon Center for Industrial History of Texas, Tarleton State University, July 27, 2008
  • “Oysters, Macaroni, and Beer: The Texas Pacific Mercantile & Manufacturing Company of Thurber, Texas” – Presentation at the W. K. Gordon Center for Industrial History of Texas, Tarleton State University, May 21, 2006
Awards
  • NISOD Excellence Award, National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, College of Education, University of Texas at Austin, 2020
  • Earned tenure at Temple College, 2018
  • Danny McQueen GTA Teaching Award, University of Texas at Arlington, 2012
  • Phi Kappa Phi, University of Texas at Arlington, 2011
  • Summer Dissertation Fellowship, University of Texas at Arlington, 2010
  • University Scholar, President’s Convocation for Academic Excellence, University of Texas at Arlington, 2009
  • Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, 2008–2009
  • Jenkins Garrett Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper, for “Coronelli’s Texan Mississippi: A Reinterpretation of the America Settentrionale of 1688,” University of Texas at Arlington, 2008
  • Graduate Dean Doctoral Fellowship, University of Texas at Arlington, 2006–2011
  • Outstanding Poet Award, Tarleton’s Anthology, 2002
  • Killeen High School Baseball Academic Athlete Award, 1998
  • National Geographic Bee, Texas State Finalist, 1994
  • National Geographic Bee, Texas State Finalist – Top 10, 1993
  • National Geographic Bee, Texas State Finalist – Top 10, 1992
Research Interests
  • Texas History
  • Transatlantic History
  • Cartography
  • Toponymy