Aquila named OAH Distinguished Lecturer

Richard Aquila

Richard Aquila, professor of history and director of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Penn State Erie, has been invited to serve a second term as an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer.

The OAH Distinguished Lecturership Program was created in 1981 to provide public lectures by outstanding historians who have made major contributions to U.S. history. Only 1 percent of the nation's historians are ever invited to become a Distinguished Lecturer, and usually for only one three-year term “The fact that they've invited me back for a second term is an honor not just for me, but also for Penn State Behrend,” Aquila said.

Aquila's research and writing focuses on U.S. social and cultural history, especially recent American culture, the American West, American Indians and popular culture. He is the author of four books: "Home Front Soldier: The Story of a G.I. and His Italian-American Family During World War II," "Wanted Dead or Alive: The American West in Popular Culture," "That Old Time Rock and Roll: A Chronicle of An Era, 1954-63," and "The Iroquois Restoration: Iroquois Diplomacy on the Colonial Frontier, 1701-1754."

Aquila also has written, produced and hosted numerous documentaries for National Public Radio. From 1998 to 2000, he wrote, produced, and hosted the public history series “Rock and Roll America,” a Peabody-nominated show syndicated on NPR and NPR Worldwide. He expects to finish writing his latest book, "Crazy, Man, Crazy: The Birth of Rock & Roll and 1950s America," this summer.

As an OAH Distinguished Lecturer, Aquila gives public talks at colleges and universities across the country. He has lectured on a number of history topics, including the mythic American West, Native American history, rock and roll as history, and the role of popular music in the public memory of Sept. 11.

Before joining the Penn State Erie faculty in 2004, Aquila was chair of the History Department and director of the American Studies Program at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. He previously taught at Metropolitan State College in Denver, Colo., and at The Ohio State University, and was a fellow at the D'Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian at the Newberry Library in Chicago. He holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and a master's degree in history from Ohio’s Bowling Green State University, and a doctorate in history from The Ohio State University.