Dr. Alena Pirok

Associate Professor of History (2017).

B.A., Southern Illinois University, 2011; M.A., Ph.D., University of South Florida, 2013, 2017.

Teaching and Research Interests: Public History, Historical Memory, 20th century U.S. History, Museum History, Ghost lore, and Prison History.

Upper-Level Courses:

• HIST 2500: Explorations in History, Haunted Histories
• HIST 3231: Introduction to Public History
• HIST 3770: US 1917-1945
• HIST 3760: US 1877-1917
• HIST 3990: Field Work in History in Wexford, Ireland.

Graduate Courses: 

• HIST 5210G: Urban Public History
• HIST 7031: Readings in US History: History Wars
• HIST 7638: Introduction to Public History

Website: https://alenapirok.wordpress.com/

Contact Information:

Department of History
Georgia Southern University
P. O. Box 8054
Statesboro, GA 30460-8054

Office: IAB 3096

Email: apirok@georgiasouthern.edu
Fax: 912-478-0377

Selected Publications: 

• The Spirit of Colonial Williamsburg: Ghosts and Interpreting the Recreated Past (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2022)
• “Specters of the Mythic South: How Plantation Fiction Fixed Ghost Stories to Black Americans” Southern Cultures 29. No.4. (Winter, 2023), 17-31.
• “Goodwin’s Ghosts: Colonial Williamsburg’s Uncanny Legacy” The Public Historian 41. no.2. (August 2019), 9-30.
• “Plant’s Folly and Tampa’s Treasure: How the Tampa Bay Hotel Became an Urban Icon” Florida Historical Quarterly, (Spring 2017), 494-516.
• “The Spirit of the Season” History@Work (24, October 2016)

• “George Washington’s Birthplace National Monument Summer 2013 Archaeological Record Reassessment,” National Park Service, GEWA, Westmoreland County, Virginia, Fall 2014. Co-authored with Philip Levy and Amy Muraca.

Professional Activities, Honor, and Awards:

• Environmental Sustainability Committee, 2018-  National Council on Public History.
• Co-Chair, Labor Task Force, National Council on Public History, 2023-Present

Current Research:

• • Book Manuscripts:
    • Cell Block Revival: The Politics of US Prison Museums. A monograph.
  • Digital Projects:
    • “The Old Dominion’s Ghosts.” A curated Story Map of place based-historical ghost lore, as well as regularly scheduled events and tours in Virginia.
    • @Remnantology, Twitter (2013-)  Co-created with Phil Levy; Instagram (2017-)  Curated images of the past emerging in the present day.

Last updated: 4/26/2024