Dr. Kevin Borg

Professor
borgkl@jmu.edu
Contact Info
History Internship Coordinator
Member, Science, Technology & Society Minor
Member, Geospatial Technology Steering Committee
Board Member, Madison Automotive Apprentices Program
Education
Ph.D., University of Delaware
Research interests
U.S. history since the 1870s, history of technology and society, history applications of geospatial technology
Teaching areas
U.S. history, social history of American technology, history of American automobile cultures, public history
Selected publications and projects
Curator, The Heritage Museum, Dayton, VA, Inventors & Innovators or Harrisonburg and Rockingham, November 28th 2018 – March 30th 2019. https://www.valleyheritagemuseum.org/museum/inventors-innovators/
pastmaprÓ a free, open-source community historical mapping application and instructional video package. Currently under development with generous grant support from the Madison Trust.
Faculty coordinator for ongoing graduate public digital history project, “Exploring Rockingham’s Past” https://omeka.lib.jmu.edu/erp/
“Waiting for Work in the ‘Friendly City’: Picturing Harrisonburg Between Depression and War,” chapter in Picturing Harrisonburg: Visions of a Shenandoah Valley City since 1828, David Ehrenpreis (George Thompson Books, September 2017).
Co-curator, JMU Duke Hall Gallery, Picturing Harrisonburg: Visions of a Shenandoah Valley City since 1828, Fall 2017, https://www.jmu.edu/news/arts/2017/08-15-picturing-harrisonburg.shtml
“Spatial History in the Public Square: Maps, Images, & Archives in the Community,” Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Open Grant with Bradley Andrick, GIS Coordinator, JMU Facilities Management, June 2015-April 2016. Unveiled at the National Council for Public History Conference, Baltimore, MD, March 18, 2016. http://gtsc.jmu.edu/shps/map/
“Constructing Sociotechnical Environments: Aurality, Air Quality, and Automobiles,” Technology and Culture, 55: 2 (April 2014): 287-298.
"Aggravating Autos, Gyp Mechanics, and the Limits of Consumer Advocacy" in A Destiny of Choice? New Directions in American Consumer History, edited by David Blanke and David Steigerwald (Lexington, 2013), pp. 99-119.
“Les sens perdus du garagiste. Comment le savoir-faire a été disqualifié dans l’univers automobile américain” [“The mechanic’s lost senses. Designing away deep-handiness in the U.S. automobile marketplace”] in Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine (59:3, 2012, pp. 19-47)
Auto Mechanics: Technology and Expertise in Twentieth Century America. Studies in Industry and Society (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007; paperback edition June 2010).
"Teaching with Historic Places: Sanborn Maps and Dusty Old Buildings," Notes on Virginia 52 (2008).