Tennessee State Historian Dr. Carroll Van West, director of MTSU’s Center for Historic Preservation, will discuss his long career in investigating and preserving historic sites across the country Thursday, Jan. 21, as the special guest of the Rutherford County Archaeological Society.

Dr. Carroll Van West

The free public discussion, “Confessions of a Fieldwork Junkie,” will begin at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 21 at the Heritage Center of Murfreesboro, located just off the Public Square at 225 W. College St.

West has served as director at the Center for Historic Preservation at MTSU and the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area since 2002.

A history department faculty member since 1985, West teaches courses in architectural history, historic preservation, and state and local history and received the MTSU Foundation’s Career Achievement Award, considered the pinnacle of recognition for the university’s finest professors, last August.

Gov. Bill Haslam named West as state historian, a four-year appointment, in 2013.

West also serves as co-chair of the Tennessee Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission and as a Tennessee representative on the National Board of Advisors of National Trust for Historic Preservation.

At his Jan. 21 talk, West will discuss his decades of fieldwork on sites across the Southeast and in eastern Montana, where he focuses on 19th- and 20th-century history as well as architecture and material culture. You can see some of the results of his work at http://tennesseehistoriclandscape.com and http://montanahistoriclandscape.com.

The Rutherford County Archaeological Society meets monthly at the Heritage Center and welcomes guest speakers, the community and professional archaeologists to discuss the county’s past and how to document and learn from it.

For more information on the Rutherford County Archaeological Society, visit http://facebook.com/groups/RCAS.TN or contact Laura Bartel at lbanthro@gmail.com.

— Gina E. Fann (gina.fann@mtsu.edu)