Pat Munday - Department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences

Pat Munday

Professor of Science and Technology Studies
Engineering Hall 209A
406-496-4461
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Biography

Pat Munday has been with Montana Tech in Butte since 1990 and is a Professor of Science & Technology Studies with the Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences Department. His service includes more than than $1 million in grants for environmental stream restoration, a popular book about the Big Hole River, building academic partnerships with Chinese universities, and working with Butte’s Mai Wah Society and its museum. In addition to Montana Tech, Professor Munday has taught in China four times at three different universities. His courses include U.S. Environmental History, Social Science Research Methods, and History of Technology & Society.  He took the PhD in history & philosophy from Cornell University, holds Masters degrees from Cornell and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and double-majored in engineering and humanities with Drexel University. He has held three Fulbright Awards from the U.S. State Department.

Pat’s Chinese name, given to him by his Chinese graduate students, is猎人—“Lee-a Ren”, which means “Hunter”. He grew up in a small town in the Allegheny Mountains in a family of subsistence hunters and farmers. He is a year-round outdoorsman, defining the calendar by cross country skiing, trout fishing, backpacking, and elk hunting.

Research Interests

Currently, Pat’s main research interests are Chinese history and culture in the late 19th/early 20th century, and semiotics of environmental communication. Previously, he focused on German history of science and American environmental history.

In chairing 1 PhD and 28 MS committees, serving on countless others, and working with many Chinese graduate candidates, Pat learned to help graduate students focus on an appropriate topic, develop the literature review necessary to understand the topic, employ project management skills to achieve goals in a timely manner, adopt a methodology appropriate to the thesis question, and write and defend a cogent and well-organized thesis.

Selected Honors & Awards

  • Guest professor with Global Immersion Program at Southwest University, Chonqing, China (2019).
  • Fulbright Scholar Award with Ningxia University in Yinchuan, China. Fulbright is the U.S. government's flagship international educational exchange program (2017).
  • Top recommendation for Merit Award, Montana Tech Faculty Merit Review Committee (2013).
  • Fulbright Scholar Award with Southwest University in Chongqing, China. 2012.
  • Sabbatical award to research and write scholarly articles on a broad range of topics (2014-15).
  • Sabbatical award to research citizen involvement in shaping Environmental Protection Agency decisions for remedy in Upper Clark Fork River Superfund sites (2006-07).
  • Sabbatical award to research the history of people and place in Montana’s Big Hole River watershed (1998-99).
  • "Liebig-Wöhler-Freundschafts Preis," a prize to recognize original scholarship in the history of German chemistry. Awarded at the meeting of the Göttingener Chemische Gesellschaft (1994).
  • Fulbright Student Scholar Award to perform research and study in the Federal Republic of Germany, with Prof. Dr. Andreas Kleinert at the Universität Hamburg, Institut für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Mathematik und Technik (1987-88).

Selected Courses Taught

Courses taught with Montana Tech include

  • Graduate Research Methods (T.C. 561)
  • Technology, Communication & Culture- with a focus on semiotics (T.C. 542/ PTC 442)
  • Environmental Communication (T.C. 512/ PTC 412/ENST 476)
  • Technology & Society (STS 201): sometimes taught as film class
  • Presenting Technical Information (COMX 201)

Fulbright Lecturer, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, China (2017)

  • “U.S. Environmental History” advanced undergraduate history course
  • "American Culture" undergraduate history course

Visiting Professor, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou China (Spring 2016)

  • “Advanced Science Writing” course for graduate candidates and post-docs in Geological Sciences.

Fulbright Lecturer, Southwest University, Chongqing China (2012)

  • “U.S. Environmental History” course for graduate candidates in U.S. History
  • “American Technology & Society” history course for pre-graduate elite minority students

Cornell University, Ithaca NY (1985-1990; Summer Guest Faculty 1991, 1992)

  • History of Women in Science (Freshman Writing Seminar)
  • History of 19th Century Chemistry (Freshman Writing Seminar)
  • Technology & Society (lower division Summer Course)
  • Politics of Technical Decisions (upper division/graduate Summer Course)

Selected Publications

  1. 2021(in press). Co-authored with Shihua Chen Brazill, “Coming Home to China: Margaret Woo’s Story”, Journal of Modern Chinese History.
  2. “This too is China. Hui Muslim culture and the Fulbright experience at Ningxia University” in Shin Freedman, Pat Munday, and Jeannette W. Cockcroft, eds., Narrative Inquires from Fulbright Lecturers in China: Cross Cultural Connections in Higher Education (Routledge).
  3. “Thinking through Ravens: Human Hunters, Wolf-birds, and Embodied Communication,” Chapter 13 in Emily Plec, editor, Perspectives on Human-Animal Communication: Internatural Communication (Routledge Communication Series).
  4. 2013: “The Na’vi as Spiritual Hunters: a semiotic exploration,” in Bron Taylor, editor, Opening Pandora’s Film (WLU University Press):161-180.
  5. 2011: "Environmental Protection Agency," an entry in Green Culture: An A-to-Z Guide (Sage Publications):157-158.
  6. 2009: “The Role of Environmental Communication in Shaping Remedy at America’s Largest Superfund Site,” Proceedings of the 10th Annual Conference on Communication and the Environment (August 2009).
  7. “’A millionaire couldn’t buy a piece of water as good:’ George Grant & the Conservation of the Big Hole Watershed,” Montana Magazine of Western History 52:20-37.
  8. Montana’s Last Best River: The Big Hole and its People (Lyons Press, 2001).

Selected Grants (Funded)

  • Approximately $260,000 to support the Mai Wah Society and the exterior renovation of its historic museum building, sources include National Trust for Historic Preservation, Montana Cultural Trust, Butte-Silver Bow Urban Revitalization Agency, and Butte Redevelopment Trust Fund (2016-2020).
  • $141,762 for “Science, Society, and Superfund: A Social History of America’s Largest Superfund Site,” from the National Science Foundation (2007-2009).
  • Approximately $1,163,000 for restoring German Gulch, a westslope cutthroat trout fishery and tributary of Silver Bow Creek, sources include Montana Natural Resource Damage Program, US Fish & Wildlife Service, and Montana Fish & Wildlife Trust (2002-2005).