Department of Interdisciplinary Studies

Dr. Neva J. Specht [spake] serves as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of History at Appalachian State University.  She has taught courses on museum education, public programming, and material culture, as well as the history of pirates and the Blue Ridge Parkway. A native Iowan, Specht received her B.A. from Grinnell College and her M.A., Museum Studies Certification, and Ph.D. from the University of Delaware.  Before coming to ASU in 1996, she worked for the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums, Historical Society of Delaware, and the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, NY.  Her research has focused on community formation among the Society of Friends in trans-Appalachia in the years following the American Revolution with a focus on gender and religion.  For six years, she served as the University Liaison to the Blue Ridge Parkway. During that time, she completed an Historic Furnishing Report for the Blowing Rock home of Moses and Bertha Cone for the National Park Service, directed two NEH Landmarks workshops on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and conducted a number of oral histories for the NPS including interviews with former CCC workers for King’s Mountain National Military Park. She was a member of the North Carolina Humanities Council from 2009-2016 and served two years as its Board Chair. She has received the Transforming North Carolina Faculty Research Award; ASU Board of Governor’s Teaching Award; Jimmy Smith Service Award; and the Communal Studies Association Starting Scholar Award.