Projects per year
Personal profile
About
Alena Pirok is an Associate Professor of U.S. History at Georgia Southern University. She joined the faculty in 2017 at the Armstrong campus and moved to the Statesboro campus in 2023. Before coming to Georgia Southern Dr. Pirok was awarded a Ph.D. (2017) and a M.A. in History (2013) from the University of South Florida, and a B.A. in History from Southern Illinois University (2011).
Dr. Pirok’s research has explored how 20th century Americans used history, historical memory and lore to define their world. Her first monograph The Spirit of Colonial Williamsburg explains how locals use of ghost stories to define the city as historical was foundational to the city’s restoration and its later historical interpretation. Pirok’s willingness to take both academic and non-academics’ use of the past seriously brings a fresh perspective to this much studied museum and illustrates how central ideas of haunting were to 20th and 21st century Americans’ perception of historical character and place. Shorter pieces in Southern Cultures, and in edited volumes, have looked at how Black and White Southerners have used ghost stories to establish and challenge historical memory of the antebellum and the Jim Crow South.
Her work has received positive reviews from readers, and audiences in and outside of academia. Dr. Pirok prides herself on being a historian of public history whose accessible prose and familiar topics make her work useful to a broad audience of academics, public history practitioners, members of the tourism industry, and history fans.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
History, PhD, University of South Florida
Award Date: May 1 2017
History, MA, University of South Florida
Award Date: May 1 2013
History , BA, Southern Illinois University
Award Date: May 1 2011
Disciplines
- United States History
- Public History
- American Popular Culture
- Museum Studies
Research Interests
- Historical Research
- U.S. History
- Public History
- Historical Memory
- Historical Sites
- Museums
- Southern History
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- 1 Similar Profiles
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects/Grants
- 1 Finished
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George Washington’s Birthplace National Monument Summer 2013 Archaeological Record Reassessment
Pirok, A. (CoPI), Levy, P. (CoPI) & Muraca, A. (CoPI)
05/1/13 → 12/30/14
Project: Research
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Oaks of Ill Repute: Dark Tourism, Dissonant Heritage, and Savannah’s Hanging Trees
Pirok, A., 2025, (Accepted/In press) Branching Out: The Public History of Trees. Levy, P. & Glaser, L. S. (eds.). University of Massachusetts Press, (Public History in Historical Perspective).Research output: Contribution to book or proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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"Despicable and Disgusting”: How Dark Tourism Undermined Public History at Colonial Williamsburg.
Pirok, A., 2024, (Accepted/In press) Dark Tourism Geographies: Critical Epistemologies on Death and Disaster . Sharma, A., Martini, A. & Timothy , D. J. (eds.). de GruyterResearch output: Contribution to book or proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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Specters of the Mythic South: How Plantation Fiction Fixed Ghost Stories to Black Americans
Pirok, A., Dec 2023, In: Southern Cultures. 29, 4, p. 16-31 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Green Conference Report
Pirok, A., Levy, P., Barske Crawford, C. & Ippen , W., 2022.Research output: Working paper
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The Spirit of Colonial Williamsburg: Ghosts and Interpreting the Recreated Past
Pirok, A., 2022, University of Massachusetts Press. ( Public History in Historical Perspective)Research output: Book, anthology, or report › Book › peer-review
Activities
- 3 Committee Member
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National Council on Public History Labor Task Force (External organization)
Pirok, A. (Co-Chair) & Mitchell, A. N. (Co-Chair)
2023Activity: Membership › Committee Member
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The National Council on Public History’s Environmental Sustainability Committee. (External organization)
Pirok, A. (Member)
2019 → 2023Activity: Membership › Committee Member
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National Council on Public History (External organization)
Pirok, A. (Member)
2015 → …Activity: Membership › Committee Member
Press/Media
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"Haunted Virginia" Virginia Living Magazine.
10/30/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Public Engagement
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"Why Savannah is the most haunted city in America" Eagle Eye View Podcast
10/26/22
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement
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“Kale on Books: A Different Kind of Ghost Story”
10/19/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Public Engagement