Philyaw, L. Scott

(Leslie Scott Philyaw)

PERSONAL:

Education: Graduated from Western Carolina University, 1983; College of William and Mary, M.A.; University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, 225 McKee, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723. E-mail—philyaw@email.wcu.edu.

CAREER:

Academic and historian. Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC, associate professor of history, 1996—, Mountain Heritage Center, intern, then director. Worked at Yorktown Battlefield archaeological site and at Colonial Williamsburg, VA; also worked with the Southern Historical Collection; Summer Institute in the Decorative Arts at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Old Salem, Winston-Salem, NC, scholar-in-residence, 2003; The Orchard at Altapass, Altapass, NC, exhibit consultant. AWARDS, HONORS: Hunter Scholar Award, Western Carolina University, 2000-01; College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Award, Western Carolina University, 2002; Excellence in Interpretation Award for trail guides, National Park Service Cooperating Association, 2002, for "The Natural Diversity of Linville Falls"; Board of Governors Award, University of North Carolina System, 2006, for excellence in teaching; Paul A. Reid Service Award, Western Carolina University, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Virginia's Western Visions: Political and Cultural Expansion on an Early American Frontier, University of Tennessee Press (Knoxville, TN), 2004.

Coauthor of two pamphlets, including "The Natural Diversity of Linville Falls," for the Blue Ridge Parkway trails. Contributor to periodicals and journals, including Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.

SIDELIGHTS:

L. Scott Philyaw is an academic and historian. He conducted his undergraduate studies at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina, graduating in 1983. He went on to graduate studies at the College of William and Mary, ultimately graduating with a master of arts degree. He completed his formal education at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he earned a Ph.D.

As an undergraduate student at Western Carolina University, Philyaw interned at the university's Mountain Heritage Center. As a master's student, he worked at Colonial Williamsburg and at the Yorktown Battlefield archaeological site, which was the location of the last major battle fought during the American Revolutionary War. While pursuing his doctoral studies, Philyaw worked with the Southern Historical Collection. In 1996, he began working at his alma mater, Western Carolina University, eventually becoming an associate professor of history. He also returned to working at the Mountain Heritage Center, this time as its director. Philyaw additionally worked as a scholarin-residence at the Summer Institute in the Decorative Arts at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Old Salem in 2003, and as an exhibit consultant at North Carolina's The Orchard at Altapass.

As an academic, Philyaw has received a number of awards from Western Carolina University, including the Hunter Scholar Award for 2000 to 2001, the College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Award in 2002, the Paul A. Reid Service Award in 2006, and, from the University of North Carolina System, the Board of Governors Award in 2006. He also earned an Excellence in Interpretation Award for trail guides from the National Park Service Cooperating Association in 2002 for a pamphlet he wrote on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Philyaw published his first book, Virginia's Western Visions: Political and Cultural Expansion on an Early American Frontier in 2004. The account looks at the western section of Virginia from its colonial period through the Civil War. Philyaw focuses primarily on the views of the region's population on westward expansion, both from political and cultural perspectives.

Suzanne Cooper-Guasco, writing in the Journal of Southern History, mentioned that the book "is well written" and also found it "intriguing." However, Cooper-Guasco remarked that its scope is "restricted," as it only covers a small region. Cooper-Guasco summarized that "while this study could be used easily in a survey of the American backcountry or a history course on the trans-Appalachian West, professors should be advised to supplement this work with readings that challenge and complicate this particularly elite perspective of Virginia's western domain." Mark A. Eifler, reviewing the book in the Historian, remarked that the book is "elegant." Eifler concluded that "though the book is a rather short overview more than a detailed study, its instincts are sharp and its insights strong. The work should be of interest to anyone concerned with colonial or early national history, or with the effects of the frontier on American development."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, February 1, 2006, Albert H. Tillson, review of Virginia's Western Visions: Political and Cultural Expansion on an Early American Frontier, p. 165.

Historian, winter, 2006, Mark A. Eifler, review of Virginia's Western Visions, p. 842.

Journal of American History, June 1, 2006, Kevin R. Hardwick, review of Virginia's Western Visions, p. 198.

Journal of Southern History, February 1, 2006, Suzanne Cooper-Guasco, review of Virginia's Western Visions, p. 160.

Journal of the Early Republic, fall, 2005, Lynn A. Nelson, review of Virginia's Western Visions, p. 482.

Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, summer, 2006, Owen Stanwood, review of Virginia's Western Visions, p. 402.

ONLINE

Western Carolina University Web site,http://www.wcu.edu/ (April 21, 2008), author profile.