Above the Oxbow: Stories Entangled with a Mountain

West Virginia University Press, 2026

Above the Oxbow is a journey through the tangle of rich narratives surrounding Mount Holyoke, a locally cherished mountain in Western Massachusetts. It explores how visitors have forged connections with the mountain through various activities over the past two centuries. In an accessible blend of storytelling and scholarly analysis, this ethnography of place examines the significance of the landscape, historic sites, and material culture, revealing how cultural perspectives, community activism, collective memory, and personal experiences shape our understanding of a place.

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Reviews

Raad brings new ideas to play in this inquiry, such as a different sense of place created by a mostly natural rather than constructed setting . . . a good addition to a bookshelf containing histories of places and their cultural significances and meanings.
— Dan Allosso, author of "Peppermint Kings: A Rural American History"

About the Author

I am a public historian, anthropologist, archaeologist, and curator with a focus on how people in the present make meaning from the material culture—art, artifacts, and historic sites—of the past.

Currently, I am an Assistant Professor of History and Museum Studies at the University of Georgia. Based in the Department of History, I am a core faculty member in the interdisciplinary Museum Studies Program. I direct the Museum Studies in Atlanta Domestic Field Study Program as well as the Museum Studies in Italy Study Abroad Program. I am also a Museum Fellow at the Georgia Museum of Natural History, a Faculty Affiliate at the Institute of Native American Studies, and a Teaching Academy Early Career Fellow.

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The book is available for $26.99 as a paperback, ePub, or PDF through West Virginia University Press.

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