EDUCATION
Ph.D. in History, University of California at Berkeley, 2000.Dissertation, “Civil Rights and Self-Defense: The Fiction of Nonviolence, 1955-1968” (directed by Professors Leon Litwack, Waldo Martin, and Ronald Takaki).
M.A. in History, University of Georgia, 1995.Masters thesis, “Nonviolence in the Civil Rights Movement: Three Exceptions,” (directed by Professors William McFeely, Robert Pratt, and Numan Bartley).
B.A. in Political & Social Thought, Distinguished Majors Program, University of Virginia, 1993. Honors thesis, “The Southern Regional Council and the Lillian Smith Award,” (directed by Professors Edward Ayers and Paul Gaston).
AWARDS & HONORS
2006 Visiting Fellow, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University; 2006 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute Participant, “African American Civil Rights Struggles in the Twentieth Century,” Harvard University.
2006 FAU Researcher of the Year Award, Florida Atlantic University.
2004 FAU Researcher of the Year Award Nominee, Florida Atlantic University.
2003 FAU Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award Nominee, Florida Atlantic University.
2001 MAC Award Nominee, Exceptional Faculty, Florida Atlantic University.
1998 Presidents’ Memorial Prize, Honorable Mention, Louisiana History.
1996-1997 Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, Graduate Division, UC Berkeley.
1995 Hugh F. Rankin Award in Louisiana History, Louisiana Historical Association.
REFEREED WORKS
Books:
Pure Fire: Self-Defense as Activism in the Civil Rights Movement (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2005).
Burning Faith: Church Arson in the American South (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008).
Chapters in Books:
“The Deacons for Defense & Justice,” in Judson Jeffries, ed., Black Power in the Belly of the Beast (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006).
“‘We Walked Like Men’: The Deacons for Defense and Justice,” in The African American Experience in Louisiana, Part C: From Jim Crow to Civil Rights, Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Series, Vol. XI (Lafayette, Louisiana: Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1999).
“‘We Walked Like Men’: The Deacons for Defense and Justice,” in Louisiana Since the Longs: 1960 to Century’s End, Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Series, Vol. IX (Lafayette, Louisiana: Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1998).
Journal Articles:
“Soul City, North Carolina: Black Power, Utopia, and the African-American Dream,” Journal of African American History 89 n 1 (Winter 2004): 57-74. Double-blind, peer reviewed.
“The American Dream: Communalist Experiment or Materialist Ethos?,” The Mid-Atlantic Almanack, 12 (2003): 27-42. Peer-reviewed.
“‘We Walked Like Men’: The Deacons for Defense and Justice,” Louisiana History 38 (1997): 43-62. Double-blind, peer-reviewed.
Book Reviews:
Review of Civil Rights Crossroads: Nation, Community, and the Black Freedom Struggle (2003) by Steven Lawson in The Journal of African-American History 91 n 3 (Summer 2006): 358-360.
Review of The Informant: The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo (2005) by Gary May in The Journal of Southern History 93 n 1 (June 2006): 138.
Review of I Am A Man!: Race, Manhood, and the Civil Rights Movement (2004) by Steve Estes in The Alabama Review 58 n 4 (October 2005): 289-290.
Review of The Deacons for Defense and Justice: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement (2004) by Lance Hill in The Register of the Kentucky Historical Review 102 n 2 (Spring 2004): 272-273.
Review of The Role of Ideas in the Civil Rights South (2002) by Ted Ownby, ed., in The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 101 n 2 (Winter/Spring 2003): 206-208.
Review of Mississippi Liberal: A Biography of Frank E. Smith (2001) by Dennis J. Mitchell, in Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies 33 n 2 (August 2002): 168.
Reviews of Ethnic Peace in the American City: Building Community in Los Angeles and Beyond (1999) by Edward T. Chang and Jeannette Diaz-Veizades and American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto (2000) by Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, in Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy (ASAP), an electronic journal sponsored by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, October 2001.
Film Reviews:
Review of Deacons for Defense (2003), directed by Bill Duke, in The American Historical Review 108 n 5 (December 2003): 1574-1575.
Conference Participation:
Panel Chair, 2006 Annual Meeting, Southern Historical Association, Fairmont Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 17-20, 2006. By invitation.
Guest Lecturer, “The Battle for the South” Conference, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, November 11-12, 2006. By invitation.
Selected Conference Papers:
“Black Man, White House: The Many Racial Symbolisms of Barack Obama,” to be presented at the 94th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, October 1, 2009, Cincinnati, Ohio.
“Arson, Hate Crime, and Black Churches: A Critical Inquiry,” presented at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, October 2, 2008, Birmingham, Alabama.
“Disaster in America: From the Earthquake of ’06 to the Hurricane(s) of ’05,” presented at “Disaster in America: From San Francisco to New Orleans and Beyond,” Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Fundraiser, Florida Atlantic University, March 28, 2006, Jupiter, Florida.
“Civil Rights Historiography and the Question of Self-Defense,” presented at the 119th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, January 6-9, 2005, Seattle, Washington.
“‘Choke Words’: White Responses to Black Power,” presented at “The Black Power Movement in Historical Perspective: Dialogues on Race and American Society,” University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, November 13-14, 2003. By invitation.
“Soul City: African-American Utopia in the Twentieth Century,” presented at “Fédéralisme et federations dans les Amériques: utopias, pratiques, limites,” Centre de Recherches sur l’Histoire des Etats-Unis (CRHEU), Université de Paris, Paris, France, June 16-18, 2003.
“Self-Defense and the Death of the Black Panther Party,” presented at the Black Panther Party and the American Historical Perpective Conference, Wheelock College, Boston, Massachusetts, June 11-13, 2003.
"Self-Defense as Protest in the Struggle for Black Equality," presented at the Protest Issues and Actions Section of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 16-19, 2003.
“Soul City: Black Power, Utopia, & the African-American Dream,” presented at 2nd Annual Race and Place in the Americas Conference, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, March 7-8, 2003.
“Urban Violence, ‘Riotous Behavior,’ and Self-Defense: Watts Revisited,” presented at the 2002 Annual Meeting, Florida Conference of Historians, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, April 4-6, 2002.
“Civil Rights & Self-Defense: The Fiction of Nonviolence, 1955-1968,” presented at “Culturalisms in America,” 5th Annual Conference of Midwest Organization for the Recognition and Recording of Ethnic Heritage (MORARE), St. Louis, Missouri, March 22-24, 2002. By invitation.
“Frederick Douglass and the Idea of Self-Defense in African-American History,” presented at “Frederick Douglass and His Influence on the 20th Century and Beyond,” Frederick Douglass Institute, West Chester University, West Chester, Pennsylvania, October 4-5, 2001.
“A Good ‘Whipping’: Robert F. Williams and the Call to Arms,” presented at the Graduate Student Conference in Southern History, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi, March 21-23, 1997.
“‘We Walked Like Men’: The Deacons for Defense and Justice,” presented at “Telling About the South,” Conference on Cultural History and the South, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, April 7-8, 1995.
NON-REFEREED WORKS
“Sit Ins in Mississippi” in Charles Reagan Wilson, ed., Mississippi Encyclopedia (Oxford: University Press of Mississippi, 2009).
“National Rifle Association” and “The Right to Bear Arms” in Waldo E. Martin and Patricia Sullivan, eds., Civil Rights in the United States (New York: Macmillan Reference, 2000).
COMPETITIVE GRANTS
2004 Scholarly and Creative Activities Award, Research Enhancement Program, Florida Atlantic University.
2003 International Travel Grant, Florida Atlantic University.
2002 Archie K. Davis Fellowship, North Caroliniana Society, UNC at Chapel Hill.
2001 Research Initiation Award, Florida Atlantic University.
1999-2000 Mellon Dissertation-Year Fellowship, Mellon Foundation.
1998-1999 Byrne Fellowship, Department of History, UC Berkeley.
1997-1998 Byrne Fellowship, Department of History, UC Berkeley.
1997 Mellon Dissertation Prospectus Fellowship, Mellon Foundation.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, Florida Atlantic University: Associate Professor and Assistant Professor. Taught a variety of courses in history and American studies. Created American Studies and History concentrations for undergraduate honors students. Proposed and taught new courses in the FAU catalog. Served as Presiding Officer of Faculty Assembly. Chaired Mission Statement Committee and Writing Committee. Served on Academic Affairs, By-Laws, and Curriculum Committees, and various search committees. Served on P&T Committee and P&T Guidelines Revision Committee. Served on College Petitions Committee in Jupiter and University Petitions Committee in Boca Raton. Served as Faculty Advisor to Honors College Judicial Review Board; assisted students with implementing Honor Code. Served as Faculty Advisor to Black Student Union. Served as Faculty Advisor to Triple-H, a student volunteer organization. Advised undergraduate advisees; directed senior theses. 2000-present.
History Department, University of California at Berkeley: Graduate Student Instructor (GSI). Taught one senior seminar and two thesis-writing courses as primary instructor; directed senior theses. Taught four courses in American history and one in African history as a teaching assistant; led discussion groups, graded papers and exams. 1995-2000.
Institute of Reading Development, Berkeley, California: Instructor. Taught concentration, comprehension, recall, and speed reading skills to college students and adults, and reading enrichment to children. Led courses at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, California State University at Hayward, Bakersfield College, Piedmont Middle School, and Stockdale Elementary. 1996.
History Department, University of Georgia: Graduate Assistant. Taught two upper-level and three survey courses in American history as teaching assistant; led discussion groups, graded papers and exams. 1994-1995.
WORKSHOPS
MS Front Page I and MS Power Point I, Division of Distance Education & Instructional Technology, MacArthur Campus, Florida Atlantic University, March – April 2007.
Web CT Workshop, Division of Distance Education & Instructional Technology, MacArthur Campus, Florida Atlantic University, January 18-March 1, 2002.
Teacher Symposium Program, History Department, Florida Atlantic University, October 20-21, 2000.
“Writing Pedagogy in the History Classroom,” College Writing Program, University of California at Berkeley, April 21, 1998.
Approaches to Writing Instruction Workshop Series, College Writing Program, University of California at Berkeley, Fall 1997-Spring 1998.
International and Area Studies Dissertation Workshop, “Research and Social Action,” University of California at Berkeley. Westerbeke Ranch, Sonoma, California, September 13-15, 1996.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Southern Historical Association, Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Popular Culture Association, Phi Alpha Theta, Golden Key Honor Society.
