About the Professor

So, you want to know what makes me tick, huh? Or perhaps you are just curious about what strange twist of events created this creature that stands before you and pontificates about historical stuff. Well, here are the nuts and bolts.

Some basics:

I have not always been an "academic." Like many people, I entered my undergraduate career at the University of Central Florida not really knowing what I wanted to do. I switched majors a couple of times, and ended up in Communications. Not radio and TV, but the other stuff...non-verbal communication, small group dynamics, etc. I liked it so much that I went on and earned a Master's in the field. At that point, I decided that perhaps I did not like it as much as I had thought earlier... So, I went into the working world. I did some supervisory work in airline reservations for a little operation called Florida Express for a little over a year, then I started working in hotel management for Wyndham Hotels. My first hotel was the most glamorous- Wyndham Hotel Sea World. Quite an operation. I was a housekeeping manager, and it was there that I made my name, and gained the attention of others in the company. I received an offer to work in Chicago, (the suburbs, really), and spent about a year and a half in that environment, before being drawn to the warmer climate of Atlanta, still with Wyndham. In Atlanta, I finally decided that it was time for me to do something that I felt was more personally fulfilling. So I returned to school with the intention of teaching history at the college level. I applied and was accepted at Georgia State, and the rest, is as they say, history. So now I do what I love to do.

Here is the official low-down:

 Ph.D., History, Georgia State University

 M.A., Communications, University of Central Florida

 B.A., Communications, University of Central Florida

My academic interests are varied, but my primary interest is in the history of the Early American Republic, particularly regarding intellectual, social, and political history. Other interests include the history of American labor, the slave trade, European and Latin American history. Most of all, however, I am interested in learning, and continue to be fascinated by a variety of subjects.

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Professional Affiliations:

 Georgia Association of Historians

 Organization of American Historians

 Southern Historical Society

 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic

 Florida Conference of Historians

 Association of Georgia State University Historians

 Phi Alpha Theta

 

Look below for my c.v.:

Education

 

Georgia State University:

Ph.D., March 1996, History

Major field: Nineteenth century U.S. (Early National). Minor fields: U.S. Labor, U.S. South, Modern Europe, Latin America

Dissertation: "A Life Active and Vigilant: The Republicanism of Hezekiah Niles." [Advisor: Charles Steffen]

 

University of Central Florida:

M.A., December, 1983, Communications

            Major field: Behavioral Communications.

Thesis: "Effects of a Female Appointed Leader's Degree of Interaction and Orientation Behavior on a Task-Oriented Group's Decision Effectiveness, Member's Satisfaction and Time to Solution." [Advisor: Philip Taylor]

 

University of Central Florida:

B.A., March, 1980, Communications

 

 

Academic Experience

 

Floyd College

Associate Professor of History, 2001-Present.

Assistant Professor of History, 1997-2001.  Involved in inaugural year of the Information Technology Project, where all students are required to have and use laptops as part of their academic training.  Courses taught: Western Civilization to 1500, Western Civilization 1500 to the Present, World Civilizations to 1500, World Civilizations 1500 to Present, U.S. and Georgia History, U.S. History to 1865, and U.S. History since 1865.

 

Georgia State University

Part-time Instructor, 1994-1997. Courses taught: U.S. History 1492 to the Present, World Civilizations to 1500, World Civilizations since 1500.

 

DeKalb College

Part-time Instructor, 1993-1997. Courses taught: U.S. History 1877 to the Present, World Civilizations to 1300, World Civilizations 1300 to 1815, World Civilizations 1815 to the Present.

 

Southern Polytechnic State University.

Part-time Instructor, 1993-1997. Courses taught: U.S. History to 1877, U.S. History 1877 to the Present, World Civilizations since 1500.

 

Georgia State University

Graduate Teaching Assistant, 1990-1994. Responsible for teaching one survey course per quarter while completing graduate study. Courses taught: U.S. History 1492 to the Present, World Civilizations to 1500, World Civilizations 1500 to the Present.

 

 

Teaching and Research Fields

 

Teaching:

United States, Western and World Surveys, Early American Republic, United States South.

 

Research:

Early National United States - intellectual/social, political, borderlands.

 

 

Publications

 

Book Review. Isabelle Lehuu. Carnival on the Page: Popular Print Media in Antebellum America. Chapel Hill & London: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. In The Historian.

 

Book Review. William E. Huntzicker. The Popular Press1833-1865. Westport CN & London: Greenwood Press, 1999. In Civil War History

 

Book Review. Richard S. Dunn and Letitia Yeandle, eds. The Journal of John Winthrop, 1630-1649. Abridged Edition. Cambridge MA & London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996. In Teaching History 24:1(1999): 45-46.

 

Edited work, with William F. Mugleston and Ralph Peters. United States of Change, Revolutionary People During Revolutionary Times: Essays in American History. New York: Forbes, 1998.

 

"Hezekiah Niles and the Dilemma of Republicanism, 1811-1835." in William F. Mugleston, Robert Page, and Ralph Peters. United States of Change, Revolutionary People During Revolutionary Times: Essays in American History. New York: Forbes, 1998.

 

"A Case of Opportunity: Privateers, Slaves, Georgians, and the Tentativa." Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians  19(1998): 219-40.

 

 “Whose Slaves? The ‘African Business’ in Georgia, 1817-1821.” Selected Annual Proceedings of the Florida Conference of Historians, 5(1997): 60-68.

 

 

Presentations/Conference Activity

 

Session Chair and Comment, “19^th Century Georgia” Georgia Association of Historians Annual Meeting, Americus, Georgia, April 2002.

 

Panel presentation on University System of Georgia's ECore. WebCT 3^rd Annual Conference, Vancouver, June 2001.

 

"A Guarded Optimism: Historians and the Job Market" Georgia Association of Historians Annual Meeting, Albany, Georgia, April 2000.

 

"Cultural Caravans - Greece," Interviewee on thirty-minute television show about trip to Greece. Aired on Floyd College Television, October, 1999.

 

Session Chair, "GAH Teaching Committee Session: From Quarter to Semester: A Continuing Odyssey" Georgia Association of Historians Annual Meeting, Savannah, Georgia, April 1999.

 

"The Case of the Tentativa" Georgia Association of Historians Annual Meeting, Hiawasee, Georgia, April 1998.

 

"Whose Slaves? The 'African Business' in Georgia, 1817-1821." Florida Conference of  Historians Annual Meeting, Jacksonville, Florida, February 1997.

 

"Republicanism in the Nationalist Context: The Case of Hezekiah Niles." Society for Historians  of the Early American Republic Conference. Nashville, Tennessee, July 1996.

 

"Hezekiah Niles and the Dilemma of Republicanism, 1811-1835." Ohio Valley History Conference. Murray, Kentucky, October 1995.

 

Professional Activities

 

Chair, Institutional Effectiveness Committee, 2002 –

President, AAUP, Floyd College Chapter, 2002 -

Chair, Critical Thinking Assessment Team, 2001-2003

Northwest Georgia History and Culture Committee, Northwest Georgia Crescent Alliance,

2001-2002

Instructional Council, Floyd College, 2001-2003

Grievance Committee, Floyd College, 2001-2002

Vice President for Academic Affairs Search Committee, 2001.

eCore Instructor. University System of Georgia, Fall 2000, Fall 2001.

Responsible teaching and evaluation of the first history online course (History 2111) for eCore.

eCore History 2111 Summer Development Team, University System of Georgia, Summer 2000.

Responsible, with one other historian, for the finalization of the History 2111 eCore course and accompanying material.

eCore development team (History 2111), University System of Georgia, Spring 2000.

Chosen from among faculty applicants throughout the University System of Georgia to serve on a six-person committee to develop an online History course to be made available for students by summer 2000.  Larger project is to provide online core courses (and ultimately deliver degrees) over the internet.

English Faculty Search Committee, 2001.

Curriculum Committee, Floyd College, 1999-2001

Ad Hoc Committee on Advertising, Floyd College, 1999

FCCS/FCST Study Group, 1999

Student Affairs Committee, Floyd College, 1997-1999

President, Association of Georgia State University Historians, 1996.

Curriculum Committee, Department of History, Georgia State University, 1991.

Committee Member. Southern Labor Studies Conference, 1991.

Member. Roundtable on the Comparative History of Labor, Industry and Technology, 1990-1994.

Member, Organization of American Historicans.

Member, Southern Historical Association.

Member, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.

Member, Georgia Association of Historians.

Member, American Association of University Professors.

Secretary, Floyd College Chapter, 1999-2000

 

Professional Development

 

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Regional Meeting. Focus on 2004 Principles of Accreditation. February, 2003

 

Institutional Team Member.  University System of Georgia Teaching and Learning Conference, November, 1999.

 

Faculty Development Seminar. The Columbus State University Department of Political Science, The Nine University and College International Studies Consortium of Georgia, and Macon State College, "Towards A Better Understanding of Egypt and North Africa." October 1999

 

Faculty Development Workshop.  History Academic Committee and the Floyd College Continuing Education Department, "Georgia History Workshop for Non-Georgians." November, 1998.

 

Fellowships/Grants/Honors

 

Chancellor's Award, Summer International Faculty Development Seminar in Greece, August, 1998.

Dissertation Grant, Georgia State University Dissertation Grant Program, 1995

Graduate Research Assistant, Georgia State University, 1989-90

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Georgia State University, 1990-94

John A. Alexander Award [outstanding graduate student in the History Department, GSU], 1992

Special Courts Essay Contest Winner, National Archives, Southeast Region, 1990

Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society

Supervisor of the Year, Wyndham Hotel, Sea World, 1985

Supervisor of the Month, Wyndham Hotel, Sea World, September 1985

Graduate Research Assistant, University of Central Florida, 1982-83