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PERSONAL DATA SHEET

FOR TENURE AND PROMOTION: 2003-2008

Name

Department

The Citadel

I. TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS

A. TEACHING PHILOSOPHY AND PREPARATION

The great ethnographer and folklorist Henry Glassie wrote that "history is not the

past, but a map of the past drawn from a particular point of view to be useful to the

modern traveler." As a history professor, my foremost goals are to teach students about

mapping the past, and to develop students’ abilities to reason, analyze, and write

independently as they navigate the past and the future for themselves. Each course that I

teach is like an intellectual journey for my students and myself as we explore history’s

varied landscape. I want students to look at themselves and their world differently

through their encounters with history, and to discover larger truths from human history

about the meaning of life. My classroom is ideally a place that maximizes the

possibilities for students' self-discoveries. I thrive on those moments when I effectively

facilitate students' learning and they come to realizations about the past on their own. It

is vitally important to create a learning climate where people feel comfortable to explore

their ideas without fear of scholarly retribution. I also do not privilege the most current

or popular historical theories and interpretations on students. Like a lawyer, I will often

present two or more different interpretations and encourage students to weigh the

historical evidence for themselves. Ultimately, students will leave my classes with

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personal and intellectual characteristics and skills that will serve them well in whatever

career path they choose. And by virtue of the fact that I often teach about the American

Revolution and the Constitution, I hope that my students will be what the Founders

intended the Republic’s citizenry to be: an educated one.

1. PREPARATION: COURSES TAUGHT (Folder 1, Tabs 4-13)

In the past six years, I have developed and taught 22 different undergraduate and

graduate courses at The Citadel: four courses for the core curriculum, seven 300-400

level undergraduate courses, and eleven graduate courses (to include four different

Independent Study courses with graduate students that involved weekly meetings and

assigned readings). I have developed five completely new courses for history majors,

including HIST 315 (American Indian History), HIST 301 (a summer travel course on the

American Revolution), HIST 320 ST (The French and Indian War, 1754-1763), HIST

371 (Leadership Studies: America’s Founding Generation), and HIST 492 ST: (American

Religious History). Please refer to my syllabi in the teaching materials folder for any of

the courses mentioned above.

I framed each of these classes as an argument: I have one central question or set

of problems that the class is designed to answer. For example, students in the American

Revolution course are challenged to think about how radical the American Revolution

was. What did it change, and what did it leave unchanged? I emphasize development of

students’ intellectual independence through critical thinking, reading skills, public

speaking, research skills, and polished writing. I prepare syllabi that are the blueprints

for the courses, and I use them to give the students a vision of where they are going. The

syllabi contain an intricately detailed schedule of weekly and daily themes/topics for

lectures and class discussion, a section on resources for writing, information on

assignments, grades, and course policies, and a general description of course content and

goals.

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a. CORE CURRICULUM COURSES (Folder 1, Tab 4 ) HIST 105: World History to 1500 HIST 106: World History from 1500 HIST 201: U.S. History to 1865 HIST 202: U.S. History from 1865 b. UPPER-LEVEL COURSES FOR HISTORY MAJOR (Folder 1, Tabs 5-10) HIST 300: Colonial North America, 1492-1765 HIST 301: The American Revolution, 1754-1815 HIST 301 (SUMMER): The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies HIST 315: American Indian History: From Precontact to the Present HIST 320ST: The French and Indian War, 1754-1763 HIST 371: America’s Founding Generations: From Washington to Lincoln (Leadership Studies Minor) HIST 492: American Religious History, 1492-present c. GRADUATE COURSES (Folder 1, Tabs 11-13 ) HIST 501: Colonial America and the American Revolution to 1789 HIST 590 ST: Religion in America HIST 590 ST: American Indian History: Precontact to the Present HIST 590 ST: New Perspectives on American History HIST 710: Research Seminar on Early American History (Spring 2009) HIST 710: Research Seminar on Early American Religion and Society HIST 770: Independent Study in History (Taught approximately four different courses)

2. CORE CURRICULUM COURSES (Folder 1, Tab 4)

HIST 201 and 202 (U.S. History I and II):

I view these classes as ideal recruiting grounds for the history major and find them

among the most enjoyable to teach. Many of the students are taking these surveys as

requirements; I see my role as challenging their expectations of such required courses and

their inherited views of American history. My lectures tend to focus students’ gaze

toward subjects that typically are not explored in great depth in textbooks: the visual

symbols and representations of liberty that American revolutionaries created; the

development of Revolutionary ideology; the influence of Indian nations upon early

America; women workers at the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts; and the uniforms,

equipment, and culture of Civil War soldiers. For HIST 202, I explore topics such as the

1877 Railroad Strike and the Homestead Strike of 1892; Plains Indians’ views of the

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U.S.; the Air War over Germany and the Pacific War in World War II, and the collapse of

the American steel industry and deindustrialization in the 1980s. In terms of reading, I

expect a great degree of content knowledge from the textbook; I also complemented the

material we cover in class with supplementary readings such as David Hackett Fischer’s

Washington’s Crossing (the Pulitzer-prize-winning narrative of the American Revolution

in 1776), Douglas Egerton’s He Shall Go Out Free (on the Denmark Vesey conspiracy in

Charleston), and Colin Calloway’s Our Hearts Fell to the Ground: Plains Indian Views of

How the West Was Lost. I also assign lengthy primary source accounts for discussion in

class and for lengthy paper assignments. Examples of primary source texts that I use are

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, Guy Iverson, ed., Far, Far from Home: The Wartime

Letters of Dick and Tally Simpson, 3rd South Carolina Volunteers, E.B. Sledge, With the

Old Breed: From Peleliu to Okinawa, and James Washington, ed., The Speeches and

Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr..

HIST 105 and 106 (World Civilizations I and II): (Folder 1, Tab 4)

In wide-ranging courses like World Civilizations, students need a common focal point

or central question that the course is trying to answer. For the first half, I use Jared

Diamond’s pulitzer-prize winning book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human

Societies, to provide the “glue” for the course. Diamond’s book explains the differences

between human societies and cultures and demonstrates why western Europeans

eventually dominated or influenced much of the world’s continents, peoples, and

resources. In HIST 106, I used David Landes’ book The Wealth and Poverty of Nations,

which explains how the inequalities of wealth and power in the modern world developed

from 1400 to the present. My lectures and class discussions illuminated many of the

different civilizations, cultures, and religions from antiquity to the present. Our frequent

discussions of Diamond and Landes over the course of the semester allowed us to test his

arguments and assumptions in light of other evidence. Kevin Reilly’s course reader,

Worlds of History offered conclusions that differed from Diamond and Landes and

invited students to form their own ideas as they interpreted primary documents. My

teaching of world history is strongly thematic and less focused on chronology or

coverage. For example, I assigned a book on world religions in HIST 105, and Victor

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Hanson’s book, Carnage and Culture, in HIST 106 to illustrate the relationships between

culture and warfare in the ancient and medieval worlds.

3. UPPER-LEVEL COURSES FOR HISTORY MAJOR

HIST 300 (Colonial North America, 1492-1765): (Folder 1, Tab 5)

This course surveys the major political, social, cultural, military, and economic

developments in the creation of colonial North America from the late 1400s to the 1760s.

I especially emphasize cultural interactions among Indian, Spanish, French, Dutch,

English, and African inhabitants of North America. Geographically, the course ranges

from New France to Spanish Florida and New Mexico, to the Dutch New Netherlands to

Iroquoia and Cherokee villages. Other themes that I develop include imperial warfare in

a colonial context, labor and slavery, religious belief and practice, and the cultural

landscape. Readings such as James Axtell’s The Indians’ New South, Timothy

Shannon’s Indians and Colonists at the Crossroads of Empire, and Mark Smith’s Stono:

Documenting and Interpreting a Southern Slave Revolt enabled students to approach

colonial history from different perspectives and to see models of how to practice history.

Preparations for this course included travel to historic sites in the eastern U.S., reading

new works on colonial history, and developing new assignments that would take

advantage of local resources (see section on assignments below).

HIST 301 (The American Revolution, 1760-1815): (Folder 1, Tab 6)

This has arguably been the most successful course that I have taught. Beginning

with the French and Indian War and ending with the War of 1812, this course addresses

the major currents of Revolutionary historiography. Students have an opportunity to

examine fresh perspectives on the nature of republican political thought, the origins of the

resistance movement to Britain, the military history of the Revolutionary War, naval

history and privateering, loyalists and Indians, and the political efforts to create a stable

republic (from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution, and to the first

presidential administrations of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson). Readings include

David Hackett Fischer’s Paul Revere’s Ride, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, John

Dickinson’s Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania and a primary source collection by

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Cynthia Kierner, Revolutionary America: Sources and Interpretations. Students in this

course have also had opportunity to visit many revolutionary era sites in downtown

Charleston, Fort Moultrie, and Drayton Hall plantation.

HIST 301: The American Revolution and the Southern Colonies (SUMMER II 2008)

(Folder 1, Tab 6)

This course was designed to provide cadets with an unprecedented opportunity to

experience and explore historical sites in Charleston, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

This unique course brought cadets to the places where history unfolded, and I was able to

foster contacts between the Citadel, public history sites, and community members.

Students had the opportunity to hear from National Park Service historians, museum

specialists, and another Revolutionary War specialist from Kennesaw State University in

Georgia. Officer candidates were also a prominent constituency in the class, and they

had opportunity to study military campaigns, battlefield tactics, and leadership during the

Revolutionary War. The course covered the main themes of the American Revolution

and explored some of Charleston’s own Revolutionary-era history sites. In sum, students

visited numerous sites, including Revolutionary-era buildings in downtown Charleston,

Charles Towne Landing State Park, Drayton Hall Plantation, Fort Moultrie, Breach Inlet,

Colonial Dorchester State Historical Park, Charles Pinckney National Historic Site,

Kings’ Mountain National Military Park, and Cowpens National Battlefield.

HIST 315: American Indian History: Precontact to Present (Folder 1, Tab 7)

This course, added to the official catalog in 2006, reflects the depth and breadth of the

History Department’s course offerings. Students were very intrigued by the topic of

Indian history, and enrollment for the first offering was I believe 26 people. This course

is a broad survey of American Indians' histories, societies, and cultures from ancient

America to 21st-century America. It highlights native peoples' perspectives and

demonstrates their central roles in shaping American history. Students who take this

course gain a radically different perspective on American history and society. The course

ultimately imparts and appreciation for American Indians' dynamic, an understanding of

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Indian peoples as human rather than cardboard stereotypes, and it gives students a sense

of a different historical methodology that blends history, anthropology, and archaeology.

This course heavily emphasized primary sources from a common textbook reader, First

Peoples, as well as an 18th-century narrative about the Cherokees, 19th-century accounts

of the Indian Removals, and the Plains Indian Wars in the late 19th century.

HIST 320 ST: The French and Indian War, 1754-1763 (Folder 1, Tab 8)

This class has been one of my most successful overall. Scholarship on the French and

Indian War (which I taught as the Seven Years’ War with a strong global context)

constitutes one of the richest fields in early American history. I developed this course for

that very reason, and because of my own research interests focus on the French and

Indian War. Students who took this course understand why the French and Indian War

was one of the most significant conflicts in American history. They also learned about

the broader story beyond America: The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) was a truly global

conflict that stretched from America to the Caribbean, Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa,

India, and the Philippines. Readings included Francis Parkman’s classic narrative,

Montcalm and Wolfe: The French and Indian War , Timothy Shannon’s analysis of

Indians and Colonists at the Crossroads of Empire: The Albany Congress of 1754, Paul

Kopperman’s classic source analysis of Braddock at the Monongahela, and a work on

guerilla or irregular warfare, White Devil: The Story of Robert Rogers’ Rangers by

Stephen Brumwell. In sum, students learned about the crucial intersections of Indians,

colonists, and global empires in the eighteenth century.

HIST 371 (Leadership Studies: America’s Founding Generation): (Folder 1, Tab 9)

Pursuant to the department’s support for the Leadership Studies minor, I

developed a new course exploring leadership issues in the American Revolution, the

Early Republic, and the Civil War. The class challenges students to expand their

conceptions of the nature of leadership in a republic and alerts them to the significant

ways that culture influences leadership formation. Texts that I have used include David

Hackett Fischer’s Washington’s Crossing, Robert Remini’s classic biography, Andrew

Jackson, and Joseph Ellis’ Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. Students

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researched and wrote a paper on a leadership topic of their choosing as the main project

for the course and presented it orally to the rest of the class.

HIST 492 ST (American Religious History): (Folder 1, Tab 10 )

I developed a new course in the fall 2004 semester that explored how religion has

profoundly shaped American history from the colonial period to the present. The course

showed the diversity of religious experience in America, including American Indian,

Puritan, Quaker, Shaker, African-American, Baptist, Mormon, Catholic, Jewish,

Pentecostal, and Muslim traditions. It combined my research interests and expertise in

early American history, architectural history, and religious history, and it connected the

cadets directly to the Charleston community. Charleston, the “Holy City,” was

irresistible as a laboratory for the class: one of the main assignments for the class was to

visit three religious services among Charleston’s many historic churches and synagogues

(see my folder of supporting materials for a copy of the assignment). Students invariably

loved this assignment and were pleasantly surprised at how much of learning experience

it was to experience America’s religious pluralism first-hand. I was also able to invite a

number of local clergy to speak to the cadets (see section on guest speakers below). This

course fills a huge gap in humanities offerings at the Citadel, where there is no religion or

philosophy department. As the evaluations attest, this course was highly successful, and I

would like to teach it again in the future.

4. GRADUATE COURSES

HIST 700: Master’s Thesis Work With Graduate Students (Director) Jesse Siess, “Declarations of Marital Independence: Runaway Wives in Colonial and Revolutionary South Carolina, 1732-1779” (2008). (Director) Charles Glenn Bell, “Sedition Shops and King’s Men: Examining the Role of the Clergy of South Carolina During the American Revolution” (2007).

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(Reader) Timothy D. Fritz, “More than a Footnote: Native American and African American Relations on the Southern Colonial Frontier, 1513-1763” (2008). (Reader) Jason Farr, “An Errand Into the Backcountry: The Denominational Diplomacy of William Tennent and Oliver Hart's Mission to the South Carolina Backcountry, 1775” (2007). (Reader) Lance P. Bodrero, “‘A mighty project’: Waterfront Evangelism in Charleston, 1820-1860” (2006). (Reader) James R. Silvers, “‘These stones cry out’: Gravestones and Death in Charleston, South Carolina, 1700-1830” (2005). (Reader) Holly A. Presnell, “‘It is Better to Die Like Warriors’: The History and Impact of the Chickamauga Cherokees” (2005).

HIST 502 (Colonial America and the American Revolution to 1789): (Folder 1, Tab 12)

This is a graduate survey of early American history from colonial beginnings

through the American Revolution. Using Alan Taylor’s text American Colonies as a

guide, students particularly explored in my class themes of cultural interaction, imperial

warfare, and studies of comparative colonization. While the course was often lecture-

oriented, the students frequently engaged in class discussions over the common readings

(in addition to American Colonies, I used Peter Wood’s classic work on colonial South

Carolina, Black Majority, Gordon Wood’s The Radicalism of the American Revolution,

and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s new interpretation of American cultural history, Age of

Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth. Students prepared

a 100-150 word summary of each reading and wrote an intensive research paper of 20-25

pages. Two master’s thesis topics came out of this class, including Jesse Siess’s work on

runaway wives in early South Carolina, and James Silver’s work on Charleston

gravestone art.

HIST 590 ST: (Religion and Society in Early America): (Folder 1, Tab 12 )

This graduate course focused on the interrelationships between religion, politics,

and society in colonial and revolutionary America. Some of the course themes that I

developed include: religious and ethnic diversity in early America, relationships between

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church and state, intellectual history and theology, race relations and religion, and

religion as a lived experience. Students particularly enjoyed reading primary sources

such as Michael McGiffert’s God’s Plot: Puritan Spirituality in Thomas Shepherd’s

Cambridge, and Richard Bushman’s collection, The Great Awakening: Documents on the

Revival of Religion, 1740-1745. Examples of other readings are Mechal Sobel, Trabelin’

On: The Slave Journey to an Afro-Baptist Faith, and Nathan Hatch’s classic work, The

Democratization of American Christianity. Through this course, students were exposed

to the material culture of religion through visits to local historic sites such as the Circular

Church Burying Ground, St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, and the First Baptist Church of

Charleston. Students led discussion in pairs, wrote reviews of each work and lengthy

essays on primary sources, and developed historiographical essays at the end of the

course.

HIST 590 ST: American Indian History: Precontact to Present (Graduate Seminar):

This course was offered to Berkeley County teachers in the spring of 2008 as part of the

Citadel’s “Teaching American History Grant” partnership with Berkeley County School

District. Students were very intrigued by the topic of Indian history, and enrollment for

the first offering was very strong. This course was organized as a seminar to discuss

American Indians' histories, societies, and cultures from ancient America to 21st-century

America. With a particularly strong emphasis on primary sources, the class highlighted

native peoples' perspectives and demonstrated their central roles in shaping American

history. Students who took this course left with a radically different understanding of

American history. The course ultimately imparted respect and appreciation for American

Indians as dynamic peoples, rather than cardboard stereotypes, and it gave students a

sense of the different historical methodologies of history, anthropology,

dendochronology, oral history, and archaeology.

HIST 590 ST: New Perspectives in American History to 1865 (Folder 1, Tab 12 )

This course presented new perspectives on old themes and topics in American history to

Berkeley County teachers. With an equal emphasis on historiography and content,

students had the opportunity to explore American history in a more in-depth way through

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readings, class discussions, and occasional visits to historical sites. The course also

presented many different disciplinary lenses such as ethnohistory, archaeology, and

cultural history.

HIST 710: Society and Religion in American History (Folder 1, Tab 12)

I taught this research seminar on society and religion in the spring 2006 semester,

as a follow-up to a readings course I taught in the fall of 2005. This course explored how

religion has profoundly shaped American history from the colonial period to the present.

The course showed the diversity of religious experience in America, including American

Indian, Puritan, Quaker, Shaker, African-American, Baptist, Mormon, Catholic, Jewish,

Pentecostal, and muslim traditions. It was multidisciplinary, with an emphasis on social

history, material culture, music history, architectural history, and religious history. One

of the students developed his master’s thesis from a seminar paper he wrote for this

course, entitled “An Errand Into the Backcountry: The Denominational Diplomacy of

William Tennent and Oliver Hart's Mission to the South Carolina Backcountry, 1775”

(2007).

HIST 770: Independent Study (Folder 1, Tab 11)

I have directed four completely different Independent Study courses for graduate

students that required weekly discussions: religion and society in early America (fall

2004), women’s history in early America (spring 2005), American Indian history (spring

2008), and colonial and revolutionary America (spring 2008). I also included a directed

readings that I organized for a cadet in the fall of 2008, focusing on modern U.S. history

and how to teach it.

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B. PRESENTATION AND TEACHING METHODS

One of my foremost goals as an instructor is to engage as many different learning

styles as possible. I blend lectures, discussions, writing, use of audio-visuals (slide

presentations, music, clips from videos or films), and presentations based on artifacts,

architecture, or other material culture of the period we are studying.

1. TEACHING WITH HISTORIC PLACES (See PHOTOS in Folder 1, Tab 13)

In my experience, teaching through historic sites is the most powerful way to

engage students’ minds—far more powerful than anything we can do in the classroom.

As much as possible, I schedule classes “in the field” to take advantage of Charleston’s

rich historical resources in colonial and revolutionary American history. In HIST 301,

my students have had an opportunity to visit some of the greatest and most significant

historical sites relating to the American Revolution in the Southern Colonies: Charles

Towne Landing State Park, Drayton Hall Plantation (one of the best preserved examples

of domestic Georgian architecture anywhere in the United States), Fort Moultrie, Breach

Inlet, Colonial Dorchester State Historical Park, Charles Pinckney National Historic Site,

Kings’ Mountain National Military Park, and Cowpens National Battlefield. The HIST

301 students in 2005 also visited a special exhibit, “Redcoats, Hessians, and Loyalists,”

at the Charleston Museum and heard the assistant director, Carl Borick, discuss the

exhibit’s design.

In HIST 300 this fall, students will visit the Circular Congregational Church

Burying Ground, and many other colonial sites in downtown Charleston, including the

Customs/Old Exchange, St. Michael’s Episcopal, First Baptist Church, and the

Charleston County Court House.

Students in HIST 106 in the spring of 2005 visited the U.S.S. Yorktown to discuss

American power in the 20th century and the U.S. war against Japan in World War II.

Students in HIST 492 and HIST 590 visited the Circular Congregational Church

Burying Ground in downtown Charleston; I developed an assignment where students

used the gravestones and funerary art of the 18th-century as primary sources on colonial

attitudes about religion, life, death, and the afterlife. In addition, we visited St. Michael’s

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Episcopal Church and the First Baptist Church—both architectural masterpieces and the

scenes of important developments in South Carolina’s religious history (e.g., Richard

Furman, the pastor of First Baptist Church, was instrumental in securing religious liberty

and the disestablishment of church and state in revolutionary South Carolina).

2. MULTIMEDIA: TEACHING WITH THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

(Folder 1, Tabs 14-15, for example of Colonial New Mexico lecture and the Seven

Years’ War lecture)

One of the most important methodological techniques that I impart to students is

the necessity to study history on site, and to explore the historical landscape as it exists

today. My teaching relies heavily on the use of slides, maps, art, and music or spoken

word recordings. I use slides for almost every class that I teach, whether it be World

Civilizations or the American religious history course. Whenever I visit an historic site, I

always take slide photos or purchase slides to use in class; for example, in 2008, I

traveled to New Mexico and Arizona to study the Anasazi civilization that flourished

from 850-1350 A.D. and the history of Spanish exploration and colonization in the

southwest from the 1500s to the 1700s (please see the PowerPoint presentation in Folder

1, Tab 14). During my research trip to New York in the summer of 2004, I was able to

visit Oneida and Shaker communities on the weekends and incorporate my travels into

my lectures on radical religious communities and experiments in 19th-century America.

Teaching colonial and revolutionary America is truly like teaching a mosaic.

Presenting slides that I’ve taken from Quebec to Florida to New Mexico enables students

to understand the different climates, architectural styles, landscapes, peoples, and cultures

that composed colonial America and the early U.S. As I have visited and studied most

of the battlefields of the French and Indian War, I have assembled a large stock of photos

to choose from. Such illustrations can strongly capture students’ imaginations. I also

encourage students to ask questions about the illustrations and to decipher their

meanings. Showing slides also enables me to tie my own fieldwork as an historian

directly into the lecture.

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3. TEACHING WITH MUSIC (See Folder 1, Tab 19 for example)

Music is one of humanity’s most fundamental expressions, and I frequently use it

to illustrate the sounds, styles, and emotions of the past. Contrasting a classical Mozart

symphony and the unrestrained power of a Beethoven symphony is a sure way to

communicate the era of the French Revolution to students. Music powerfully

demonstrates history’s impact on culture. The following are examples of how I use

music in classes:

• Bruce Springsteen’s ballad, “Youngstown,” illustrates the decline of the

steel industry and the dislocations it caused in an Ohio community.

• Libertarian songs and broadsides of the American Revolution explain how

ordinary people were politicized in the 1760s and 1770s.

• The famous American hymn, “Chester,” shows the influence of

Christianity on the American Revolution.

• Handel’s “Music for the Royal Fireworks” was composed to celebrate the

Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748; it captures a specific moment in 18th-

century Britain and illustrates the significance of imperial warfare.

• Music is indispensable to the study of religious history, as it demonstrates

how people live religion: hymns, spirituals, gospel songs, and recording of

sermons illustrate different theological and denominational styles.

4. GUEST SPEAKERS (Folder 3, Tab 14)

When possible, I like to invite guest speakers to class or arrange for students to

hear other speakers during field trips to historical sites or museums. Guests bring not

only a fresh perspective to the material, but often illustrate career paths to students. I

want students to see that history is relevant outside the classroom. Students have always

enjoyed these visits and they enhance the understanding of history. For example, Mr.

Carl Borick, an author and assistant director of the Charleston Museum, gave a personal

tour to students in HIST 301. The behind-the-scenes tour focused on the Museum’s 2004

exhibit “Redcoats, Hessians, and Loyalists.” Listed below are the guest speakers that I

have invited in the past few years:

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Professor James Piecuch, Kennesaw State University (Loyalists in the American Revolution) Professor Patrick Speelman, The Citadel (Frederick the Great’s significance in the Seven Years’ War) Lt. David Gobel, Reenactor (life in the 18th-Century British Army) Professor David Hackett Fischer, Brandeis University (his books, Paul Revere’s Ride, and Washington’s Crossing) Professor Bernie Powers, College of Charleston (African Methodist Episcopal Church) Mr. Carl Borick, Assistant Director of the Charleston Museum (Museum tour, and guest lecturer on the Siege of Charles Town in 1780) Mr. Rick Hatcher, Historian, National Park Service, Tour of Fort Moultrie National Monument Mr. John Roberston, Historian, National Park Service, Tour of Cowpens National Battlefield The Right Rev. Fitzhugh Allison, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Charleston (Episcopal church history in S.C.) Rev. Marshall Blalock, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, Charleston (Baptist history in S.C.) Rev. Conrad Brown, Senior Pastor of East Cooper Baptist Church (Jonathan Edwards) Chaplain David Golden, U.S. Army, Retired, Chaplain to the Corps of Cadets (religious liberty in the armed forces)

5. EXAMS (Folder 1, Tab 16)

Students often find my exams challenging, as I expect them to have an expert

grasp of the facts—the nuts and bolts--of history. My exams in core and upper-level

courses are similar in structure: I usually have a short-answer or identification section in

which the students identify a historical term and its significance. Multiple choice

questions are sometimes used to test content knowledge. The second, and weightier,

section of the exam is an essay or two on the larger historical themes of the class.

Through the essays, I teach students how to think about synthesis and analysis in the

essay section of the exams. For example, a question on Colonial American history might

ask students to compare and contrast the structure of colonial societies in Spanish Florida

and Spanish New Mexico. I usually provide a study guide to students so that they can

prepare from a range of possible essay questions. This technique, I have found,

effectively encourages students to make connections between the class lectures,

discussions, and readings. The exam, then, is intended to be a focused exercise on the

information of history and the interpretation of history.

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6. QUIZZES (Folder 1, Tab 17)

In selecting course readings, I try to select carrots that are appealing to students:

well-written histories that challenge us to think differently about an exciting topic in the

past. But sticks are occasionally necessary to ensure attention to the readings. I have

found quizzes to be very useful in testing students’ reading comprehension and

encouraging them to keep up with the assigned readings. Such quizzes are short and

broad, asking questions about the major themes and arguments of a particular text. I

especially like to use reading quizzes before a discussion to get the students’ thoughts

focused, and to encourage participation (every has written something, and therefore has

something to say!). In core courses, quizzes focus more on the actual content in the

textbook. Because geographical knowledge is crucial to the study of history, I often use

map quizzes to facilitate students’ awareness of places.

7. WRITING AND RESEARCH ASSIGNMENTS (Folder 1, Tab 18)

I am passionate about teaching excellence in writing to the students. For cadets,

writing skills are essential to their success in their careers; and for graduate students,

writing skills are sine qua non. The process of research is equally vital in the process of

writing. I encourage students to dig deep into primary sources or archival materials, to

make themselves the masters of the information. A confident tone in writing often comes

out of that mastery of sources. I also move students beyond the traditional 8-10 page

research paper used in most classes. I like to develop assignments that challenge students

to be creative historians: to use their imaginations, to tell persuasive stories about the

past, to write for different audiences than simply an academic one. For example, Daniel

Library’s collections include microfilm copies of most of the newspapers published in

South Carolina in the colonial and revolutionary periods. The final research paper for my

Colonial North America course was based on student research in the South Carolina

Gazette. Students were required to examine 8-10 issues and write a paper describing “a

moment in time” in colonial South Carolina. I asked to be richly descriptive in the paper,

to evoke the sounds, sights, and smells of 18th-century Charleston. This assignment

succeeded in tapping the students’ intrinsic interest in South Carolina and their creative

energies. One of my best students published an essay originally written for my colonial

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America course in the Gold Star Review in 2004. Another assignment that succeeded

beyond my expectations was the “Charleston Religious History Project” that students in

my HIST 492 course did. Their task was to visit three different religious services and to

research the history of the local churches or synagogues that they visited. In their

investigation of religious sites in the present, they were able to gain a stronger and more

visceral relationship to the past.

8. DISCUSSIONS (Folder 1, Tab 17)

I consistently try to make my class more discussion-oriented. Class discussions

are often more effective than lectures as the primary conduit of information. I also try to

ask questions of students during lectures, to create a dialogue and to encourage their

questions. Because a discussion’s success is dependant upon students doing the work, it

reinforces that students are responsible for their education. While some students consider

class discussions unorthodox for history lecture classes, I believe that students learn more

(and stay awake longer!) by doing rather than listening. It is challenging to draw all of

the students into a discussion, but I have good success in getting a critical mass of the

students engaged in the discussion. I occasionally use informal writing (minute papers)

at the beginning of a discussion to introduce some of the problems and to get the students

focused. Group work has also been successful in bringing out students who are more

reserved or quiet. For example, in HIST 320, one of the most successful discussions I’ve

ever had centered on our reading of a famous book about the epic 1755 battle of the

Monongahela, in which British forces were nearly annihilated by a combined French and

Indian army. Nearly every student participated in the discussion, there was real debate

among the students over the causes of this British defeat in 1755.

9. DRAMA IN HISTORY (See Folder 2, Tab 19 for examples)

A colleague at the College of William and Mary, who happens to be a great actor, uses

drama to teach his students, often acting out historical roles and events. With absolutely

no acting talent, but believing in the inherent drama of history, I occasionally recreate

historical events with the help of students. They have definitely enjoyed preparing

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characters, participating, and having a visceral sense of important historical moments.

Some examples of role-playing exercises I have created for students:

♦ Revolutionary debate in the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1775 and Patrick Henry’s

“Give me liberty or give me death” speech.

♦ George Washington’s role in ending the Newburgh Conspiracy in 1783

♦ Debate over the Indian Removal Act (see my handout) based on a primary source

collection on the Cherokee Removal.

♦ Scenes from Andrew Jackson’s life and presidency.

♦ Indian and European diplomacy at the Treaty of Lancaster, 1744

10. HANDOUTS ON WRITING (Folder 1, Tab 20)

When I worked as writing instructor at the College of William and Mary, I

composed a number of handouts on effective writing and documenting sources that I

continue to use today. Please see my folder of supporting materials for the kinds of

handouts I typically distribute to students on writing. I find that handouts such as

“Reading and Writing about Primary Sources,” or “Basics of Documentation” are helpful

to students in negotiating questions about writing, research, and arguments.

11. HANDOUTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS FOR LECTURES (Folder 1, Tab 21)

Whenever possible, I like to put the actual sources of history into the students’

hands, to encourage them to participate in class and to analyze the source material for

themselves. I have included examples of lecture handouts, including a set of 19th-century

anti-Catholic newspaper engravings, and illustrations on the meaning of witchcraft in

17th-century Puritan New England.

C. STUDENT CONTACT OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

1. Required Visits to My Office

I began the semesters by asking students to come by my office for a brief 10-15

minute visit. I make it clear to my students that my office hours are their time, and that if

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my office hours are not convenient for them, I am always willing to schedule an

appointment. At the beginning of the semester, students fill out note cards with personal

information on the first day of class so that I can get to know them and discover small

ways that I can connect the material to a specific person’s interests. These one-on-one

meetings help me to get to know the students and to create rapport. In some cases, these

meetings have alerted me to learning disabilities or family problems among the students

that impact their ability to learn. I have also begun holding office hours in the library

when students are developing research papers in my upper-level courses. This enables

me to demonstrate library skills and to get them excited about the process of research.

2. Office Hours in the Library

I have continued my technique of having office hours in Daniel Library in either

the afternoon or early evening to have consultations with students as they begin

researching their term papers. I’ve had many students come in to talk about their

research projects as a result, and we can focus on research methods together, and look at

sources together. This technique not only encourages students to come to the library, but

gets them excited about finding new information. My strategy is to give them a vision

for the project and get them over the initial “hump” of finding sources.

3. Writing Consultations

I enjoy working closely with students on their writing. When I was a graduate

student at the College of William and Mary, I worked at the History Department’s

Writing Resources Center. My appointments with history students to address their

writing issues and problems powerfully shaped my thinking about the need for contact

with students outside of the class. I constantly encourage (and sometimes require)

students to see me regarding their writing assignments; I encourage students to bring

drafts of their papers for me to review. For research paper assignments, students are

required to meet with me to discuss potential topics and research methods.

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4. Film Showings and Field Trips

I also show movies outside of class a few times during the semester. I use films to

connect with and illuminate what we’ve been studying in class and to create even more

interest and emotional investment in the subject. Most students are able and willing to

come to these out-of-class film showings (examples of films include Black Robe, 1776,

Mary Silliman’s War, The Last Emperor, and We Were Soldiers, and The Apostle). As I

mentioned above, I teach through historic places in the Charleston area, and I interact

with students outside of class as a faculty advisor to the History Club. Through my

presentations at conferences and writing of papers and book reviews, I try to be an

example of a professional historian to the students.

5. Dinners for upper-level students

Living on campus has been a blessing, and my wife and I regularly invite students

from my upper-level courses over to our home for dinner each semester. This activity not

only saves them from mess hall cuisine, but allows me to learn more about the students

and to develop better relationships with them.

6. Assistant Advisor to Honor Committee

Certainly one of the highlights of my career at the Citadel has been to witness the

workings of the Honor System and the Honor Committee first-hand. Working under

Professor Kyle Sinisi, I have been able to sit in on trials, learn the Honor Manual, act as

substitute faculty advisor for trials, and advise a cadet who was in the leniency program.

7. Religious Activities (see service, below)

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D. STUDENT AND PEER TEACHING EVALUATIONS (Folder 1, Tabs 23-25)

Students have responded to my courses and teaching techniques with uncommonly high evaluations. For some aspects of my teaching, I have been frequently ranked an average of 5.0 on the evaluations. For example, students in HIST 301, the American Revolution (2004), gave me marks of 5.0 on seven questions, including “My professor seems well prepared for class,” “Enthusiasm while teaching,” “Effective use of class time, “ “I would recommend taking a course taught by this professor,” “Learned a lot,” “I would enjoy taking another class taught by this professor,” and “I would rate my professor as an excellent teacher.”

My peer evaluations have also been very strong, and they reflect the variety of teaching and learning styles that I employ in the classroom. They also emphasize the rapport that I have developed with the cadets and the confidence that they exhibit in participating and asking questions.

Listed below are extracts of comments from Citadel evaluations: To the question “What did you like about this class?” “Dr. Preston is superb in his methods of instruction and delivery of material. He believes in what he teaches. Taking his classes makes you a better American” (HIST 320, Spring 2008) Dr. Preston is one of the most considerate professors I have had the honor to know. Not only does he care greatly about teaching & his students well being, he strives to build a solid foundation & reveal the mindset of our Founding Fathers” (HIST 301, Spr. 2007). “His content knowledge about this course is amazing. He truly cares about his students and learning” (HIST 301, Spring 2007)

“Dr. P is the most passionate teacher I have ever had. He respects all comments and questions. I will miss him next year when I have graduated (HIST 301, Spring 2007) “The content was covered in great detail. The course was extremely helpful in allowing me to better understand my major. The books selected for reading were very interesting” (HIST 201, Fall 2006) “Taught me to look at history from a completely different perspective” (HIST 105, Fall 2003) To the question, “What did you like the most about this professor?” “Dr. Preston is an excellent teacher, and connects well with his students. If I had time I would take his class again in a heart beat” (HIST 320, Spring 2008). He cares a lot about what he does and puts a lot of effort and it shows. He is always well prepared and is an expert. He knows more about this topic than I could learn in a lifetime. He is very good about helping students outside of class” (HIST 301, Spr. 2007)

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“Cares a lot about his students. He knows them all by first name and is always able to discuss the course” (HIST 201, Fall 2006) “His style of teaching, his passion for the material, really gets one ampt up about the material. Dr. Preston is one of best history professors that I’ve had, he is in fact one of the best professors I have had period” (HIST 201, Fall 2006) “He taught for the sake of learning, not just for the next test” (HIST 106, Spring 2004) “He always kept the class involved, the use of discussions instead of lectures cause me to pay attention, learn and participate more” (HIST 105, Fall 2003) TEACHING WITH HISTORICAL SITES (HIST 301, Summer 2008) “What I liked most about this class was that we went to where history was made. We didn’t just learn about it, we could see it feel it and for me personally understand it that much better.” “I liked how we could get out of the classroom to go see historical sites. I would prefer that better than sitting in a lecture for 2 hours.” “I got to look at the strategy of Kings Mountain instead of just being told about it.” “The site visits were good and helped me put the abstract knowledge of what happened at the sites in a concrete context.” COMMENTS FROM GRADUATE STUDENTS “Being able to interact with the professor and the give and take within the learning environment” (HIST 590, Spring 2008) “His enthusiasm and deep understanding of the Native American perspective” (HIST 590, Spring 2008) “The wide ranging overview of the colonial era with a look towards “unconventional” viewpoints (i.e., Indian, etc.)” (HIST 502, Spring 2004) “I would rate him among the top professors I’ve had including undergrad” (HIST 502, Spring 2004) “Very excited about the subject—helps when the professor is so in to what they are teaching. Also, Dr. Preston was great about answering e-mails and giving advice” (HIST 502, Spring 2004)

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II. SCHOLARLY AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

A. PUBLICATIONS

1. BOOK MANUSCRIPT (IN PRESS): (See Folder 4 for complete book manuscript, and Folder 2, Tab 1 for a sample chapter) The Texture of Contact: European and Indian Settler Communities on the Iroquoian Borderlands, 1720-1780 (University of Nebraska Press, 2009)

*The University of Nebraska Press is regarded as one of the most prestigious publishers on American Indian history and the American frontier. My book will appear in The Iroquoians and their World book series, which is a renowned source of Iroquois studies. My book manuscript is currently IN PRESS. In 2008, I completed the final manuscript after receiving the readers’ reports, and secured all of the illustrations and copyright permission necessary. I have typed below some brief extracts from the readers’ reports that I received at the beginning of 2008:

“Preston’s manuscript closes a long-standing gap in eighteenth-century native-

European relations . . . There is no comparable synthetic work.”

“This is a well-written, well-researched work. The topic is one that has not

been explored in this fashion before. The conclusions are measured and firmly ground

in deep research. . . What emerges is a richly nuanced picture of life in frontier

communities whose inhabitants worked and lived within the broad influences of

colonialism—yet appeared to make only minimal concessions to those broad forces. . .”

2. SECOND BOOK RESEARCH (Folder 2, Tab 2)

“From Braddock’s Defeat to the Siege of Boston: Personal Transformation on the Road to Revolution, 1755-1775”

3. CHAPTER IN PEER-REVIEWED ESSAY COLLECTION (Folder 2, Tab 4)

“Squatters, Indians, Proprietary Government, and Land in the Susquehanna Valley,” in Daniel K. Richter and William Pencak, eds., Friends and Enemies in Penn’s Woods: Indians, Colonists, and the Racial Construction of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004), 180-200.

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*Daniel Richter and William Pencak are esteemed among the nation’s leading historians of American Indians and Colonial America; the editors invited me to submit this essay after hearing my work at a conference.

4. SCHOLARLY JOURNAL ESSAYS (PEER REVIEWED) (Folder 2, Tabs 5-8)

“‘We intend to live our lifetime together as brothers’: Palatine and Iroquois Communities in the 18th-century Mohawk Valley,” New York History (forthcoming, 2009). This essay will was chosen by the editor of the journal for inclusion in a special issue featuring some of the most prominent frontier historians and ethnohistorians in the country. My contribution focuses on the complex relationships between Palatine and Oneida Iroquois communities in the 18th-century borderlands between Canada and the British colony of New York. It challenges conventional thinking about the role of violence on the frontier, as it proves the existence of especially close diplomatic, economic, religious, and marital ties between the two communities.

“‘Make Indians of our White Men’: British Soldiers and Indian Warriors from Braddock’s to Forbes’s Campaigns, 1755-1758,” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 74 (Summer 2007): 280-306. This essay was also selected for a very competitive special issue on the Seven Years’ War in Pennsylvania, for which there is an abundance of scholarship. My essay is the first to demonstrate the cultural encounters that took place in Braddock’s and Forbes’s campaigns in 1755 and 1758; it shows the salient role that southeastern Indians had as British allies in the war, and uncovers new evidence on the intimate and personal relationships that developed between Cherokees, Catawbas, Virginians, Scottish Highlanders, and Pennsylvanians who were part of Forbes’s army. Finally, my work highlights the influence of Indian cultures on the postwar colonial British world.

“George Klock, the Canajoharie Mohawks, and the Good Ship Sir William Johnson: Land, Legitimacy, and Community in the Eighteenth-Century Mohawk Valley,” New York History: Special Issue on the Seven Years’ War in America 86, no. 4 (Fall 2005): 473-500. I sent this essay to New York History after reading a call for contributions to a special issue on the Seven Years’ War in America. This essay was the first, and remains the only thorough study of one of the most important land disputes in the colonial period. This dispute involved one of the most powerful individuals in British America, Sir William Johnson, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the northern colonies. The essay explains the tensions between landowning elites like Johnson, smaller farmers such as the Palatine immigrant George Klock, and the actual occupants of the land, the Mohawk and Oneida Iroquois.

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“The Key to Victory: Fighter Command and the Tactical Air Reserves During the Battle of Britain,” Air Power History (Winter 1994): 19-29. This essay is a revision of my undergraduate thesis that I researched in Great Britain. Based on archival materials at the Public Record Office, Royal Air Force Museum, and the Imperial War Museum, this work highlights the importance of Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding’s strategy of retaining tactical air reserves during the Battle of Britain in 1940. The essay argues that Dowding’s wise strategy ensured that the German Luftwaffe would not triumph over the Royal Air Force’s hard-pressed Fighter Command.

5. OTHER SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS a. BOOK REVIEWS (Folder 2, Tab 10)

Review of David Dixon, Never Come to Peace Again: Pontiac’s Uprising and the Fate of the British Empire in North America (University of Oklahoma Press, 2005), in William and Mary Quarterly 63 (October 2006): 870-72.

Review of Colin Calloway, The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America (Oxford, 2006), in The New-York Journal of American History (2006).

Review of Matthew C. Ward, Breaking the Backcountry: The Seven Years’ War in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1754-1763 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003), in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 129 (April 2005): 227-28

b. ARTICLES IN PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS (Folder 2, Tab 9)

“Pennsylvanians at War: The Settlement Frontiers during the Seven Years’ War,” in Pennsylvania Legacies: A Newsmagazine of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (May 2005), 22-25.

c. PEER-REVIEWED ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES (Folder 2, Tabs 11 and 12)

Encyclopedia of New York State History, ed. Peter Eisenstadt (Syracuse University Press, 2005) [articles on Sir William Johnson (1715-1774), Joseph Brant (c. 1742-1807), Guy Johnson (c. 1740-1788), and the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768)].

Encyclopedia of American Military History, ed. Spencer C. Tucker et. al. (Facts on File, 2004) [articles on New France: Settlement and Organization, Little Turtle [Mishikinakwa], ca. 1748-1805, Blue Licks, Battle of Lake George (1755), and Fort Pitt].

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B. PRESENTATIONS AT CONFERENCES AND PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS 1. PEER REVIEWED PRESENTATIONS AND SYMPOSIUM TALKS (Folder 2, Tabs 13-19) “‘We Intend to live our lifetime together as brothers’: The Worlds of European & Iroquois Settlers in the Mohawk Valley.” Western Frontier Symposium: Agents of Change in Colonial New York: Sir William Johnson’s World, New York State Office of Parks, October 2007.

*A study of the Palatine (German) settlers’ social, economic, and diplomatic contacts with Mohawk and Oneida Iroquois in the 18th-century. The essay from which this paper was drawn was sought after by the journal New York History.

“Imperial Crisis in the Ohio Valley: Indian, Colonial American, and British Military Communities, 1760-1774.” Warfare and Society in Colonial North America and the Caribbean, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Knoxville, Tn., October 2006.

*A broad examination of the origins of racial violence on the 18th-century American frontiers. It presented new evidence on the rate of violence on the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontiers and the British imperial government’s efforts to contain frontier violence of colonial American settlers.

“The Iroquoian Borderlands: A Native-Centered Perspective on Atlantic History,” Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture Annual Meeting, Northampton, Massachusetts, June 2004.

*This paper presented a challenge to current historical emphasis on Atlantic history, arguing that imperial history (or Atlantic history) has failed to address Native American concepts of borders, land, and space.

“George Klock, the Canajoharie Mohawks, and the Good Ship Sir William Johnson: Land and Legitimacy on the Eighteenth-Century Mohawk Frontier,” Annual Conference on Iroquois Research, Rensellaerville, N.Y., October 2003.

*Presentation on the one of the most heated land disputes of the 18th century, among the Iroquois, a German farmer named George Klock, and Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs. An essay-length version of this paper was published in the journal New York History.

“A Poor Woman's Fight: Women Munitions Workers during the American Civil War,” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, La., April 2003.

*Presentation of ongoing research into the lives working-class women in Union arsenals during the American Civil War.

“The Texture of Contact: Iroquoian, French-Canadian, and Palatine Communities on the Iroquoian Borderlands,” American Society for Ethnohistory Annual Meeting, Québec City, Québec, October 2002.

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*Analysis of Iroquois and French-Canadian encounters in the St. Lawrence Valley. “The Trojan Horse of Empire: Imperial Crisis in the Trans-Appalachian West, 1760-1774,” International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., August 2002. “A Poor Woman's Fight: Women Munitions Workers during the American Civil War,” Conference on Working-Class Studies: Memory, Community, and Activism, Center for Working-Class Studies, Youngstown, Ohio, May 2001. “Dispossessing the Indians: Proprietors, Settlers, and Cultural Encounters in the Pennsylvania Backcountry, 1730-1755,” Colloquium of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, February 2001. “Settlers, Indians, and Cultural Encounters: Constructing Narratives About Ordinary Peoples on the Early Pennsylvania Frontier,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Boston, Mass., January 2001. “‘They will mutually support each other’: Squatters and Indians in the Pennsylvania Backcountry, 1720-1755,” Pennsylvania Historical Association Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, Pa., November 1999. 2. COMMENTOR FOR PANEL (Folder 2, Tab 20) Commentor, “New Perspectives on Iroquois Diplomacy after the American Revolution,” Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture Annual Meeting, Santa Barbara, California, June 2005. 3. BY INVITATION (Folder 2, Tabs 14, 17) Seminar speaker, “Grant’s Defeat, 1758: Prelude to Victory in the Forbes Campaign,” Fort Pitt Museum Associates Seminar Series, Pittsburgh, Pa., September 2008.

*Presented research on the battle of Grant’s Defeat to an academic and public audience in Pittsburgh.

Symposium speaker, “The Western Frontier: Plantation Society in Colonial New York, 1750-1775,” New York State Office of Parks/Johnson Hall State Historic Site, N.Y., November 2005.

*Presented remarks on the character of social, land, and economic relationships among European and Iroquois communities in the 18th-century.

“The Trojan Horse of Empire: Imperial Crisis in the Trans-Appalachian West, 1760-1774,” Invited Speaker for Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s Symposium, Exploration, Nation, and Empire, Philadelphia, Pa., April 2003.

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C. RESEARCH GRANTS

1. Research Grants from Other Institutions (Folder 2, Tab 21)

In 2004, I received a Price Visiting Research Fellowship from the University of

Michigan in an international pool of applicants. This prestigious fellowship enabled me

to research in the rich collections on early American history and American Indian history

at the William L. Clements Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was during this research

trip that I formulated my second book project, entitled From Braddock’s Defeat to the

Siege of Boston, 1755-1775: Personal Transformations on the Road to the American

Revolution.

2. CITADEL FOUNDATION RESEARCH GRANTS (Folder 2, Tab 22)

The generous support of the Citadel Foundation is the principal reason why I have been able to so quickly complete the remaining research for my first book, and to begin research on the second. I am exceedingly grateful for this support. Over the past few years, these grants have enabled me to research at a host of archives, libraries, and other institutions. I have researched in some of the finest manuscript collections in early American history at institutions like the National Archives of Canada, the Huntington Library in California, the New York Public Library, the Beinecke Library Rare Book and Manuscript Room at Yale University, and the William L. Clements Library. I have also accomplished a significant amount of research on my second book, particularly this past summer with a research trip to archives, museums, and libraries in Pittsburgh, Pa. 2008-2009 “From Braddock’s Defeat to the Siege of Boston, 1755-1775” ($2554.56) 2007-2008 “From Braddock’s Defeat to the Siege of Boston, 1755-1775,” ($1853.23) 2006-2007 “From Braddock’s Defeat to the Siege of Boston,” and “The Texture of

Contact” ($2332.00) 2005-2006 “The Texture of Contact” ($2198.00) 2004-2005 “The Texture of Contact” ($2217.37) 2004-2005 New Faculty Research Grant, “The Texture of Contact,” ($1500.00)

3. Citadel Foundation Presentation of Research Grants (Folder 2, Tab 23)

I have presented my research at numerous conferences as I revised my book

manuscript and improved it through other scholars’ comments. In October 2003, I

presented a paper at the Annual Conference on Iroquois Research in New York: this

paper became the foundation for a longer essay that the journal New York History

29

published in 2005. With the support of other Citadel Foundation grants, I also presented

my research and comments to a broader audience of historians at two consecutive annual

meetings of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture (at

Deerfield, Massachusetts in 2004 and Santa Barbara, California in 2005). I was also

invited to share my research at a special symposium on New York’s colonial history held

near Albany, N.Y. in November of 2005. More recently, Citadel Foundation grants

enabled me to present research at a conference on “Warfare and Society in Colonial

North America” in 2006, and again at the Western Frontier Symposium in New York in

2007.

III. SERVICE-RELATED ACTIVITIES

A. SERVICE TO THE COLLEGE

1. Communication across the Curriculum Committee, 2004-present (chair, 2006-

2007) (Folder 3, Tab 1 )

Planned and participated in CAC’s annual luncheons on different academic topics. When

I was chair of this committee during the 2006-2007 academic year, I was responsible for

planning, administering, and organizing four CAC luncheons.

2. Employment Committee, 2004-2009 (Folder 3, Tab 2 )

The Employment Committee represents Citadel faculty and staff in all matters relating to

employment. In the past few years has undertaken reviews of faculty salary studies, with

particular regard to salary compression and cost of living issues. The committee has also

acted as a liaison to the HR office, to represent faculty needs to HR staff.

3. Chair of Core Curriculum Oversight Committee, 2007-2009 (Folder 3, Tab 3)

This committee reviews all matters relating to the Citadel’s core curriculum. It has

reviewed grade distribution data for core curriculum courses for the past five semesters,

and discussed the feasibility of the English Department’s ABCU system of grading core

courses.

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4. Assistant Advisor to Honor Committee, 2007-2008

Certainly one of the highlights of my career at the Citadel has been to witness the

workings of the Honor System and the Honor Committee first-hand. Working under

Kyle, I have been able to sit in on trials, learn the Honor Manual, act as substitute faculty

advisor, and advise a cadet who was in the leniency program.

B. SERVICE TO THE DEPARTMENT

DEPARTMENT STANDING COMMITTEES:

1. History Graduate Committee, 2005-present: (Folder 3, Tab 4)

This committee primarily reviews applications to the graduate program, approves

thesis proposals, and discusses the structure and curriculum of the program as a whole.

2. Faculty Affairs Committee, 2008-2009

This committee schedules and conducts peer teaching reviews for history faculty

throughout the year, as required by The Citadel.

3. Phi Alpha Theta Advisor, 2005-2008 (Folder 3, Tab 5)

See description below, under service to students

DEPARTMENT AD-HOC COMMITEES/ASSIGNMENTS:

1. Search Committee for tenure-track position for Old South historian, 2008-2009

(Folder 3, Tab 6)

2. Search Committee, tenure-track position for U.S. diplomatic historian, 2007-2008

3. Search Committee, tenure-track position for Middle East historian, 2005-2006

These three committees reviewed applications for tenure-track jobs, journeyed to

American Historical Association in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York,

finalized a pool of on-campus interviewees, and organized the on-campus visits.

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4. Treasurer of the Society for Military History Annual Meeting Committee, 2004-

2005 (Folder 3, Tab 7)

I supported the planning and implementation of the Society for Military History’s Annual

Meeting in 2005. Serving as treasurer, I maintained accurate accounting for the

conference’s registration funds, deposited incoming checks and registration costs, and

took care of payments and individual refunds. Please see the spreadsheets in my folder.

5. African-American Studies Minor (Open House Planning), 2004

6. Leadership Studies Minor: Participated in planning for the history component of this

minor.

7. World War II Conference: Until it was postponed earlier this year, I was a member

of the steering committee for a national conference on World War II proposed by the

Department.

OTHER SERVICE TO THE DEPARTMENT

1. Instructor/Facilitator for $944,000 Department of Education “Teaching

American History Grant” for The Citadel and Berkeley County School District, S.C.

(Folder 1, Tab 9)

The Citadel and Berkeley County School District have created a 3-year partnership in

their successful application for a $944,000 Department of Education “Teaching

American History Grant.” Having planned and taught in a similar grant for the College

of William and Mary, I was selected to teach the first graduate course in a series of

departmental offerings. I helped Col. Bo Moore as the History Department formalized a

partnership with Berkeley County School District in late 2006. This included travel to

meet with school district officials, laying the groundwork for the graduate classes that

will be taught by Citadel faculty, and assisting the school district with administrative

questions about how the partnership would function. These activities very much built on

my previous work at the College of William and Mary. As stated earlier, I offered a

seminar on American Indian history in 2008, acted as a liaison between the School

District and the Department, and assisted other colleagues who are, or will be, teaching in

the grant (Professors Marcus Cox and Joe Renouard).

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2. Supervision of History and Social Studies Student Teachers

I have also visited local schools (Fort Johnson Middle School, Stall High School) to

review historical content of lessons presented by student teachers from the School of

Education.

3. Post & Courier Article (Folder 3, Tab 10 )

I brought public attention to the Department’s partnership with Berkeley County schools:

Contacted a Post & Courier education reporter who did a feature story on the Teaching

American History Grant in the Spring of 2008.

C. SERVICE TO THE STUDENTS

1. Academic Advisor

I currently have approximately 17 history majors as advisees. I have advised

seniors regarding career paths and written letters of recommendation for some of them.

Some of my advisees were also studying abroad in 2008, which meant a more rigorous

examination of their degree audits and needs.

2. Assistant Advisor to Honor Committee, 2007-present

Certainly one of the highlights of my career at the Citadel has been to witness the

workings of the Honor System and the Honor Committee first-hand. Working under

Professor Kyle Sinisi, I have been able to sit in on trials, learn the Honor Manual, act as

substitute faculty advisor, and advise a cadet who was in the leniency program.

3. Service to Graduate Students (Folder 3, Tab 12)

I have directed two master’s thesis projects (one is pending), and served on 5 master’s

thesis committees, and 10 comprehensive exam committees. In addition, I have taught

four different Independent Study courses on different topics for graduate students.

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4. Phi Alpha Theta (History Honors Society) Advisor, 2005-2008 (Folder 3, Tab 5)

I have served as advisor to the Epsilon Lambda chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, our

history honors society. This society recognizes superior achievement in the study of

history each year. One of the principal duties of the advisor is to solicit new members,

invite them to join, and organize the annual Phi Alpha Theta banquet and initiation. The

banquet brings together P.A.T. members and initiates and history department faculty.

The banquets featured guest speakers such as Dr. Donald Wright, on African history, Dr.

Peter Karsten, on the 19th-century U.S. officer corps, and Dr. Michael Barrett, who spoke

about his newly-published book “Operation Albion.” I also organized activities

throughout the year, such as organizational meetings, seminar lunches featuring members

of our department, and day trips to local historical sites. For example, Phi Alpha Theta’s

activities included trips to Revolutionary war battlefields, the Charles Towne Landing

State Park, and participation in the public lecture by Lt. David Gobel. This lecture

featured a distinguished reenactor of the 18th-century British Army.

5. The Citadel History Club (2003-2005) (Folder 3, Tab 11)

From 2003 to 2005, I had the pleasure of serving as a faculty advisor to the

Citadel History Club, along with my colleague, Professor Jennie Speelman. In 2005, I

planned, organized, and solicited cadet travel grants for the History Club’s trip to the

Virginia Tidewater: our trip encompassed Virginia’s history from the era of colonization

through Reconstruction. We visited Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, the Yorktown

Battlefield, the Mariner’s Museum (maritime history, and the new U.S.S. Monitor

Center), and the National Museum of the Civil War soldier at Pamplin Historical Park. I

invited two colleagues to speak to the History Club: an archaeologist at Colonial

Williamsburg, and the chief curator of the U.S.S. Monitor Center.

Dr. Speelman and I met regularly with Citadel history majors to discuss club

activities, trips, movie nights, and more recently, the club’s participation in the Society

for Military History’s Annual Meeting. We supervised the Club’s fundraising and

production of the note-cards featuring historic Citadel photos. We also organized and

day field trips to Fort Sumter and Drayton Hall, and a supervised weekend trip to historic

Philadelphia in January 2004. We also made “history movie nights” a regular aspect of

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the club, asking our colleagues from the Citadel and the College of Charleston to

introduce the historical context of a particular film.

6. Faculty Mentor for Cadet Religious Activities, 2003-2006 (Folder 3, Tab 13)

Through the Chaplain’s Office, I volunteered to be a faculty mentor to the men’s

bible study leaders and groups in the four battalions. Chaplain David Golden and I

visited the roughly 40 company-level bible studies in the four battalions over the course

of the year (the studies usually take place on Monday or Thursday evenings). In addition,

we met usually once every month with the study leaders to discuss issues, ideas, and

teaching methods. This involvement with cadets has helped me to understand the Corps

much better and has undoubtedly aided my teaching as a result.

7. Advisor to the Citadel Running Club, 2005-2006

A few of my students who saw me at the Cooper River Bridge Run in 2005 asked

me to be a faculty advisor/sponsor to a new Citadel running club that they were forming.

I gladly agreed, and supported them in runs and in road races such as the Isle of Palms

Connector Run and the Savannah River Bridge Run.

D. SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY

1. Prison Fellowship Ministries, 2004-present (Folder 3, Tab 15)

I am part of the ministry team of Prison Fellowship Ministries, a national

organization that ministers to inmates and their families. I have participated in and led

Bible studies with medium-security and Death Row inmates at Lieber Correctional

Institute, South Carolina Department of Corrections, and in programs that minister to the

prisoners’ families. We also have a yearly Christmas concert at the prison that features

readings on the birth of the Messiah and the singing of carols and hymns.

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2. Community Service Through East Cooper Baptist Church (Folder 3, Tabs 16-17) 2007-2008 Cellist and pianist at community and charity concerts at Gaillard

Auditorium and Citadel Square Baptist Church. 2008-2009 Deacon, East Cooper Baptist Church [which involves ministry to the

community and to church members]. 2006-2008 Teacher for Sunday Morning Bible Classes at East Cooper Baptist 3. Citadel / Berkeley County Teaching American History Grant, 2006-present (Folder 3, Tab 9) By improving the quality of history education in Lowcountry public schools, and promoting a greater public awareness of history, my participation in the Teaching American History Grant is community service.

4. Public Lectures (Folder 3, Tab 18)

Invited speaker, “The Siege of Yorktown of 1781,” Sons of the American Revolution, Battle of Eutaw Springs Chapter, January 2007. “Hallowed Places: Sites of the War of the 1812,” Karpeles Manuscript Museum Society of the War of 1812 and the English Speaking Union, November 2006. “The Telephone,” for the “Fast Forward: Science, Technology, and the Communications Revolution” Series, Charleston County, September 2006. “The Naval History of the American Revolution,” Sons of the American Revolution, Gen. William Moultrie Chapter, September 2006.

“Crossing Charleston Harbor,” Citadel Women’s Club, October 2004.

E. SERVICE TO THE DISCIPLINE

1. Reviewer for Professional Journals (Folder 3, Tab 20)

a. From 2004 to 2007, I have been asked to review five essay manuscripts or books for

the following scholarly journals:

1) William and Mary Quarterly, the foremost journal of early American history

2) Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, published by the Historical

Society of Pennsylvania

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3) Early American Studies, published by the McNeil Center of Early American

Studies in Philadelphia.

4) New York History, published by the New York State Historical Association

2. Consultant for Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commissions, 2003-2004

(Folder 3, Tab 19)

I served as an advisor and consultant to a public history project for the Pennsylvania State

Historical and Museum Commission’s “Native American History Website Project,” part

of a larger project called Explore Pennsylvania History: this website features brief essays

written by scholars on various historical subjects, selections of primary documents, and it

promotes study and visitation of local historical and archaeological sites. I advised and

edited the American Indian history content. See http://www.explorepahistory.com

3. Teaching American History Grants as Service to the Discipline (Folder 3, Tabs 9

and 21)

One of the grant’s ultimate goals is to improve the quality of history teaching in the nation’s public schools. By sharing our expertise on American history with teachers, we are undertaking an immense service to the discipline of history. In future years, students who come to the Citadel will hopefully reflect the improvements in history education that this nationwide grant has attempted to promote. Lead Professor, Department of Education “Teaching American History Grant,” for

The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg/James City County School District

(Virginia), and Five National Park Service Sites, 2003-2005.

(Folder 3, Tab 21)

This grant brought together history teachers from Massachusetts, Virginia,

Georgia, and Puerto Rico. In addition, the grant brought together National Park Service

historians from San Juan National Historic Site, George Washington Birthplace National

Monument, Okmulgee National Monument, First Landing State Park, and Saugus

Ironworks National Historic Site. The College of William and Mary, National Park

Service, and the Williamsburg/James City County (VA) schools invited me to plan and

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lead a graduate seminar at the College of William and Mary for the summers of 2003,

2004, and 2005. Each year has focused on either elementary, middle school, or high

school history and social studies teachers and historians in the National Park Service.

This course was part of a larger “Teaching American History Grant” awarded by the

Department of Education. School teachers from the eastern U.S. and National Park

Service historians from six early American historical parks entered a graduate course at

the College of William and Mary; the participants explored historic sites in eastern

Virginia, discussed recent scholarship on American history, and developed teaching

strategies and lesson plans that incorporate the historical landscape.