My Journey

EMPHASIS: HELPING STUDENTS LOCATE THE "TRUTH"

My emphasis as a teacher centers on helping students develop the analytical skills necessary to locate “truth,” past and present. I thereby employ an interdisciplinary approach that encourages active participation and interpretation of a wide array of traditional and non-traditional primary and secondary sources. We critically assess documents ranging from planters’ journals, newspapers, diaries, public discourse, and oral accounts to novels, private correspondence, phonograph recordings, photographs, and motion pictures. We strive to make connections, to comprehend the individual as an inextricable part of a larger history and community. Consequently, we focus upon the issues of place, race, class, ethnicity, gender, and age to increase our awareness, understanding, and compassion concerning the diverse yet interdependent world in which we live.

MY INTERESTS

As a scholar, my interests stem from both the interdisciplinary approach I utilize in the classroom and my own personal background. Specifically, I view “culture” as a dynamic and interactive process, and I seek to understand how it informs the perspectives, values, and actions of individuals, groups, and institutions. My research methods incorporate the ideas and themes of historians, American and Cultural Studies scholars, and writers as diverse as Antonio Gramsci, Mikail Bahktin, William Faulkner, and Alice Walker. I consequently approach the critical analysis of literature, popular culture, and popular music as a means to discern the attitudes, perceptions, and articulations of groups often overlooked by conventional methodologies. Shedding light upon how such groups (particularly in regard to race and class) “use” their culture to create a space for themselves can provide a glimpse of the tensions and conflicts that frequently dwell undetected below the societal surface. Ultimately, my objectives are to work within and expand the traditional historical narrative and to complicate what is often assumed to be uncomplicated.

GROWING UP IN SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA

Although I did not realize it at the time, I began preparing for my current pursuits at an early age. I grew up in a southwest Louisiana working-class community where people often turned to the jukebox and record player for camaraderie, solace, and advice. At times nostalgic, comical, quixotic, and escapist, it was a music that nevertheless revealed how many defined themselves in relation to the mainstream. Though generally couched in personal rather than political terms, the songs expressed the innermost desires and frustrations of alienated listeners and performers coping with the uncertainties of everyday life. Only later did I grasp that to understand those feelings is to comprehend the relationship between history and the people who are its actors. As a result, I believe that what I have observed as both insider and outsider to that culture has helped me develop the insight and sensitivity central to my growth as teacher and scholar.

EARLY TEACHING EXPERIENCES

As a graduate student, I spent many years in Memphis, Tennessee. I had the opportunity to work with some very fine scholars while completing my doctoral dissertation. Charles Crawford, David Evans, Margaret Caffrey, C. Edward Skeen, Joseph Hawes, Jack Hurley, and John Bakke were excellent teachers whose imprint on my own thinking cannot be underestimated. Upon graduation, I was very fortunate to land a visiting teaching position at Middle Tennessee State University. While there, I was able to revise (overhaul is a more appropriate characterization) my dissertation, "Southern Youth in Dissent: Rock 'n' Roll, Race, and Elvis Presley, 1945-1960." In addition to teaching five American history survey courses per semester (and meeting some excellent students), I also met and made wonderful and lasting friendships with many colleagues. It is a great place to work.

OLE MISS

After three years at MTSU, I hit the road again, this time to take a visiting position at Ole Miss in the history and southern studies departments. Working at Ole Miss for five years proved to be an educational experience that was worth more than any postdoc. I learned so much from the faculty with whom I team taught in the Southern Studies department, such as Charles Reagan Wilson, Ted Ownby, Robbie Ethridge, and Robert Brinkmeyer. The lessons were invaluable. In the History department, while I am indebted to the many generous colleagues who assisted me in my endeavors, I will always remember the efforts of Charles Eagles. And I will never forget the students, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, who always kept me on my toes and wanting to go to class. Also, it was while I was at Ole Miss that the University of Illinois published my first book, Race, Rock, and Elvis, but that is a story for another page! Overall, my time at the University of Memphis, Middle Tennessee State University, and the University of Mississippi proved rewarding, as it introduced me to a variety of experiences and outlooks that greatly expanded my perspective. I have been very fortunate.

TSU

In 2003, I returned to Tennessee when I accepted a tenure-track position in the History, Geography, and Political Science department at Tennessee State University in Nashville. In so many ways, I am finally home.

~~~

Curriculum Vita