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Erik Schmeller, PhD

 

Erik Schmeller is a historian of Early America and Great Britain, focusing on race and national identity. His most recent research interest is conspiracy theories in pre-Civil War United States. He has held several administrative roles on campus starting with coordinating the teacher education program for the department, then as an interim Assistant Dean with the Graduate School, and Department Chair. He currently serves as an Assistant Vice-President in Academic Affairs and the Director of the Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement.

Contact

306 Holland Hall, (615) 963-5510,  eschmeller@tnstate.edu

Education

Ph. D., History, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1999

M.A., English, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1993

B.A., History and English, Fort Hays State University, 1991

Courses Taught

Conspiracy and History, Honors American History I, American History I, American History II, World History II,  Methods of Teaching Social Sciences, Colonial and Revolutionary America, Early American Republic, Late American Republic, British Empire, and Freshman Orientation

Research Interests

Conspiracy theories; race; national identity; the relationship between Britain and the United States; cross-disciplinary teaching; immigration

Selected Publications

Perceptions of Race and Nation in English and American Travel Writers, 1833-1914.  New York:  Peter Lang Publishing, 2004.

“Bleeding Kansas” and “John Brown” in, The Encyclopedia of the Early Republic and Antebellum America.  Armonk, New York:  M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2009.

“San Juan Archipelago” and “Vancouver Island” in, Britain and the Americas:  Culture, Politics, and History:  A Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia.  Oxford:  ABC-Clio Publishers, 2005.

“William Wells Brown and the Role of Race in National Identity.”  BMa:  The Sonia Sanchez Literary Review.  9 (Fall 2003):  111-118.

“Propagandists for a Free-State Kansas:  New York Times Correspondents and Bleeding Kansas, 1856.”  Heritage of the Great Plains 23 (Summer 1990):  7-14.