Curriculum Vitae

Link to PDF Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

  • PhD in History
    • University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
    • Defended July 2019
  • MA in History
    • Angelo State University, San Angelo, TX
  • BA in History
    • Angelo State University, San Angelo, TX
    • Minors: Political Science, English

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

  •  2024-Present   Dean, School of Social Sciences and Humanities
    • William Woods University
  • 2026-Present   Associate Professor of History (tenured)
    • School of Social Sciences and Humanities
    • William Woods University
  • 2020-2026       Assistant Professor of History
    • School of Social Sciences and Humanities
    • William Woods University
  • 2019-2020       Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow
    • Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy
    • University of Missouri 

PUBLICATIONS

  • Dowdle, Zachary. Reluctant Emancipator: James Sidney Rollins and the Politics of Slavery and Freedom in Missouri, 1836-1886. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, anticipated 2027.
  • Dowdle, Zachary. “A Geography of Free-soil: The Legacy of the 1820 Compromise, Political Conflict, and the Decline of Slavery in Missouri” in A Fire-Bell in the Past: The Missouri Crisis at 200 Volume 2: The Missouri Question and its Answers. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2021.
  • Dowdle, Zachary. “Preventing ‘a School of Nullification’: Politics, Slavery, and the Presidency of the University of Missouri, 1839-1856.” Missouri Historical Review 114, no. 2 (Jan. 2020).
  • Dowdle, Zachary. “‘Hang Him Decently’: Politics of Order and the 1853 Lynching of Hiram, a Slave.” The Confluence 11, no. 1 (Fall 2019).
  • Dowdle, Zachary. “‘In the Land of Sandstorms and Sand’: Locating Texas Technological College in 1923.” West Texas Historical Review 90 (2014): 75-102.
  • Dowdle, Zachary. Review of To Make a Fortune in Missouri: Meredith Miles Marmaduke, 1791-1864, by Lee M. Cullimore. Missouri Historical Review 116, no.3 (Summer 2022).
  • Dowdle, Zachary. Review of In the Shadow of Dred Scott: St. Louis Freedom Suits and the Legal Culture of Slavery in Antebellum America, by Kelly M. Kennington. Journal of the Early Republic 39, no. 4 (2019): 809-811. DOI:10.1353/jer.2019.0110.
  • Dowdle, Zachary. Review of The Stormy Present: Conservatism and the Problem of Slavery in Northern Politics, 1845-1865, by Adam I. P. Smith, American Nineteenth Century History, 20 no. 2 (Sept. 2019): 214-216, DOI: 10.1080/14664658.2019.1638043.

PUBLIC HISTORY PUBLICATIONS

COURSES TAUGHT

  • United States History to 1877
  • United States History since 1877
  • World History from 1500
  • A Slaveholders’ Rebellion: The American Civil War
  • From Slavery to Freedom to Civil Rights: African American History
  • The History of Race in America (Honors)
  • The Young Republic, 1789-1848 (Honors)
  • The History of War
  • World War II
  • Native America
  • Daughters of Liberty: Women in American History
  • The Old South: Planters, Yeoman, and the Enslaved
  • Conspiratorial America
  • Blood Sugar Sex Magic: Race and Gender during the Transition to Capitalism (Honors)

THESES SUPERVISED

  • 2025   Lainey Rutter, “The Nations of Our Nation: An Analysis of the Interactions Between the United States Federal Government and the Native American Tribes,” Honors Thesis.
  • 2023   Emily Hand, “Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust: The Effect of Pre-War Conditions on the Experience of the Victim,” Honors Thesis.

AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

  • 2023                Gilder Lehrman Legacies of Slavery Summer Seminar, Yale University
  • 2023                Beaumont Distinguished Professor Award, William Woods University
  • 2021                Lawrence O. Christensen Article Award, Missouri Conference on History
  • 2017                Goodrich Graduate Fellow, State Historical Society of Missouri
  • 2016                Kinder Graduate Fellow, Kinder Institute for Constitutional Democracy
  • 2016                Morrow Missouri History Student Prize
  • 2015                Kinder Institution Research and Travel Grant
  • 2015                Jack Miller Center Summer Institute Fellowship
  • 2013                Joe Bill Lee Scholarship for library employees, one awarded per semester
  • 2013                Graduate Research Fellow, Angelo State University
  • 2013                Susan Miles Scholarship in History, one awarded per academic year
  • 2011                Carr Graduate Fellow Scholarship, highest tier of graduate funding awarded
  • 2011                Joe Bill Lee Scholarship for library employees, one awarded per semester
  • 2010                Terry Lehman Scholarship in History, one awarded per academic year 

 PRESENTATIONS

  •  2025    “Honors Program Students (and Faculty, and Administrators, and…) Who Can’t Read Books.” Workshop. National Collegiate Honors Council Conference, San Diego, CA.  
  • 2025    “Little Dixie is a Bit Tricky: Anachronism and the Perpetuation of the Lost Cause” Missouri Conference on History, Kansas City, MO
  • 2022    “Invisible Labor and Indirect Connections: Slavery and the Founding of the University of Missouri,” paper, Missouri Conference on History, Jefferson City, MO.
  • 2019    “For a Few Thousand Slaves…the Whole Continent Shook”: Border State Free-soil Politics and the Long Shadow of the Missouri Compromise,” talk, Fire Bell in the Past: Re-assessing the Missouri Crisis at 200, Columbia, MO.
  • 2018    “Border State Conservatism and Political Abolition during the Civil War,” talk, Kinder Institute Summer Teachers Academy, Columbia, MO.
  • 2018    “‘Hang Him Decently and in Order’: Order, Politics, and the 1853 Lynching of Hiram, a Slave,” paper, Missouri Conference on History, Jefferson City, MO.
  • 2016    “‘Not in the Habit of Sleeping with Men’: Politics and Masculinity in Antebellum Missouri,” paper, Missouri Conference on History, Columbia, MO.
  • 2014    “In the Land of Sandstorms and Sand: Locating Texas Technological College in 1923,” paper, West Texas Historical Association Annual Meeting, Odessa, TX.
  • 2013    The Placement of Texas Technological College in 1923, poster, Angelo State Graduate Research Symposium, San Angelo, TX.
  • 2013    “‘How Do You Stand?’: FLPA, Socialists, and the Antiwar Movement,” paper, Southwest Social Science Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
  • 2010    “‘Furious Creatures’: Jesuit Perceptions of Indians in New France,” paper, Phi Alpha Theta Biannual Conference, San Diego, CA.

 INVITED PRESENTATIONS

  • 2025    “The Contested Heart: Merril’s Horse and the Civil War in Mid-Missouri.” Missouri State Museum, Merrill’s Horse Flag Homecoming Ceremony, Missouri State Capitol Building, Jefferson City, MO.
  • 2025    Justice for Celia Presentation, Boone Regional Public Library, Fulton, MO.
  • 2025    “Grappling with the Past: Enslaved Laborers and the Creation of the University of Missouri.” University of Missouri, Black Studies Department, Black History Month Presentation Series, Columbia, MO.
  • 2024    “Reluctant Emancipator: James Sidney Rollins and the Politics of Slavery and Freedom” Missouri Humanities Council, Summer of 1864: Civil War in Howard and Boone Counties, Rocheport, MO.
  • 2023    “Need More Input!: Organizing Large Research Projects” WWU Professional Development Training on Academic Research, Fulton, MO.
  • 2021    “Two Tales of Emancipation” at the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy Society of Fellows Summer Institute, Columbia, MO.
  • 2020    “Everyone…Denounces his Course”: Slavery and Politics at the University of Missouri, 1838-1849.” Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy Colloquium Series, Columbia, MO.
  • 2013    “‘How Do You Stand?’: FLPA, Socialists, and the Antiwar Movement,” Tom Green County Historical Association meeting, San Angelo, TX.

SERVICE

  •  2025-               Member, Traditional Retention Committee, William Woods University
  • 2024-               Member, Teaching and Learning Committee, National Collegiate Honors Council
  • 2023-               Director, Honors Program, William Woods University
  • 2022-2023       Member, Honors Committee, William Woods University
  • 2022-2023       Chair, Curriculum Committee, William Woods University
  • 2021-2024       Member, Curriculum Committee, William Woods University
  • 2021-2024       Member, Institutional Research Board, William Woods University
  • 2021-2022       Member, Committee on the Symposium for Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities
  • 2019                Historical Working Group on Slavery, University of Missouri
  • 2016-2017       President, History Graduate Student Association, University of Missouri
  • 2015-2017       History Graduate Student Colloquium Series Selection Committee, University of Missouri
  • 2015-2016       Women and Gender Studies Conference Planning Committee, University of Missouri

 PUBLIC HISTORY DISPLAYS

  •  2012    Curator, “A Century of Service: The Carlsbad Sanatorium,” West Texas Collection, Angelo State University, San Angelo, TX.
  • 2012    Assistant Curator, “Over There: American Involvement in the Great War,” West Texas Collection, Angelo State University, San Angelo, TX.
  • 2010    Collaborator, “¡Viva la Revolución! Money of the Mexican Revolution,” West Texas Collection, Angelo State University, San Angelo, TX.

ORGANIZATIONS

  •  Justice for Celia Coalition
  • Society of Civil War Historians
  • Southern Historical Association
  • Society for Historians of the Early American Republic