history department Faculty

David Gellman , Ph.D. (Northwestern University) Associate Professor Harrison Hall Phone: (765) 658-6273 email Prof. Gellman Professor Gellman's Fall 2008 office hours are 10:30-11:30 M, 9:30-10:30 Tu, 1-2 W, 2:20-3 R & by appt.

Research Interests

I am a political historian with particular interest in slavery, abolition, race, reform, and citizenship. My research focus to date has been on abolition in the revolutionary and early national periods. I am currently completing two related projects--a monograph on the abolition of slavery in New York and a documentary history of the debate over race and citizenship in New York from the American Revolution through Reconstruction. I also have launched a long-term project multi-generational biographical project with the working title "Liberty's Legacy: The Jay Family and the Problem of America Freedom." This study will investigates the transmission and transformation of values from the colonial period through the Civil War in a family that participated in the major events of the nation's first century. These research pursuits rest upon a broad foundation of teaching interests that range from the conquests of the Americas to the modern American city.

Courses Regularly Taught

HIST105: American Experience: Slavery
HIST105: American Experience: Unsolved Mysteries Current Syllabus Link
HIST197: FYS: Declaration of Independence Current Syllabus Link
HIST263: Founding US Civilizations Current Syllabus Link
HIST264: Nineteenth Century US Current Syllabus Link
HIST281: History of the Black Experience
HIST295: History Today: Debates and Practices
HIST362: Voices of a Revolutionary Age
HIST373: Chicago and New York Current Syllabus Link
HIST490: US History Seminar

Publications

Emancipating New York: The Politics of Slavery and Freedom 1777-1827;(Louisiana State University Press, 2006). Link to LSUPress Website

Jim Crow New York:  A Documentary History of Race and Citizenship, 1777-1877; co-author, David Quigley (New York University Press, 2003).

Awards

Journal of the Early Republic/Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (2001) Winner of the Ralph D. Gray Prize for outstanding article appearing in Volume 20; "Race, the Public Sphere, and Abolition in Late Eighteenth-Century New York."

Professional Associations

American Historical Association; Society for Historians of the Early American Republic

Link to Professor Gellman's CV