J. Jacob Calhoun
Academic Appointments
Wabash College 2025 - Present
Byron K. Trippet Assistant Professor of History
David A. Moore Chair in American History
Courses:
• American Firearms
• United States History to 1865
• Philosophy and Craft of History
Missouri Southern State University 2024 - 2025
Adjunct Instructor, Social Sciences Department
Courses:
• United States History to 1877
• African American History to 1877
University of Maryland 2019-2021
Instructor, Department of Public Health
Courses:
• History of Public Health
• Senior Capstone Seminar
Education
University of Virginia
May 2024
Doctor of Philosophy, American History
Dissertation: "Reconstruction through Rifles: The Role of Violence in Black Americans' Fight for Liberty in the Postemancipation Era"
-Committee: Justene Hill Edwards, Caroline Janney, Elizabeth Varon, Lawrie Balfour, Kidada Williams
Comprehensive Exam Fields (Passed with Distinction)
-19th Century U.S. History
-African American History
-Slavery and Emancipation in North America and the Caribbean
University of Virginia
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Digital Humanities Certificate
Proficiencies: Historical Geospatial Visualizations, ArcGIS/StoryMaps, Digital Indexing
Program Adviser: Alison Booth
University of Virginia
May 2024
December 2021
Master of Arts, History
Master's Essay: "Canonniers and Cane Knives: The Violence of Black Citizenship of the Donaldsonville Incident of 1870"
Adviser: Justene Hill Edwards
University of Maryland- College Park
May 2018
Master of Arts, History
Master's Essay: "Cultivating Politics: The Formation of a Black Body Politic in the Postemancipation Louisiana Sugar Parishes"
Adviser: Christopher Bonner
Loyola University New Orleans
May 2016
Bachelor of Arts, History (with Honors)
Thesis: "Eatin' Cotton: The Story of the Jacksonville, Alabama Cotton Mill and Its Workers"
Adviser: Mark Fernandez
Fellowships and Awards
Melvin E. Bradford & Theodore C. Delaney Dissertation Prize- St. George Tucker Society 2025
Dianne Woest Fellowship in the Arts and Humanities- Historic New Orleans Collection 2025-26
Excellent Faculty Paper Award, Society for Nineteenth Century Historians 2024
Postdoctoral Fellow of the John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History 2024-25
Raven Society Membership 2024
Bradley Fellow of the John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History 2022
J. Carl Sewell Graduate Fellow of John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History 2022
John L. Nau III History and Principles of Democracy Lab Graduate Fellow 2021-22
Publications
“The Donaldsonville March of 1870: A Case Study in Black Militias’ Use of Force to Combat
Insurrectionists in the Reconstruction South” Civil War History, December 2025
“What Democrats Can Learn from America’s First Black Voters,” Time Magazine, Made by
History, November 15, 2024
“During Reconstruction Southern Planters Called on the US Army to enforce an Old Status Quo,”
America’s Civil War, Spring 2024
“The Black Lawmen of Reconstruction,” John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History Blog,
University of Virginia, June 13, 2023
Book Reviews
Review of An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South by Robert K. D. Colby,
Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Forthcoming
Review of Playing at War: Identity and Memory in Civil War Video Games edited by
Patrick A. Lewis and James Hill Wellborn III, Journal of Southern History, Forthcoming
Review of The Colfax County War: Violence and Corruption in Territorial New Mexico by
Corey Recko, The Journal of the Civil War Era, Forthcoming
Review of The Bone and Sinew of the Land: America’s Forgotten Black Pioneers and the
Struggle for Equality by Anna Lisa Cox, Indiana Magazine of History 118, no. 4 (December
2022)
Review of The Women’s Fight: The Civil War’s Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation by
Thavolia Glymph, Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association
62, no. 2 (Spring 2021): 240-24
Public History Experience
Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society May 2024 – July 2025
As a Postdoctoral Associate, leads research efforts to uncover the history of key sites in Albemarle County, Virginia. Responsible for producing digital, public -facing work that contextualizes the history of such sites, and meets with donors to seek out support for the society’s ongoing research efforts. Tasked with supervising undergraduate interns from the University of Virginia, providing them with experience as they navigate primary and secondary sources and offering guidance as in their research pursuits.
The Memory Project September 2021 - May 2024
Working with fellow researchers, conducted research to discover the history of humantrafficking that took place at Court Square in Charlottesville, VA during the nineteenth century. The team identified hundreds of enslaved men, women, and children who were trafficked at the site and produced a report for the Historic Resources Commission. The team collaborated with local descendant communities to ensure the ethical use of genealogical data acquired through archival research.
Assistantships
University of Virginia Fall 2020 – Spring 2023
Teaching Assistant, Corcoran Department of History
Courses:
• Democracy in Danger
• American Slavery
• Modern U.S. Legal History
• Modern China
University of Maryland Fall 2016 – Spring 2018
Teaching Assistant, Department of Public Health Courses:
• History of Public Health
Presentations and Lectures
“ ‘Crispus Attucks did Not Die’: Louisiana’s Composite Militia and the War for Reconstruction”
Society for Military History
Mobile, Alabama (March 27-30, 2025)
“The Baton Rouge Massacre: A Forgotten Story of Reconstruction,”
Louisiana’s Old State Capitol
Baton Rouge, Louisiana (March 20, 2025)
““Representatives of the Arch Destroyer Death”: Coroners and the Press in the Post-Civil WarSouth”
Symposium on the Nineteenth-Century Press, the Civil War, and Free Expression
Augusta, Georgia (November 7-9, 2024)
Received Excellent Faculty Paper Award
“Pistols and Politics: Black Resistance during the Twilight of Reconstruction”
The Southern Historical Association 89th Annual Meeting
Charlotte, North Carolina (November 9-12, 2023)
“‘They Would Carry Their Flag to Victory’: Black Self-Armament and the Opelousas Massacre of 1868”
Slavery Past, Present & Future: Seventh Global Meeting
Webster University Ghana, Accra, Ghana (July 2-8, 2023)
“Canonniers and Cane Knives: The Violence of Black Citizenship and the Donaldsonville Incident of 1870”
The Society of Civil War Historians Conference
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (June 2-4, 2022)
"Falsely Framing the Narrative: Louisiana Newspapers in the Reconstruction Period"
Symposium on the Nineteenth Century Press, the Civil War, and Free Expression
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, Tennessee (November 7-9, 2019)
“Monuments of Public Vengeance: Questions of Slave Punishments and Proportionality in Early National Virginia”
Rocky Mountain Interdisciplinary History Conference
University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado (October 6-8, 2017)
“By Bayonets and Gatling Guns”
Brian Bertoti Innovative Perspectives in History Graduate Conference
Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Virginia (March 18-19, 2017)
““Eatin’ Cotton: The Story of the Jacksonville, Alabama, Cotton Mill and Its Workers”
Awarded Honorable Mention
Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference
University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana (March 18-19, 2016)