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Gregory P. Downs <gregorydowns1@juno.com> University of Pennsylvania I am working on a study of the relationship between rural life in the South and the political and racial changes from 1859 to about 1914. Particularly I am interested in the ways that rural life shaped a set of metaphorical meanings that flavored political discussions about race, power, and liberty that provide counterpoints to the more typically studied (and urban-based) metaphorical ways of reading Reconstruction and Jim Crow. I am currently revising for publication an article about ways of racial meanings of the southern countryside during the Civil War and am about to begin research on turn-of-the-century political debates in rural North Carolina. |
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Address: | 504 So Melville St. Philadelphia, PA 19143 United States |
Primary Phone: | 215-382-7410 |
List Affiliations: | List Editor for H-Rural Reviewer for H-South Reviewer for H-Tennessee |
Reviews: | Historiographical Fiction A Heavy History |
Interests: | African American History / Studies American History / Studies Political History / Studies |
Bio: Gregory Patterson Downs 6256 N. Lakewood Ave. #1 Chicago, IL 60660 (773) 764-3070 g-downs@northwestern.edu EDUCATION Ph.D. program in History, Northwestern University, entered Sept. 2001. Studying 19th-century American South with Profs. Stephanie McCurry and Steven Hahn. Revising two articles about the political and racial dimensions of rural 19th century Southerners’ perceptions of the forests between plantations and about slave and white struggles over control of that land. M.F.A., University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, degree received 1999. Studied fiction writing with James A. McPherson, Barry Unsworth, and Marilynne Robinson. B.A., cum laude, Yale University, History, degree received 1993. Wrote senior thesis on racial integration in schools in Reconstruction Virginia. Studied with Prof. Melvin Ely. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 2000-2001 Adjunct Instructor in English and History, DePaul University, Columbia College, and University of St. Francis Designed and taught courses in composition, literature, and history to undergraduates at three Chicago-area colleges while also publishing articles as a freelance writer. 1999-2000 Editor/Reporter, Hyde Park Herald Covered politics, community events, and sports for Chicago’s oldest neighborhood newspaper. Supervised a staff of five reporters and copy editors. 1997-1999 Graduate Instructor, University of Iowa Taught Rhetoric and Composition classes to entering students at the University of Iowa as part of fellowship received from the Writer’s Workshop. 1993-1997 English Teacher, Shore Country Day School and University School of Nashville Led seventh through ninth grade English classes at two private schools, coached varsity basketball teams, coordinated grade-level activities, and advised students. 1990-1992 (Summers) Reporter, The Tennessean Wrote more than 150 published articles for Nashville’s largest daily newspaper, covering a variety of political, legal, and religious topics. Published more than 50 front-page articles. PUBLICATIONS Book Review, Enemy Women: Odyssey in the Ozarks by Paulette Jiles, commissioned for H-South, an H-Net Discussion Group. Book Reviews, Bathed in Blood: Hunting and Mastery in the Old South by Nicolas W. Proctor, Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War by T.J. Stiles, and Master of the Senate by Robert Caro, 2002 issues of Gateway Heritage, the Quarterly Magazine of the Missouri Historical Society. “Snack Cakes,” short story, Glimmer Train Stories, forthcoming, 2002. “Freedom Rides,” short story, The Southeast Review, forthcoming, 2002. “Spit Baths,” short story, Sycamore Review, forthcoming, 2002 “Driving Lessons,” short story, The Literary Review, forthcoming, 2002 “A Comparative History of Nashville Love Affairs,” short story, WIND, forthcoming, 2002. “The Currency of the World,” short story, CutBank, Spring 2002 “Sugar Water,” short story, Chicago Reader, December 2001. “Hope Chests,” short story, Meridian, Winter 2001. “The Life We Shared,” short story, South Dakota Review, Spring 2001. “Ain’t I A King, Too?” short story, Greensboro Review, Spring 2000. More than 300 articles in The Tennessean, Hyde Park Herald, Baby magazine, Chicago Tribune, Britannica.com and other publications, 1990-2001. CONFERENCE PAPERS “Patrolling the Home Front: Control, Identity, and Landscape During the Civil War.” Panel presentation at Northern Great Plains History Conference, Minneapolis, MN, October 2002. “Pattie Rollers to Pattie Owners: Patrol Stories as Anti-Slavery Arguments.” Panel Presentation, Fourth Annual Graduate Conference in African-American History, University of Memphis, Oct. 2002. “Pattie Rollers to Pattie Owners: Ex-Slave Patrol Stories as Anti-Slavery Arguments.” Panel Presentation, Mid-America Conference on History, University of Arkansas, Sept. 2002. GRANTS & AWARDS Archie K. Davis Research Fellowship, North Caroliniana Society, 2002. First Place Editorial, Illinois Press Association, 2000. MEMBERSHIPS American Historical Association Organization of American Historians Southern Historical Association |