EDUCATION
2010 Ph.D., History, The University of Alabama
2004 M.A., History, The University of Alabama
2002 B.A., History, Birmingham-Southern College
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
2012-present University of Mobile
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Professor of History (Tenured)
2010-2011 University of Alabama at Birmingham
Visiting Assistant Professor
PUBLICATIONS
Books
2014 Transforming the South: Federal Development in the Tennessee Valley, 1915-1960, Louisiana State University Press
Edited Volumes
2018 The American South and the Great War: 1914-1924 (co-editor), Louisiana State University Press
Book Chapters
2021 “World War II: ADDSCO Identification Badge,” in Fowler, ed., A History of Mobile in 22 Objects, 58-61, History Museum of Mobile (chapter and exhibit entry)
2019 “‘Accommodating the Forces of Change’: Civil Rights and Economic Development in Space Age Huntsville, Alabama,” 109-125, in Odom and Waring, eds., NASA and the Long Civil Rights Movement, University of Florida Press.
2018 “’The Battle of Commerce Is Begun’: Building the Port of Mobile after World War I,” 207-236, in Downs and Floyd, eds., The American South and the Great War: 1914-1924, LSU Press
2014 “Clicking the Tri-noculars into Position: A Conversation with Glenda Gilmore,” 164-178, in Bever and Suarez, eds., The Historian behind the History: Conversations with Southern Historians, University of Alabama Press
2014 “’From Nothin’ to Somethin’: Decatur, Alabama, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and Federal-Local Cooperation in the Sunbelt South, 1940-1960,” 261-286, in Feldman, ed., Nation within a Nation: The American South and the Federal Government, University of Florida Press
Journal Articles
2009 “An Interview with Dr. Glenda Gilmore,” Southern Historian XXX (Spring 2009), 7-16.
Encyclopedia/Textbook Entries
2019 “Prohibition,” Encyclopedia of Alabama
2015 “The New Deal in Alabama,” Encyclopedia of Alabama
2014 “The Great Depression in Alabama,” Encyclopedia of Alabama
2014 “Massive Resistance,” Encyclopedia of Alabama
2014 “Edward B. Almon,” Encyclopedia of Alabama
2014 “The South and the New Deal,” The American Yawp
2014 “The Causes of the Great Depression,” The American Yawp
Book Reviews
2020 Review of Cox and Gardner, eds., Reassessing the 1930s South (2018), Journal of Southern Religion 22 (2020) (jsreligion.org)
2019 Review of Wedge, Baseball in Alabama (2018), Alabama Review 72, no. 4 (October 2019): 318-320
2018 Review of Neufeld, Selling Power: Economics, Policy, and Electric Utilities before 1940 (2016), American Historical Review 123, no. 4 (October 2018): 1322-1323
2018 Review of Jewell, Dollars for Dixie: Business and the Transformation of Conservatism in the Twentieth Century(2017), Journal of American History 104, no. 4 (March 2018): 1063-1064
2016 Review of Mangianello, Southern Water, Southern Power: How the Politics of Cheap Energy and Water Scarcity Shaped a Region (2015), Journal of Southern History 82: no. 3 (August 2016): 721-722
2016 Review of Laney, German Rocketeers in the Heart of Dixie: Making Sense of the Nazi Past during the Civil Rights Era (2015), Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 114, no. 2 (Spring 2016): 275-277
2016 Review of Purcell, Arthur Morgan: A Progressive Vision for American Reform (2014), Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 114, no. 1 (Winter 2016): 114-116
2015 Review of Rose, Farewell to Prosperity: Wealth, Identity and Conflict in Postwar America (2014), Journal of Southern History 81, no. 4 (November 2015): 1031-1033.
2015 Review of Romano, Racial Reckoning: Prosecuting America’s Civil Rights Murders (2014), Alabama Review 68, no. 4 (October 2015): 378-380
2015 Review of Ingram, Dixie Highway: Road Building and the Making of the Modern South, 1900-1930 (2015), Enterprise and Society (Cambridge University Press): 1-3
2015 Review of Katagiri, Black Freedom, White Resistance, and Red Menace: Civil Rights and Anticommunism in the Jim Crow South (2014), Alabama Review 68, no. 1 (January 2015): 126-28
2012 Review of Hersey, My Work Is That of Conservation: An Environmental Biography of George Washington Carver(2011), Alabama Review 65, no. 3 (July 2012): 250-52
2010 Review of Sklaroff, Black Culture and the New Deal: The Quest for Civil Rights in the Roosevelt Era (2009), H-Law, H-Net Reviews, November 2010
2010 Review of Huber, Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South (2008), Southern HistorianXXXI (Spring 2010): 132-43
Other Publications
2022 “‘Bad Birmingham’: The Magic City’s First Experiment with Prohibition, 1907-1911,” Alabama Heritage 146 (Fall 2022): 48-55
2021 “A History of Mobile in 22 Objects: ADDSCO Identification Badge,” Mobile Bay Magazine (December 2021): 84-85
2010-2015 I contributed a series of twenty-four articles, published quarterly, tracing the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, for a series entitled “Becoming Alabama” in Alabama Heritage magazine. The final article in the series is representative: “Spring 1965: Selma” Alabama Heritage 116 (Spring 2015), 50-52.
AWARDS AND HONORS
2021 Mitford Ray Megginson Research Award, University of Mobile
2015 Mitford Ray Megginson Research Award, University of Mobile
2015 James B. Sulzby Award, Alabama Historical Association
2008 Department of History Dissertation Fellowship, University of Alabama
2007, 2008 Graduate Student Research and Travel Support Award, University of Alabama
2007 Gary Bernard Mills Endowed Dissertation Support Fund, University of Alabama
2005 Frank Lawrence Owsley Memorial Scholarship, University of Alabama
2002 Graduate Council Fellowship, University of Alabama
INVITED TALKS
2026 “Practical Idealism: The Fairhope Single Tax Corporation and Alabama’s ‘Utopia by the Bay,’” Presidential Address, Alabama Historical Association Annual Meeting, Fairhope, AL
2024 “The Great War in Alabama,” Learning Lunch, History Museum of Mobile, Mobile, AL
2024 “The Great War in Alabama,” First Bank of Alabama Adult Lecture Series, Sylacauga, AL
2024 “A “New Deal” for Art: The WPA and Federal Project Number One,” Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
2023 “The Tennessee Valley Authority and Regional Development in North Alabama, 1933-1960,” First Bank of Alabama Adult Lecture Series, Sylacauga, AL
2022 “‘The Wickedest Place in Alabama’: Prohibition in Birmingham, 1907-1933,” “Food for Thought” Learning Lunch, Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, AL
2021 “Rallying to the Call: Mobile’s Women in World War II,” Learning Lunch, History Museum of Mobile, Mobile, AL
2020 “Power for the People: Muscle Shoals, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the South’s New Deal,” keynote address, Alabama Association of Historians Annual Meeting, Florence, AL
2019 “Buffalo Soldiers,” with Eddy Irby, Jr., Odyssey Continuing Education Program, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL
2019 “1940s Alabama,” “History of Alabama in Twenty Artifacts: A Bicentennial Symposium,” Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, AL
2019 “Mobile in World War II,” Alabama Bicentennial Summer Institute: Mobile Remembers World War II, Alabama Humanities Foundation, History Museum of Mobile, Mobile, AL
2019 “Race Relations in the South and WWI,” and “The South’s Economy and WWI,” “Time of Tradition & Transition: A Symposium on the South and World War I,” Lander University, Greenwood, SC
2018 “Muscle Shoals, Mobile, and Alabama during World War I,” Alabama Authors Day, Historic Blakeley State Park, AL
2018 “Trivia and Tales: Time-Traveling through Mobile,” Alabama World Languages Association, University of Mobile, Mobile, AL
2017 “Florence, Muscle Shoals, and World War I,” Alabama Humanities Foundation “Remembering the Great War” speaker series, Florence-Lauderdale Public Library, Florence, AL
2016 “’The Battle of Commerce Is Begun’: Building the Port of Mobile after World War I,” Learning Lunch, History Museum of Mobile, Mobile, AL
2015 “Mobile during World War II,” Crash Course in Mobile History, Conference for Mobile Area Educators, History Museum of Mobile, Mobile, AL
2014 “’A Democratic Labor’: The Tennessee Valley Authority and Economic Development, 1933-1953,” at “Valley of the Dams: The Impact and Legacy of the Tennessee Valley Authority,” National Archives and Records Administration, Southeastern Branch, Morrow, GA
2014 “The Civil Rights Act of 1964, 50 Years Later,” Azalea City Kiwanis Club, Mobile, AL
2012 “The Space Race,” Lakelands Region Teaching American History Program, Lander University, Greenwood, SC
2008 “’Neither Boom nor Gloom’: The Economic Development of Huntsville, Alabama, 1940-1990,” Global American South Conference, Chapel Hill, NC
2007 “Civil Rights in the Heart of Dixie, 1955-1965,” Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
CONFERENCE ACTIVITY
Papers Presented
2022 “Family Biography as Regional History: The Bankheads of Alabama,” Roundtable participant, Alabama Historical Association Annual Meeting, Florence, AL
2021 “Prohibition in Alabama,” Alabama Historical Association Annual Meeting, Virtual
2017 “Muscle Shoals, Mobile, and the Impact of World War I on Alabama’s Industrial Economy,” Alabama Historical Association Annual Meeting, Auburn, AL
2017 “‘Accommodating the Forces of Change’: Civil Rights and Economic Development in Space Age Huntsville, Alabama,” NASA in the “Long” Civil Rights Movement Symposium, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL
2016 “’The Hour Has Struck for Alabama’: The Campaign to Build the Alabama State Docks, 1919-1928,” Gulf South History and Humanities Conference, Mobile, AL,
2016 “World War I and the Impetus for Industrial Development in Mobile, Alabama,” Southern Industrialization Project, Huntsville, AL
2015 “’To Help Business and Alabama Grow Together’: Economic Development in Alabama in the World War II Era,” Alabama Historical Association Annual Meeting, Mobile, AL
2011 “The ‘Decatur Story’: Public-Private Cooperation and Regional Economic Development in the Sunbelt South, 1945-1960,” Society for American City and Regional Planning History National Conference, Baltimore, MD
2010 “‘They Must Work, Work, Work’: Henry Ford, Muscle Shoals, and Agricultural Industrialization in North Alabama, 1921-1924,” Agricultural History Society Annual Meeting, Winter Park, FL
2010 “A ‘Democratic Labor’: The Tennessee Valley Authority and Regional Development in North Alabama, 1940-1960,” Alabama Historical Association Annual Meeting, Gadsden, AL
2009 “Muscle Shoals and the Direction of Southern Development,” Alabama Association of Historians Annual Meeting, Livingston, AL
2007 “’Too Much Icing and Not Enough Cake’: The Campaign to Diversify Huntsville’s Economy, 1945-1965,” Southern Historical Association Annual Meeting, Richmond, VA
Comments and Moderating
2024 Moderator, Alabama Historical Association Annual Meeting, Huntsville, AL
2023 Moderator, Alabama Historical Association Annual Meeting, Prattville, AL
2019 Moderator, “Stories from Across the South: How WWI Affects Our Region,” “Time of Tradition & Transition: A Symposium on the South and World War I,” Lander University, Greenwood, SC
2019 Moderator, Alabama Author’s Day, Historic Blakeley State Park, AL
2018 Moderator, Alabama Historical Association Annual Meeting, Birmingham, AL
2011 Comments, Panel on Civil Rights, University of Alabama Graduate Student History Conference on Power and Struggle, Tuscaloosa, AL
2011 Moderator, Commenter, Panel on Southern History, UAB Graduate History Association Annual Conference, Birmingham, AL
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
University of Mobile
Honors English: Classical (team-taught)
Honors English: Modern (team-taught)
Seminar in American History: New Deal (graduate)
University of Mobile, cont.
Seminar in American History: The Cold War at Home (graduate)
The Civil Rights Movement (undergraduate and graduate)
Introduction to Public History
Leadership and Crisis (online)
Vietnam in the Twentieth Century (in-person and online)
Readings in Modern American History: Cold War
World War II
Alabama History
History of the New South
Geography and History of the Old South
Philosophy and Methods of History
History of the United States (to 1877, since 1877; in-person and online)
World Civilizations to 1500 (in-person and online)
Western Civilization to 1550
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Seminar in American History: Populism, Progressivism, New Deal (graduate)
Seminar in Southern History: The South in the Nation (graduate)
Historian’s Craft
Americans in the World, 1898-present
History of the New South
Cold War America
American Politics since Roosevelt, 1945-present
American Politics from Roosevelt to Roosevelt
University of Montevallo
World Civilizations (to 1550, since 1550) (adjunct)
University of North Alabama
History of the United States (to 1877, since 1877) (adjunct)
Birmingham-Southern College
History of the United States since 1877 (adjunct)
University of Alabama
History of the United States (to 1877, since 1877) (adjunct)
SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION
2020-present Board of Directors, Alabama Men’s Hall of Fame
President, 2024-2026
Vice President, 2023-2024
Secretary, 2020-2023
2017-present Operating Board, Historic Blakeley Authority, Historic Blakeley State Park
2017-present Editor, Alabama Review
2025-2026 President, Alabama Historical Association
2024-2025 Vice President, Alabama Historical Association
2024 Expert Reviewer, 2024 Draft Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
2024 MSS Review, Journal of Southern History
2023-2024 Grants Review Panel, Alabama Humanities Alliance
2023-2024 Program Committee, Alabama Historical Association
2022-2023 Program Committee, Alabama Historical Association
2018-2019 MSS Review, University of South Carolina Press
2017-2018 Program Committee, Alabama Historical Association
2016 MSS Review, Georgia Historical Quarterly
2016 Lead Scholar, “World War II in Alabama,” Alabama Humanities Foundation, SUPER Institute for Secondary Educators, June 13-16, 2016
2015-2016 Poster Session Committee, Alabama Historical Association
2015-2025 MSS Review, University of Alabama Press
2013-2015 MSS Review, Alabama Review
2013-2014 Local Arrangements Committee, Alabama Historical Association.
2012-2014 Review Editor, 20th Century Southern History, H-South, H-Net
DEPARTMENTAL/UNIVERSITY SERVICE
2021-present Chair, General Education Assessment Committee, Univ. of Mobile
2020-present Academic Affairs Committee, Univ. of Mobile
Vice Chair, 2023-present
2019-present Director, Dual Enrollment Program, Univ. of Mobile
Director, 2019-present
History Representative, 2013-2019
2012-present Social/Behavioral Sciences Representative, Teacher Education Council, Univ. of Mobile
2016-present Honor Council/Academic Integrity Council, Univ. of Mobile
2016-2020 Special Activities Committee, Chair, Univ. of Mobile
2016-2017 General Education Working Group, Univ. of Mobile
2016-2017 Learning Management System Review Working Group, Univ. of Mobile
2016 Conversation Facilitator, Listening Groups on Diversity, Univ. of Mobile
2013-2016 Online Education Committee Univ. of Mobile
2014-2015 Learning Management System Review Committee, Univ. of Mobile
2014-2015 Led Team for Project Serve to Volunteer at the History Museum of Mobile
2013 Organizer, 50th Anniv. Commemorative Reading of Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Univ. of Mobile
2010-2011 Faculty Sponsor, Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform, Student Chapter, University of Alabama at Birmingham
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS, EXPERIENCE
2009-2010 Tutor, University Writing Center, University of Alabama
2007-2008 Editor, Southern Historian
2006-2007 Assistant Editor/Business Manager, Southern Historian
2007 Research Assistant, “Cliff and Virginia Foster Durr,” Department of History, The University of Alabama
2006 Research Assistant, “The John H. Bankhead, Sr., Family,” Department of History, The University of Alabama
2004-2006 Editorial Assistant, Associate Editor, Southern Historian
2005-2006 Historian in Residence, Teaching American History Program
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Alabama Folklife Association
Alabama Historical Association
Matthew L. Downs, Ph.D. 