Presentations

I’ve spoken on a number of topics venues, ranging from academic conferences to civic organization meetings and community events. See below for a selection of presentations, divided into academic and invited talks. The full list can be found on my CV.

I’m always open to the possibility to speak on topics within my areas of expertise.

Academic Presentations

“Practical Idealism”: The Fairhope Single Tax Corporation and Alabama’s “Utopia by the Bay”

My presidential address, given at the Alabama Historical Association’s annual meeting in Fairhope, Alabama, in 2026. I give a broad overview of the FSTC and its work in the growth and development of Fairhope.

Prohibition in Alabama

I delivered this paper at the AHA’s annual meeting, held virtually in 2021 due to the COVID pandemic. The presentation provides an overview of state-level prohibition efforts in Alabama.

“Accommodating the Forces of Change”: Civil Rights and and Economic Development in Space Age Huntsville, Alabama

This paper was part of the “NASA in the ‘Long’ Civil Rights Movement’ Symposium, held in Huntsville, Alabama, in conjunction with Marshall Space Flight Center. I discuss the way that civil rights activists utilized Huntsville’s emphasis on economic growth to realize progress in the fight for equal rights.

“The Hour Has Struck for Alabama”: The Campaign to Build the Alabama State Docks, 1919-1928

I presented this paper at the 2016 Gulf South History and Humanities Conference in Mobile, Alabama. I focus on the political and economic efforts to develop the state docks in Alabama’s Port City.

The “Decatur Story”: Public-Private Cooperation and Regional Development in the Sunbelt South, 1945-1960

This presentation, given at the Society for American City and Regional Planning History’s national conference in 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland, uses Decatur, Alabama, as a case study for the way local civic groups utilized federal cooperation for regional development.

“Too Much Icing and Not Enough Cake”: The Campaign to Diversify Huntsville’s Economy, 1945-1965

I gave this presentation at the 2007 meeting of the Southern Historical Association in Richmond, Virginia. I traced efforts by community organizations to attract and shape federal investment in Alabama’s “Rocket City.”

Invited Talks

“The Great War in Alabama”

I’ve given this talk, an overview of Alabama’s role in World War I, in several venues, including at a Learning Lunch at the History Museum of Mobile and as part of a lecture series at Sylacauga’s Comer Public Library.

A “New Deal” for Art: The WPA and Federal Project Number One

The Mobile Museum of Art invited me to present on the WPA’s Federal Art Project as part of a “Decades” series feature works from the museum collection.

“The Wickedest Place in Alabama”: Prohibition in Birmingham, 1907-1933

I gave this talk at a “Food For Thought” learning lunch at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery. It covers Birmingham’s experience during the prohibition movement.

Rallying to the Call: Mobile’s Women in World War II

I gave this talk at a Learning Lunch at the History Museum of Mobile. I’ve given several variations of it, focused on a broader look at the impact of World War II on life in Mobile.

Power for the People: Muscle Shoals, The Tennessee Valley Authority, and the South’s New Deal

In 2020, I was invited to give the keynote address for the annual meeting of the Alabama Association of Historians in Florence. This talk describes the founding of the TVA with the World War I-era Muscle Shoals Project.

1940s Alabama

In 2019, in celebration of Alabama’s Bicentennial, the Alabama Department of Archives and History hosted a decade-by-decade series of talks based on objects in the archives’ holdings. I was invited to speak on a a civil defense map from the 1940s.