Current Position:

Associate Professor of American History

Description:

Kyle Volk's research and teaching focus on the political, legal, social, and intellectual history of the United States. He is broadly interested in the history of democracy, the problem of dissent and difference in American society, the place of morals in American law and politics, the history of civil rights and civil liberties, and the changing meaning of freedom in American life. His first book, Moral Minorities & the Making of American Democracy, explores the popular struggles over minority rights that developed out of conflicts over race, religion, and alcohol in nineteenth-century America. A new project will explore the history of resistance to law and government in the nineteenth century.

Professor Volk's research has been supported by the American Society for Legal History, the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Antiquarian Society, the Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fund, and the Institute for Humane Studies. He has been a member of the History Department since 2007 and is also an affliated faculty member of the African American Studies program. He advises the department's chapter of Phi Alpha Theta (the history honor society) and coordinates the department's Lockridge History Workshop.

Professor Volk advises graduate students studying various aspects of nineteenth- and twentieth-century U.S. History. He is accepting both MA and PhD students in the 2013-14 admissions cycle. Please contact Professor Volk by email if you are interested in working with him as a graduate student.

Field Of Study:

United States Political, Social, Legal, & Intellectual History; Civil Rights & Civil Liberties; Public Policy & the American State

Courses:

HSTA 101 - American History I
HSTA 103 - Honors American History I (Writing Course)
HSTR 200 - Introduction to Historical Methods
HSTA 315 - The Early American Republic, 1787-1848 
HSTA 380 - Problems in American Constitutional History
HSTA 391 - Intoxication Nation: Alcohol in American History
HSTR 400 - Moral Conflict & American Democracy (UDW)
HSTR 400 - Law & Society in Nineteenth-Century America (UDW)
HSTA 420 - America Divided, 1848-1865  (UDW)
HSTR 500 - Teaching Discussion Sections
HSTA 501 - Readings in Early American History (Graduate Course) 
HSTA 560 - The American State (Graduate Course)
HSTR 594 - Seminar: Lockridge Workshop (Graduate Course)
HSTA 595 - Law, Democracy, & Freedom in US History (Graduate Course)

Education:

PhD, University of Chicago, 2008   
MA, University of Chicago, 2001
BA, Boston College, 1999

Selected Publications:

Moral Minorities & the Making of American Democracy (book manuscript under review)

"The Perils of 'Pure Democracy': Minority Rights, Liquor Politics, & Popular Sovereignty in Antebellum America."  Journal of the Early Republic 29 (Winter 2009), 641-679.

Other Publications:

Reviews in Law & History Review, Journal of the Early Republic, American Nineteenth Century History, and The Journal of the Civil War Era.