Justin Behrend
Professor and Chair of History
Professor Behrend is a scholar of the Reconstruction era. Follow him on Twitter @justin_behrend
Dr. Justin Behrend, professor and department chair of history, has been on the SUNY Geneseo faculty since 2007. His research interests include nineteenth-century U.S. history, African American history, Atlantic World slavery, and Southern history. Dr. Behrend is the author of Reconstructing Democracy: Black Grassroots Politics in the Deep South after the Civil War and articles on slave rebellions, emancipation, and Reconstruction.
Office Hours
M 9:30 - 11:30
W 9:30 - 11:30 and 4:00 - 5:00 pm
Curriculum Vitae
Education
Ph.D. in History, Northwestern University
Publications
Reconstructing Democracy: Black Grassroots Politics in the Deep South after the Civil War (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2015)
“When Neighbors Turn against Neighbors: Irregular Warfare and the Crisis of Democracy in the Civil War Era,” in Beyond Freedom: Disrupting the History of Emancipation, ed. David W. Blight and James Downs (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2017), 90-103.
“Facts, Memories, and History: John R. Lynch and the Memory of Reconstruction in the Age of Jim Crow” in Remembering Reconstruction: Struggles Over the Meaning of America's Most Turbulent Era, edited by Carole Emberton and Bruce E. Baker (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2017), 84-108.
"Fear of Reenslavement: Black Political Mobilization in Response to the Waning of Reconstruction" in Rethinking American Emancipation: Legacies of Slavery and the Quest for Black Freedom, edited by William A. Link and James J. Broomall (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 146-163.
"Black Political Mobilization and the Spatial Transformation of Natchez" in Confederate Cities: The Urban South During the Civil Era, edited by Andrew L. Slap and Frank Towers (University of Chicago Press, 2015), 190-214.
"Facts and Memories: John R. Lynch and the Revising of Reconstruction History in the Era of Jim Crow," Journal of African American History 97, no. 4 (Fall 2012): 427-448.
"Rumors of Revolt," New York Times, September 15, 2011.
"Rebellious Talk and Conspiratorial Plots: The Making of a Slave Insurrection in Civil War Natchez," Journal of Southern History 77, no. 1 (February 2011): 17-52.
More About Me
Research Interests
- Nineteenth Century U.S.
- African American
- Civil War and Emancipation
Awards and Honors
- McLemore Prize for best book in Mississippi History, 2016
- Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2013
Websites
Classes
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AMST 201: U/TopAmSt: Legacies of Slavery
This course will be an interdisciplinary investigation of major influences on and developments in American culture. Each semester there will be a focus on one chronological period, but a variety of topics will be covered. Such topics could include gender, religion, race, social movements and conditions, and artistic and literary developments. The course will emphasize student use and study of period writings and cultural materials. Integrative learning will enhance the interdisciplinary nature of the course.
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HIST 407: Slave Reb & Res-Atlantic World
This course examines slave rebellions and resistance in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in a wide variety of locales, including the United States, the Caribbean, and South America. Our goals will be to examine what constitutes a slave rebellion, how resistance differed from rebellion, how revolts were organized, how they impacted local communities as well as nation-states, and how various forms of resistance altered slaveholder power. This course will give you a sense of what slavery was like in the New World, and how historical events, such as the French and Haitian revolutions, altered slave regimes, and how slave rebels shaped the abolitionist movement. In addition, we will explore how historians have interpreted the fragmentary evidence on revolts and conspiracies. Prerequisite: HIST 302 (HIST 301 also recommended).