Curriculum Vitae
Matthew D. Lassiter
Department of History (734) 546-0799
1029 Tisch Hall mlassite@umich.edu
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Education __________________________________________________
Ph.D., Department of History, University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA, May 1999.
Dissertation: "The Rise of the Suburban South: The 'Silent Majority' and the Politics of Education, 1945-1975."
M.A., Department of History, University of Virginia, Jan. 1994. Thesis: "Biblical Fundamentalism and Racial Beliefs at Bob Jones University."
B.A., History, summa cum laude, Furman University, Greenville SC, May 1992.
Employment/Teaching ________________________________________
Associate Professor of History, University of Michigan, 2006-
Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Michigan, 2007-
Director of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan, 2006-
Assistant Professor of History, University of Michigan, 2000-06
History/AC 374: "Politics and Culture of the Sixties" (lecture, 2000).
History 161: "U.S. History Since 1865" (lecture, 2001).
History 364: "History of American Suburbia" (lecture, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006).
History 467: "U.S. History Since 1945" (lecture, 2003, 2004, 2006).
History 196: "Political Culture of Cold War America" (first-year seminar, 2003).
History 688: "Urban Crisis/Suburban Nation" (grad., 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005).
History 611: "The Literature of American History" (grad, 2006).
Visiting Instructor and Assistant Professor of History, Bowdoin College, 1998-2000
"U.S. History Since 1877" (lecture, 1998).
"History of the American South" (lecture, 1999, 2000).
"History of the American West" (lecture, 1999).
"Rethinking the 1960s" (seminar, 1998, 1999).
"The Urban Crisis: Race and Class in Modern America" (seminar, 1999, 2000).
Publications_______________________________________________
Books_____________________________________
The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South (Princeton University Press, 2006). Listed in the Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America series, ed. William Chafe, Gary Gerstle, Linda Gordon, Julian Zelizer.
**Winner of the 2007 Lillian Smith Book Award presented by the Southern Regional Council
The Moderates' Dilemma: Massive Resistance to School Desegregation in Virginia (University Press of Virginia, 1998), coedited with Andrew B. Lewis.
Works in Progress___________________________
The Suburban Crisis: The Pursuit and Defense of the American Dream.
The End of Southern History, coedited with Joseph Crespino, forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
"De Jure/De Facto Segregation: The Long Shadow of a National Myth," chapter in The End of Southern History.
"The History of Racial Discrimination in Housing in the United States, 1866-1975," National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, National Parks Service, United States Department of the Interior.
"Inventing Family Values," in Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s, eds. Bruce Schulman and Julian Zelizer (Harvard University Press, 2007).
"The 'Color-Blind' Inversion of Civil Rights History," Roundtable on the America of George W. Bush, Revue Francaise D'Etudes Americaines (Sept. 2007), 65-69.
"Busing," in Encyclopedia of American Urban History, ed. David Goldfield (Sage Publications, 2007), 110-13.
"Socioeconomic Integration in the Suburbs: From Reactionary Populism to Class Fairness in Metropolitan Charlotte," in The New Suburban History (University of Chicago Press, 2006), ed. Kevin M. Kruse and Thomas J. Sugrue.
"The Suburban Origins of 'Color-Blind' Conservatism: Middle-Class Consciousness in the Charlotte Busing Crisis," Journal of Urban History (May 2004), 549-582.
**Selected by the Organization of American Historians for inclusion in Joyce Appleby, ed., The Best American History Essays 2006 (Palgrave, 2006)
"Suburban Strategies: The Volatile Center in Postwar Political Culture," in The Democratic Experiment: New Directions in American Political History, ed. Julian E. Zelizer, Meg Jacobs, and William Novak (Princeton University Press, 2003), 327-49.
**Excerpt reprinted in The Suburb Reader, eds. Becky Nicolaides and Andrew Wiese (Routledge, 2006).
"Massive Resistance Revisited: Virginia's White Moderates and the Byrd Organization," in The Moderates' Dilemma, 1-21 (Introduction coauthored with Andrew B. Lewis).
"A 'Fighting Moderate': Benjamin Muse's Search for the Submerged South," in The Moderates' Dilemma, 168-201.
Review Essays _____________________________
"Race over Region," Reviews in American History 35 (March 2007), 98-104.
"Does the Supreme Court Matter? Civil Rights and the Inherent Politicization of Constitutional Law," Michigan Law Review (May 2005), 101-22.
"The New Suburban History II: Political Culture and Metropolitan Space," Journal of Planning History (Feb. 2005), 75-88.
Book Reviews_______________________________
Review of Beth Bailey and David Farber, eds., America in the Seventies, in Journal of Interdisciplinary History (2007), 484-85.
Review of Charles E. Connerly, "The Most Segregated City in America": City Planning and Civil Rights in Birmingham, 1920-1980, in Journal of Planning Education and Research (Winter 2006), 252-54.
Review of Richardson Dilworth, The Urban Origins of Suburban Autonomy, in Political Science Quarterly (Fall 2005), 704-06.
Review of Glenn Feldman, ed., Before Brown: Civil Rights and White Backlash in the Modern South, in Journal of American History (December 2005), 1035-36.
Review of Yasuhiro Katagari, The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission: Civil Rights and States' Rights, in Journal of American Studies (Spring/Summer 2003), 316-17.
Review of Patricia Sullivan, Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New Deal Era, in Southern Changes (Summer 1996).
Academic Conferences _______________________________________
"De Facto/De Jure Segregation: The Long Shadow of a National Myth," 2008 meeting of the American History Association.
Comment, "Schools and Metropolitan Inequity: Education and Markets in the Late 20th Century," 2007 History of Education Society Conference.
Chair and Comment, "Faith and Economics in the Making of the Modern Right," 2007 Meeting of the Organization of American Historians.
"'Betrayed by the North': Court-Ordered Busing, White Backlash, and Suburban Innocence in the 1970s," presented to the conference "Beyond Brown: How the Supreme Court Shaped the Modern South" (University of Sussex, March 22-24, 2007).
Chair and Comment, "Religion and Cultural Shifts in the Upcountry," at the 2007 conference "Our Past Before Us: The Search for the South Carolina Upcountry."
Comment, "Mountains and Moguls: Race Relations and Preservation Policies in the Metropolitan Southwest," 2006 Conference of the Urban History Association.
Respondent, "Book Session: Kevin Kruse, White Flight, and Matthew Lassiter, The Silent Majority," 2006 Policy History Conference.
Panelist, "Book Session: Donald Critchlow, Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism," 2006 Policy History Conference.
"De Facto/De Jure Segregation: The Strange Career of a National Myth," presented to the March 2006 conference "The End of Southern History? Reintegrating the Modern South and the Nation at Emory University.
"'Socioeconomic Integration' in the Suburbs: From Reactionary Populism to Class Fairness in Metropolitan Charlotte," presented at the February 2004 Conference "City Limits: New Perspectives in the History of American Suburbs," sponsored by the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University.
"Suburban Populism: Class Privilege and 'Color-Blind' Innocence in the New South," presented at the Winter 2004 meeting of the American Historical Association, panel on "The Suburban Sunbelt and the Making of Modern American Conservatism."
"The Open-Schools Revolt: The Southern Regional Council and the Construction of the Moderate South," presented at the October 2003 "Conference on the Southern Regional Council and the Civil Rights Movement" at the University of Florida.
"The Suburban Origins of 'Color-Blind' Conservatism: Middle-Class Consciousness in the Charlotte Busing Crisis," presented at the Winter 2002 meeting of the American Historical Association, panel on "Color Lines: Racial Frontiers in the Modern American Metropolis."
"The Suburbanization of Southern Politics: The 'Silent Majority' and the Failure of the 'Southern Strategy,'" presented at the Fall 2001 meeting of the Southern Historical Association, panel on "White Southerners and the Politics of Massive Resistance."
"Concerned Parents and Court-Ordered Busing in Charlotte," presented at the Spring 2000 meeting of the Organization of American Historians, panel on "Saving Schools: Educational Reformers and School Desegregation in the Urban South."
Grants, Fellowships, Awards ____________________________________
History News Network, Top Young Historian (2006) http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/30414.html
William T. Ludolph, Jr., Junior Faculty Development Award, History Department, University of Michigan, 2003, 2005, 2006.
Patricia Jane Barrett Faculty Research Award, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, University of Michigan, 2004.
National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, 2001-02.
Faculty Fellowship Enhancement Award, Rackham School of Graduate Studies and Office of the Vice President for Research, University of Michigan, 2001.
Southern History Dissertation Fellowship, University of Virginia, 1995-98.
Teaching Awards____________________________________________
Class of 1923 Memorial Teaching Award, University of Michigan, 2006. Given annually to recipients among those promoted from assistant professor to associate professor with tenure.
University Undergraduate Teaching Award, Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan, 2004-2005. Given annually to two tenure-track faculty for "excellence in teaching at the undergraduate level."
Golden Apple Award, University of Michigan, 2004 recipient. Given annually to one faculty member by SHOUT (Students Honoring Outstanding University Teaching). Public lecture in acceptance of award: "Alienation, Apathy, and Activism: American Culture and the Depoliticization of Youth," Jan. 28, 2004,
<www-personal.umich.edu/~mlassite/applelecture.html>.
Co-organizer (with Joseph Crespino) of the conference "The End of Southern History? Integrating the Modern South and the Nation," held at Emory University (March 2006).
Organizer of the Metropolitan History Workshop, a visiting speaker series and graduate student workshop initiative with secured funding from 2005-08.
Co-organizer (with Robert Mickey and Anthony Chen) of the Michigan Colloquium on Race and Twentieth-Century American Political Development, 2003-05.
Professional Memberships and Service__________________________
Membership in American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Urban History Association, Southern Historical Association.
Urban History Association, Board of Directors (2007- ).
North American Editorial Board, Urban History (2007-2010).
Category Editor, Suburbia Resources, American Political Development—Electronic Classroom, sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia <http://www.americanpoliticaldevelopment.org/classroom/> (2003-present).
Referee of book manuscripts: Oxford University Press (6), Duke University Press, University of Virginia Press, Longman Publishers, Arnold Publishers, Rowman and Littlefield.
Referee of article manuscripts: Journal of American History, American Quarterly, Journal of Politics, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.
Reviewer, Dissertation Completion Fellowships, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/ACLS Early Career Fellowship Program (2007, 2008).
Consultant, "The New Suburbanism" Exhibit, Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania).
Visiting Lectures __________________________
Lecture sponsored by FOCUS St. Louis, "The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South (Oct. 4, 2007).
Decatur Book Festival (Atlanta), "New Approaches to Southern History" (Sept. 1, 2007).
Mellon Foundation Lecture at Kalamazoo College, "The Suburban Crisis: White Victims and Middle-Class Heroes from the Silent Majority through American Beauty" (May 17, 2007).
Invited Lecture at Western Carolina University, "Color Lines: Race, Suburbs, and Southern Politics" (April 19, 2007).
Presentation of research at Princeton University, Modern America Workshop. "The End of Southern History?" (Dec. 2006).
Invited Lecture, "The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South," Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia (Nov. 17, 2006).
Workshop on The Silent Majority at the University of Chicago, "Interdisciplinary Approaches to American Political History" (May 2006).
Invited lecture at the University of Richmond: "The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics and 'Color-Blind' Ideology in the Modern South (March 2006)
Invited lecture at the Levine Museum of the New South, Charlotte, North Carolina, "The 'Charlotte Way': Suburban Sprawl, the Silent Majority, and the Fate of Racial Integration in the South" (April 2006).
Invited lecture at Clare College, University of Cambridge: "The Silent Majority: Suburban Politics in the Sunbelt South" (May 2005).
Invited lecture at Furman University: "Suburban Sprawl and Racial Segregation in the Modern South" (Nov. 2004).
Presentation of research at the University of Georgia colloquium on the "History of the Southern Suburbs" (April 2004).
Presentation of research at Duke University: "The Suburban Origins of 'Color-Blind' Conservatism" (Nov. 2002).
Public Appearances________________________
Guest on National Public Radio Station KWMU (St. Louis), "St. Louis on the Air," Program about The Silent Majority (Oct. 1, 2007).
Guest on National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation," Program on "The Legacy of the'Little Rock Nine'" (Sept. 25, 2007)
Interview on National Public Radio's "Weekend Edition," Program on "Popular Culture's Evolving View of the Suburbs" (Oct. 27, 2006)
Guest on National Public Radio Station WFAE (Charlotte, NC), "Charlotte Talks," Program about The Silent Majority (April 2006).
Guest on National Public Radio Station WUNC (Chapel Hill, NC), "The State of Things" Program about The Silent Majority (April 2006).
Guest on National Public Radio Station KUOW (Seattle), "Weekday" Program on "Rethinking Suburbia" (Feb. 27, 2006).
Interview on WEMU 89.1 (NPR), "Issues of the Environment" Series, about suburban sprawl and infill development in Ann Arbor (May 5, 2004).
Interview on Michigan Radio (NPR), "Stateside" Program, about the War on Drugs and the history of the Ann Arbor Hash Bash (March 25, 2004).
Guest on Virginia Public Radio, "Evening Edition" Program, about The Moderates' Dilemma, (Sept. 1, 1998).
University of Michigan Appearances__________
Presentation, "The Silent Majority," University of Michigan chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, (March 12, 2007).
Presentation to the University of Michigan Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows, "History of American Suburbia in a Nutshell" (Nov. 2006).
Panelist, "Constitution Day and the Supreme Court" (Sept. 18, 2006).
Lecture in the Learning in Retirement series, "The Silent Majority: Racial Segregation and Political Transformation in American Suburbia" (Feb. 23, 2006).
Commencement Speaker, University of Michigan Department of History exercises for undergraduate concentrators (April 2005).
Panelist, MLK Symposium "Re-examining Diversity," sponsored by Mvision (Jan. 2005).
Respondent, George Sanchez's "Crossing Figeroa," John Dewey Lecture at the University of Michigan (Oct. 2004).
Panelist, Documentary Film Symposium on The Corporation, sponsored by the Institute for Historical Studies (Oct. 2004).
Presentation to the Committee on Education and Social Justice at the University of Michigan School of Education, "The Suburban Origins of 'Color-Blind' Conservatism" (Feb. 2004).
Presentation to the Urban and Regional Research Collaborative Seminar in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, "Socioeconomic Integration: The Metropolitan Remedy in the Charlotte Busing Crisis" (Nov. 2003).
Presentation to the University of Michigan Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows, "Segregation, Sprawl, and Suburban Culture: Three Middle-Class Myths in Modern America," (Feb. 2003).
Keynote Speaker, 2007 Meeting of the Michigan College Democrats (Jan. 21, 2007).
Moderator, "Regionalism: Can Cities Work Together," sponsored by College Democrats (March 2006).
Moderator, Ann Arbor City Council candidates debate, sponsored by the Arbor Update Blog (Nov. 2005).
Moderator, Ann Arbor mayoral candidates debate, sponsored by the Urban Planning Department (Nov. 2004).
Moderator, "Sprawled Out: The Fight to Stop Sprawl in Michigan and Ann Arbor," a panel organized by Students for PIRGIM (March 2004).
Organizer and moderator of a panel discussion on "Careers in Urban Planning" (Feb. 2004).
Organizer, with Students for PIRGIM, and moderator of a panel discussion on the "Greenbelt and Affordable Housing in Ann Arbor" (Oct. 2003).
Panelist, "What in the World is Urban Sprawl?", forum sponsored by the University of Michigan College Democrats (April 2003).
N.D.B. Connolly, "By Eminent Domain: Black Communities, White Authority, and the Making of an 'American' South Florida, 1930-1980."
Lily Geismer, "Don't Blame Us: Grassroots Liberalism in Massachusetts, 1960-1990."
Brendan Goff, "The Heartland Abroad: The Rotary Club's Mission of Civic Internationalism, 1910-1950" (cochair with Richard Candida Smith).
Andrew Highsmith, "Demolition Means Progress: Race, Class, and the Deconstruction of the American Dream in Flint, Michigan" (cochair with Mills Thornton).
Clayton Howard, "The Closet and the Cul de Sac: Sexuality and Culture War in Postwar California."
Matthew Ides, "Cruising for Community: Youth Politics and Culture in Los Angeles, 1950-1980" (cochair with Gina Morantz-Sanchez).
Diana Mankowski, "Gender and Disco: Exploring the Intersection of Sexual Revolution, Women's Liberation, and Popular Culture in 1970s America" (cochair with Jay Cook).
Dissertation Direction (completed)_________________________
Tamar Carroll, "Grassroots Feminism: Direct Action Organizing and Coalition Building in New York City, 1955-1995" (cochair with Gina Morantz-Sanchez, 2007).
Allen Dieterich-Ward, "Mines, Mills and Malls: Regional Development in the Steel Valley, 1947-1997" (2006).
Molly Michelmore, "Welfare State/Taxing State: Politics and Policy in Postwar America" (2006).
Todd Robinson, "The City That Race Built: The Social and Economic Construction of Segregated Space in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1945-1975" (cochair with Matthew Countryman, 2006).