Biography

David graduated from the University of Dundee in 2001, where he received a MA (Hons) degree in American Studies and History. He was awarded his PhD in 2005 also from the University of Dundee where he was a Teaching Fellow in the History Programme. David joined the American Studies Programme at Swansea as a lecturer in 2008. 
David’s teaching and research focuses primarily on the social and cultural history of the American South – before, during, and after the American Civil War. He was awarded a BAAS Short-Term Travel Award (2006) to begin research on Christmas festivities on antebellum plantations as remembered in post-Civil War reminiscences and memoirs as well as a study of Christmas as spent by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. David was also awarded a BAAS Founders’ Research Travel Award (2008) to advance a project on the prevalence of homesickness among Union soldiers during the American Civil War. David has also been the recipient of research grants awarded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (2006, 2007) and was recently awarded a Wellcome Trust, History of Medicine, Travel Grant (2009) to examine homesickness among Confederate soldiers during the Civil War.

Current Research

• Post-Civil War nostalgia for the Old South

Select recent publications

• (forthcoming) “Dying of Nostalgia: Homesickness in the Union Army during the Civil War,” Civil War History.
• (2005) “Down Memory Lane: Nostalgia for the Old South in Post-Civil War Plantation Reminiscences,” Journal of Southern History, 71 (February 2005).

Selected research awards, fellowships, & prizes

• British Association for American Studies (BAAS) Short-Term Travel Grant
• British Association for American Studies (BAAS) Founders’ Research Travel Award
• Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, 2006 and 2007
• Wellcome Trust, History of Medicine Travel Grant

PhD Supervision

I am currently supervising postgraduate students on Civil War era Kentucky and Gen. William T. Sherman’s ‘March to the Sea.’ I welcome enquiries from prospective postgraduate students interested in any aspect of nineteenth or twentieth century American history, particularly the American Civil War and history of the American South.

Administrative duties

I am the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the department.