JEFFERSON COWIE
Historian

 

 

 

For Speaking Engagements

 

please contact:

The Steven Barclay Agency

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EMAIL: j.cowie AT vanderbilt.edu

 

Vanderbilt Office:
114B Calhoun* Hall

Vanderbilt University

 

 

 

 

 

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​Sketch by Ken Krimstein, cartoonist

and graphic novelist, Berlin, 2025.

 

*Calhoun Hall is not named after the defender of slavery, John C. Calhoun. It is named after William Henry Calhoun, a Nashville silversmith who was nonetheless a vocal champion of the Confederacy. And while we are at it, the namesake of my endowed chair, newspaper publisher James Stahlman, was instrumental in supporting segregation and getting renown civil rights leader James Lawson expelled from the Vanderbilt Divinity School in 1960. In short, there's lots of blood money involved, a problem not uncommon in academia. Vanderbilt has begun a long process of reviewing these historical legacies. 

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PS. I am useless on twitter and other corporate distractions. ​