Andrew Torget

Andrew Torget serves as a University Distinguished Teaching Professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of North Texas. His scholarly work centers on nineteenth-century North American history, with specialized expertise in Southern history, American expansion, slavery, Texas, U.S.-Mexico borderlands, and digital scholarship methodologies.

Torget's research explores two interconnected trajectories: the territorial expansion of the American South into the U.S. West and Mexico, and the development of computational approaches for historical analysis. His investigations into slavery's role in Texas borderlands transformation and violence along the U.S.-Mexico frontier have established significant scholarly contributions. The integration of digital tools like text-mining and geo-visualization represents a pioneering methodological shift in historical research practices.

His publication record reveals a consistent evolution toward interdisciplinary scholarship, merging traditional historical inquiry with digital humanities. Recent works demonstrate increasing sophistication in analyzing OCR-affected historical newspapers while maintaining rigorous engagement with borderlands social dynamics. This dual focus positions his output at the intersection of historical methodology and technological innovation.

Torget's exceptional contributions have earned widespread recognition through numerous prestigious awards:

• Berninghausen Prize for Outstanding Teaching, University of Bremen (2023)
• U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Germany (2023)
• University Distinguished Teaching Professorship (2019)
• David J. Weber-Clements Center Prize (2016)
• Guinness World Record for "World's Longest History Lesson" (2018)
• Twelve book awards for Seeds of Empire

He actively leads digital humanities initiatives including the Digital Austin Papers project and Mapping Texts, which develop computational frameworks for historical newspaper analysis. Current research focuses on nineteenth-century Galveston's pivotal role in Southwest development, alongside new digital methodologies examining spatial and textual dimensions of historical sources.