معرفی
Melissa DeVelvis is an Assistant Professor of History at Augusta University's Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, specializing in 19th-century U.S. Southern history, the Civil War era, and women and gender studies. She holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of South Carolina (2020) and a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Georgia (2014). Her research explores elite white women’s political engagement during South Carolina’s secession crisis and their use of gendered frameworks to navigate antebellum politics.
Her upcoming book, Gendering Secession: White Women and Politics in South Carolina, 1859-1861 (Cambridge University Press, 2025), examines how women processed secession through religious metaphor, historical comparison, and literary analysis. She has received prestigious awards including a 2022-23 Research Fellowship from Augusta University’s Center for Social Sciences and a 2021 fellowship at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington.
- Research interests: Gendered political expression, secession narratives, Southern women’s history, public history methodologies
- Teaching: Courses on U.S. history to 1877, Civil War & Reconstruction, women’s history, and public history practices
Her scholarly output includes peer-reviewed articles in Journal of American Studies and South Carolina Historical Magazine, as well as public-facing writing for The Washington Post and the Society of Civil War Historians’ blog. She serves on multiple academic committees, including the Augusta Historical Society Board of Directors and the Georgia Historical Society Landmark Review Committee.
Professional service includes roles in the Southern Association for Women Historians and mentorship in the Society for Civil War Historians. She actively contributes to public history initiatives through museum collaborations and historical preservation projects.
