Edward L. Ayers

Edward Lynn Ayers
at 2016 Fall Festival for the Book
President of the University of Richmond
In office July 1, 2007 – July 1, 2015
Preceded by	William E. Cooper
Succeeded by	Ronald Crutcher
Personal details
Born	(1953-01-22) January 22, 1953 (age 68)
Alma mater	University of Tennessee (B.A., 1973) Yale University (M.A., 1977; Ph.D., 1980)
Profession	Educator and historian

Edward Lynn "Ed" Ayers^[1] (born January 22, 1953; Asheville, North Carolina) is an American historian, professor, administrator, and university president. In July 2013, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony for Ayers’s commitment “to making our history as widely available and accessible as possible." (2012)^[2] He served as the president of the Organization of American Historians in 2017-18.

Ayers is the author of six and editor of seven books on the history of nineteenth-century America. The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction was a finalist for both the National Book Award^[3] and the Pulitzer Prize.^[4] His book, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, Civil War in the Heart of America, won the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American history^[5] and the Beveridge Award for the best book in English on the history of the Americas since 1492.^[6] The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America, was awarded the Lincoln Prize from the Gilder Lehrman Institute and the Avery O. Craven Award from the Organization of American Historians.^[7] Southern Journey:  The Migrations of the American South, 1790-2020, narrates the evolution of southern history through  the migration of indigenous, white, Black, and immigrant people, with maps created by Justin Madron and Nathaniel Ayers. What Caused the Civil War is a collection of original essays. Ayers co-edited The Oxford Book of the American South and edited America’s War for the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Ayers received a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies from the University of Tennessee in 1974, summa cum laude, and a doctorate in American studies from Yale University in 1980.^[8] He taught at the University of Virginia from 1980 to 2007, where he became the Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History and the Buckner W. Clay Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 2001 through 2007.^[9] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001.^[10]

At Virginia, Ayers won several teaching prizes, including U.S. Professor of the Year for Doctoral and Research Universities, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Council for Advancement and Support of Education in 2003,^[11] and the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award in 1991.^[12] The University awarded Ayers its highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award, in 2006.^[13]

Ayers directed the dissertations of more than forty doctoral students at Virginia, most of them in the history of the American South.

Elected president of the University of Richmond in 2007, Ayers developed The Richmond Promise, a five-year strategic plan to guide University priorities. During his term, the University increased students of color from 11 percent to 28 percent, doubled the percentage of students receiving Pell Grants, covered the full cost of attendance for all Virginia students with family income below $60,000, and created the Richmond Guarantee, a paid summer fellowship for all undergraduate students. Ayers completed his term as president in 2015, when he was named the Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities.

New American History[]

In 2015, Ayers founded New American History, an initiative to enable engaged and innovative learning in history at all grade levels. It is based at the University of Richmond and funded through philanthropic support.

The project integrates Bunk, a daily curation of representations of the American past in multiple media; American Panorama, a digital atlas of United States history produced at the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond; BackStory, a radio show and podcast; and The Future of America’s Past, a video series created by Field Studio Films.  New American History provides Learning Resources tailored to different grade levels, and partners with organizations devoted to supporting teachers and students of United States history.

Public history[]

Recently, he has chaired the National Endowment for the Humanities program that explored the preliminary emancipation proclamation.^[14] He also chaired the first Signature Conference of the Virginia Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the American Civil War Commission,^[15] and currently chairs the Steering Committee of The Future of Richmond's Past which sponsors Civil War and Emancipation Day and inclusive conversations to advance a better understanding of Richmond’s shared history.^[16] Ayers served as Senior Scholar for Making Sense of the American Civil War program sponsored nationally by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association’s Public Program Office.^[17]

Ayers is also one of the co-hosts of the nationally syndicated public radio program "BackStory," alongside Brian Balogh, Joanne B. Freeman, and N. D. B. Connolly. "BackStory" is broadcast on 36 stations around the country each week and has been downloaded more than 2.7 million times through podcasts.^[18] The program, which takes a topic from current headlines and examines it in historical context, began in 2008 and is supported in part by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.^[19]

Digital history[]

Ayers is an advocate of digital history,^[20] having helped found both the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities and the Virginia Center for Digital History, having served as the latter's director until 2001.^[9] Ayers also oversaw the Valley of the Shadow project, which provides users with letters, diaries, and newspaper accounts of life in two communities, one Southern and one Northern, during the Civil War.^[21] He also serves on the editorial board of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln.^[22]

His work with the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond focuses on showing trends and patterns in American history. Projects include Voting America, Visualizing Emancipation, and Virginia's Secession Convention. The lab is currently developing a digital atlas of American history through a grant received from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.^[23]

Personal life[]

Ayers is married to Abby Ayers. They have two grown children, Nate and Hannah.^[24]

Academic service[]

• Organization of American Historians, President (2017-2018); Executive Board Officer (2017-2020)^[25]
• American Council for Education, executive committee and co-chair of accreditation committee, 2008–present
• National Humanities Center, board member, 2007–11
• National Council for the Humanities, 2000–04, appointed by the president of the United States to advise the National Endowment for the Humanities

Books[]

• The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America (W. W. Norton & Company, 2017. ISBN 978-0393292633.)
• America's War: Talking about the Civil War and Emancipation on their 150th Anniversaries, (co-published by the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities, 2011. ISBN 978-0-8389-9308-8)
• America on the Eve of the Civil War, edited with Carolyn R. Martin, (University of Virginia Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-8139-3063-3)
• The Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession to Commemoration, edited with Gary Gallagher and Andrew Torget, (University of Virginia Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-8139-2552-3.)
• What Caused the Civil War? Reflections on the South and Southern History, (W.W. Norton & Company, 2005. ISBN 978-0-393-05947-2.)
• , (W.W. Norton & Company, 2003. ISBN 978-0-393-32601-7.)
• The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War – The Eve of War, CD-ROM and book co-authored with Anne S. Rubin, (W.W. Norton & Company, 2000. ISBN 978-0-393-04604-5.)
• The Oxford Book of the American South: Testimony, Memory, and Fiction, edited with Bradley Mittendorf, (Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-19-512493-4.)
• All Over the Map: Rethinking American Regions, co-editor and co-author, (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-8018-5392-0.)
• The Promise of the New South: Life after Reconstruction, (Oxford University Press, 1992; paperback edition, 1993; abridged edition, 1995; 15th Anniversary Edition, 2007. ISBN 978-0-19-532688-8.)
• The Edge of the South: Life in Nineteenth-Century Virginia, co-edited with John C. Willis, [University Press of Virginia, 1991. ISBN 978-0-8139-1298-1.)
• Vengeance and Justice: Crime and Punishment in the Nineteenth-Century American South, (Oxford University Press, 1984; paperback edition, 1986. ISBN 978-0-19-503988-7.)

Honors[]

• Lincoln Prize (2018), for The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America^[26]
• National Humanities Medal (2012), "for his commitment to making our history as widely available and accessible as possible." (2012)^[27]
• Bancroft Prize, In The Presence of Mine Enemies: War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863 (2004)^[5]
• , Presidential Appointee (2000–2004)^[28]
• U.S. Professor of the Year for Doctoral and Research Universities, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Council for Advancement and Support of Education (2003)^[29]
• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 2001)^[10]
• Lincoln Prize (2001), with Anne S. Rubin, and William G. Thomas, for Valley of the Shadow: The Eve of War (CD-ROM)^[26]
• James A. Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians (1993), for The Promise of the New South
• Pulitzer Prize Finalist – History (1993), for The Promise of the New South^[4]
• National Book Award Finalist – Nonfiction (1992), for The Promise of the New South^[3]
• Distinguished Fellow of the Georgia Historical Society

References[]

External links[]

• Edward Ayers | Official Website
• Appearances on C-SPAN