Edward L. Ayers

Edward Lynn "Ed" Ayers^[1] (born January 22, 1953) is an American historian, professor, administrator, and ninth president of the University of Richmond, serving from 2007 to 2015. In July 2013, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama at a White House ceremony.^[2]

Ayers is the author of four and editor of seven books on the history of nineteenth-century America. 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^[3] and the Beveridge Prize for the best book in English on the history of the Americas since 1492.^[4] The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction was a finalist for both the National Book Award^[5] and the Pulitzer Prize.^[6]

Ayers received a Bachelor of Arts degree in American studies from the University of Tennessee in 1974. He then earned both a Master of Arts and a doctorate in American studies from Yale University.^[7] During his presidency he developed of The Richmond Promise, a five-year strategic plan to guide University priorities. In addition to teaching a first-year seminar,^[8] Ayers serves as a senior research fellow with the University’s Digital Scholarship Lab, which creates digital tools to reveal the patterns of American history.

Prior to his appointment as President of the University of Richmond, he had been on the faculty of the University of Virginia since 1980, most recently as the Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History and the Buckner W. Clay Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.^[9] In 2003, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching named Ayers National Professor of the Year.^[10]

Public history

Recently, he has chaired the National Endowment for the Humanities program that explored the preliminary emancipation proclamation.^[11] He also chaired the first Signature Conference of the Virginia Sesquicentennial Commemoration of the American Civil War Commission,^[12] 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.^[13] 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.^[14]

Ayers is also one of three co-hosts of the nationally syndicated public radio program "BackStory with The American History Guys," broadcast on 36 stations around the country each week and has been downloaded more than 2.7 million times through podcasts.^[15] 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.^[16]

Digital history

Ayers is an advocate of digital history,^[17] 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.^[18] He also serves on the editorial board of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln.^[19]

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.^[20]

Academic service

• 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

• 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.)
• In the Presence of Mine Enemies: War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863, (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

• National Humanities Medal, (2012)^[2]
• Bancroft Prize, In The Presence of Mine Enemies: War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863 (2004)^[3]
• National Council on the Humanities, Presidential Appointee (2000–2004)^[21]
• 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)^[22]
• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 2001)^[23]
• James A. Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians for The Promise of the New South (1993)
• Pulitzer Prize Finalist - History, The Promise of the New South(1993)^[6]
• National Book Award Finalist - Nonfiction, The Promise of the New South(1992)^[5]

References

University of Richmond Richmond, Virginia Academics School of Arts & Sciences E. Claiborne Robins School of Business Jepson School of Leadership Studies School of Law School of Professional & Continuing Studies Athletics Atlantic 10 Conference Richmond Spiders Men's Basketball Capital City Classic Football Capital Cup Robins Center E. Claiborne Robins Stadium Malcolm U. Pitt Field People Alumni Former Presidents Ronald Crutcher (President) Student Life The Collegian WDCE Miscellaneous Gottwald Center for the Sciences Richmond Journal of Law and Technology Commons Category