Edd Mair
Lecturer in the History of Modern America
Profile
Biography
Edd is a historian of slavery in the Native South. He joined the department in 2022, having previously taught at Liverpool John Moores and Bishop Grosseteste University. His PhD thesis, which was awarded in 2019, focussed on the Seminole nation in Florida during the early nineteenth century. The thesis analysed the complex relationship between the Indian and Black Seminoles, and how the Seminole Indian practice of slavery obstructed these relations. Edd’s research incorporates methodologies from ethnography, with an emphasis on the material culture of Indigenous and Maroon communities in North America.
His research has been supported by the British Association for American Studies (BAAS) and British American Nineteenth Century Historians (BrANCH). Edd is also an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Research
Overview
Edd’s current research focusses on how Native Americans influenced anti-slavery debates in the mid-nineteenth century. A particular focus is the writings of Congressman Joshua R. Giddings, who used the Seminoles in his own polemics as examples of ‘benevolent’ slaveholders. Exploring these writings reveals how ideas of ‘primitivism’ influenced national debates, and demonstrates how simplified stereotypes of Native Americans were reinforced as a result. This interdisciplinary research pulls from an evidential base that includes fictional accounts.
Edd has published works in the American Nineteenth Century History journal and has written for media outlets such as The Conversation and History Today. At present, Edd is currently under contract with Routledge to co-edit a volume entitled American Imperialism in the Long-Nineteenth Century: A Documentary History, 1775-1919. He is also working on converting his PhD into a monograph.
Teaching
Undergraduate
- Righteous Might: American Politics & Society since 1877
- Empires
- Group Projects
- Disciplines of History 1
Postgraduate
Contact details
Student hours