Colin Chapell

Instructor

Office: 120 Mitchell
Telephone: 901.678.2971
Fax: 901.678.2720
E-mail: colin.chapell@memphis.edu or cbchpell@memphis.edu
Education: Ph.D., History, University of Alabama, 2011

Fields of interest

Late 19th and early 20th Century American History; Gender, and particularly Masculinity; American South; Southern Religion, and especially Southern Holiness movements

My dissertation at the University of Alabama explored how church officials used Protestant theology in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to argue for new constructions of gender. By using archival sources as diverse as diaries, sermons, speeches, unpublished memoirs, and published works, my research examined three theological groups in the American Deep South between 1877 and 1915. These three groups were the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS), and the emerging Holiness movement. I argued that these groups had specific theological emphases that changed how church leaders conceived of manhood, womanhood, and family life.

Courses taught

U.S. History surveys (University of Memphis and University of Alabama); Race and Gender in Modern American History (Washington University in St. Louis); Old South (University of Memphis); Civil War and Reconstruction (University of Memphis)

Representative publications

Journal articles

• “To Love Like David and Jonathan: Transforming Manhood in the Southern Holiness Movement” (submitted, under review).
• “The Third Strand: Race, Gender, and Self-Government in the Mind of Lyman Abbott.” Fides et Historia 42 (Fall 2010): 27-54.

Book chapter

• “‘You Might be a Redneck if . . . ’: Advertising Southern Male Deviancy, 1960-1992.” In Black and White Masculinity in the American South, 1800-2000, ed. Lydia Plath and Sergio Lussana. Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009. (E-Book edition published through MyILibrary, 2009).

Book reviews

• “Review: Southern Masculinity: Perspectives on Manhood in the South since Reconstruction, edited by Craig Thompson Friend.” In Southern Historian 32 (Spring 2011).
• “Review: Southern Crossroads: Perspectives on Religion and Culture, edited by Walter H. Conser, Jr. and Rodger M. Payne.” In Southern Historian 30 (Spring 2009).
• “Review: Sing Them Over Again to Me: Hymns and Hymnbooks in America, edited by Mark A. Noll and Edith L. Blumhofer.” In Southern Historian 29 (Spring 2008).