About Dr. Eric Platt 

R. Eric Platt is chair and associate professor of higher and adult education in the Department of Leadership. Prior to his employment at the University of Memphis, Dr. Platt was a faculty member at the University of Southern Mississippi. He formerly served in the Louisiana State University Department of Continuing Education and worked as an affiliate researcher with archives and special collections supported by private organizations, religious orders, and institutions of higher education.

As an educational historian, Dr. Platt researches higher education longevity and mortality in the American South. He also investigates religious issues pertaining to private education/higher education development, the effect of historic symbols and signifiers on college campuses, the influence of Southern social class ethos on nineteenth-century academic development, and legal issues pertaining to college crises.

Dr. Platt has authored three books, published several journal articles, presented at various scholarly conferences, and has over fifteen years of university employment experience. His research has appeared in such publication venues as Adult Education Quarterly, the American Educational History Journal, the Catholic Historical Review, Curriculum History, the Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, the Journal of Faculty Development, Vitae Scholasticae: The Journal of Educational Biography, etc. Currently, he is working on a new book manuscript concerning the Americanization of academic thought in nineteenth-century New Orleans.

Dr. Platt is associated with academic organizations including, but not limited to, the American Educational Research Association, the Association for the Study of Higher Education, the Organization of Educational Historians, the Southern History of Education Society, and the Society for the Study of Curriculum History.

Education

• Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Research/Higher Education Administration, Louisiana State University
• M.Ed. Adult Education, University of Southern Mississippi
• B.S. Psychology, University of Southern Mississippi
• A.A. Liberal Arts, Jones College

Selected Publications

• Platt, R. Eric & Melandie McGee. "Ethnic Schooling and the Ecclesiastical Square: Educational Opportunity, Social Divide, and the Redemptorists in New Orleans, Louisiana." The Catholic Historical Review 105 no. 4 (Autumn 2020): 645-672.
• Platt, R. Eric & Lauren Huffman Walker. "Regalia Remembered: Exploring the History and Symbolic Significance of Higher Education Academic Costume." American Educational History Journal 46 no. 1 (2019): 125-141.
• Platt, R. Eric & Cristin Lee Reynolds. "An Intellectual Biography of New Orleans' 'Duke of Education': George Soulé and the Changing Landscape of College Instruction in South Louisiana, 1856-1926." Louisiana History 59 no 3 (Summer, 2018): 308-347.
• Platt, R. Eric. Educating the Sons of Sugar: Jefferson College and the Creole Planter Class of South Louisiana. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2017.
• Platt, R. Eric. Sacrifice and Survival: Identity, Mission, and Jesuit Higher Education in the American South. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2014.