John Frederick Bell, Ph.D.

Degrees Earned

Ph.D. History of American Civilization (American Studies), Harvard University

M.A., History, Harvard University

B.A. Religious Studies and History, Summa Cum Laude, The College of William and Mary

Undergraduate Courses Taught

HIS 180: History of the United States to 1877

HIS 181: History of the United States since 1877

HIS 269: The African American Dream

HIS 270: Immigration and Ethnicity in American History

HIS 362: The Civil War and Reconstruction in the US

HIS 400: Historical Methods

Book

Degrees of Equality: Abolitionist Colleges and the Politics of Race. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2022.    

Peer-reviewed Articles

“Confronting Colorism: Interracial Abolition and the Consequences of Complexion,” Journal of the Early Republic 39: 2 (Summer 2019): 239-265.

“When Regulation Was Religious: College Philanthropy, Antislavery Politics, and Accreditation in the Mid-Nineteenth-Century West,” History of Education Quarterly 57:1 (February 2017): 68-93.

“Poetry’s Place in the Crisis and Compromise of 1850,” Journal of the Civil War Era 5:3 (September 2015): 399-421.

“Time Out of Mind: Bob Dylan and Paul Nelson Transformed,” in Eugen Banauch, ed., Refractions of Bob Dylan: Cultural Appropriations of an American Icon (Manchester University Press, 2015), 125-134.

Book Reviews

Mark Boonshoft, Aristocratic Education and the Making of the American Republic (UNC Press, 2020) for American Nineteenth-Century History 22:2 (2021), 222-224.

"An Education in Black Women's Activism," review essay on Kabria Baumgartner, In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America (New York: New York University Press, 2019) for Reviews in American History 48:4 (December 2020)

Gary Kornblith and Carol Lasser, Elusive Utopia: The Struggle for Racial Equality in Oberlin, Ohio (LSU Press, 2018) for Civil War History 66:3 (September 2020): 319-321.

John Demos, The Heathen School: A Story of Hope and Betrayal in the Early Republic  (Vintage, 2013) for H-Net: H-AmRel (September 2016). www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=45412

J. Brent Morris, Oberlin, Hotbed of Abolitionism: College, Community, and the Fight for Freedom and Equality in Antebellum America (UNC Press, 2014) for Journal of the Civil War Era 5:3 (September 2015): 442-444.

“Race, Power, and Education in Early America,” review essay on Craig Steven Wilder, Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities (Bloomsbury Press, 2013) for Education’s Histories (February 2015). www.educationshistories.org/race-power-education-early-america

Fellowships and Awards

Above and Beyond Faculty Award, Student Government Association, 2023

Summer Research Assistance Fellowship, Honors Program, Assumption University, 2023

New Scholar’s Book Award, American Educational Research Association, Division F: History and Historiography, 2023

Faculty Member of the Year, Student-Athlete Advisory Council, Assumption University, 2022

Discourse Initiative Grant, Institute for Humane Studies, George Mason University, 2021

Summer Research Assistance Fellowship, Honors Program, Assumption College, 2020

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Kilachand Honors College, Boston University, 2017-2019

Spencer Dissertation Fellowship, National Academy of Education, 2016

College Teaching Certificate, Derek Bok Center for Teaching & Learning, Harvard University, 2016

Honorable Mention, American Alliance of Museum Publications Design Competition, 2016

Loeb Initiative on Religious Freedom Fellowship, Harvard University, 2015

Center for American Political Studies Graduate Research Seed Grant, Harvard University, 2015

Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History Travel Grant, Harvard University, 2014

Bordin/Gillette Researcher Travel Fellowship, University of Michigan, 2014

Frederick B. Artz Summer Research Grant, Oberlin College, 2014

Certificates of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University, 2013, 2014

Ashford Dissertation Fellowship in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Harvard University, 2011

Phi Beta Kappa, The College of William and Mary, 2007

Public History Projects

“Early Black Collegians and the Fight for Full Inclusion,” Black Perspectives, blog of the African American Intellectual History Society: https://www.aaihs.org/early-black-collegians-and-the-fight-for-full-inclusion/

"LaurelX: A Non-Traditional Festschrift in Celebration of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich" https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/laurelx/

"How Not to Respond to Threats to Diversity" (Editorial), Inside Higher Ed, https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/views/2018/07/23/history-berea-college-offers-lessons-how-not-respond-threats-diversity    

At the Center of Revolutions (Capital Campaign Viewbook), Concord Museum

A Beacon on the Hill: New York Central College , 1849-1860 (Documentary), McGraw Historical Society, https://vimeo.com/197516592

“This Is Not A Chair” (Instructional Video), Chipstone Foundation, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MurjslsVJuo