Faculty Profile

Stephen Jackson, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, History

Stephen Jackson is an associate professor of history at the University of Sioux Falls. He earned his bachelor's degree in history and political science from the University of Florida, and his doctorate at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He specializes in imperial and colonial studies, focusing on the history of the British Empire. His research examines critical questions regarding settler colonialism, decolonization, and the ways in which education shaped imperialism. He has written two books on these topics, Constructing National Identity in Canadian and Australian Classrooms (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), and Religious Education and the Anglo World (Brill, 2020). With research support from the Spencer Foundation, Dr. Jackson is currently working on a book project, entitled The Patchwork of World History in Texas High Schools: Unpacking Eurocentrism, Imperialism, and Nationalism in the Curriculum, 1920-2021 (Routledge, 2023), that examines the teaching of World History in American high-schools from the 1920s to the twenty-first century.

Dr. Jackson has a wide variety of teaching interests including European, world, British, and imperial history. At USF he teaches World history and a range of other specialized courses in the discipline of history. In the Spring of 2015 he was awarded the "Excellence in Teaching Award" by the University of Sioux Falls Chapter of the National Society of Leadership and Success. The following year he was awarded the "Outstanding Faculty Award" by the University of Sioux Falls, an award voted on by the faculty and students at USF.

In his courses, Dr. Jackson emphasizes the incredible richness of the human past and fosters in his students an appreciation of different world cultures. At the same time, he stresses the important skills that history can provide including critical thinking and writing. Developing these skills will help students in a wide variety of careers.

In his spare time, Dr. Jackson enjoys reading anything from history to classic literature to science fiction. He also enjoys traveling around the world, most often accompanied by his lovely wife.

Education

Ph.D., History, The George Washington University, 2013
B.A., History and Political Science, University of Florida, 2007

Courses Taught

HIS101 - Modern European History 1500-1815
HIS102 - Modern European History 1815-Present
HIS304 - Medieval World History
HIS390 - Special Topics
HIS225 -
HIS303 - Ancient World History
HIS332 - Modern Middle East
HIS414 - The Reformation
HIS220 - Historical Methods
LAR211 - University Honors Core I
HIS103 - World History to 1200
HIS104 - World History 1200-Present
LAR410 -
SDV100 - The USF Experience
HIS400 - History Colloquium
HIS220 - Historical Methods
HIS104 - World History 1200-Present

Professional Memberships

American Historical Association

World History Association

North American Conference on British Studies

Expertise

World History, European History, History of the British Empire, Decolonization, History of Education

Research

Australian Religious History Fellowship. Awarded $20,000AUD by the State Library of New South Wales to conduct 4 months of research in Sydney, Australia in 2019.

Spencer Foundation 'Small' Research Grant. $44,000 towards research on the project “Globalizing American Students: How World History Textbooks Depicted the World, 1945-2010” during a sabbatical in academic year 2019/2020.

Research Interests:

The British Empire
Decolonization
Canadian History
Australian History
History of Education
British World History
Religious Education

Doctoral Dissertation: “The Crown of Education: Britishness, Multiculturalism and the Evolution of National Identity in the Public Schools of Ontario, Canada, and Victoria, Australia.” Awarded by The George Washington University in May of 2013.

Georg Eckert Research Fellowship. Summer 2016. Conducted two weeks of research on a fellowship from the Georg Eckert Institute, an important center for international research located in Braunschweig, Germany.

The Ninth Annual International Seminar on Decolonization: Selected as a participant for this joint venture of the American Historical Association and the National History Center to produce research and engage scholars working in the field of decolonization studies. July 6-August 2, 2014.

Canada Student Doctoral Research Award: recipient in 2010 for four months of full time-research in Toronto, Ontario.

Scholarships and Creative Work

Articles

"Mass Education and the British Empire," History Compass Vol 20, no. 1 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12709
“‘Both Sides of the Mountain’: Growth and Volatility at Sioux Falls College, 1953-1978.” South Dakota History Volume 51, Issue 3 (Fall, 2021) 201-227.
"'Not in the Business of Indoctrination': Religious Education in South Australian Public Schools, 1968-1980," History of Education Review, Volume 49, Issue 2, 2020, 249-262.
"'The Triumph of the West': American Education and the Narrative of Decolonization, 1930-1965." History of Education Quarterly Volume 58, Issue 4, 2018, 567-594.
“British History is Their History: Britain and the British Empire in the History Curriculum of Ontario, Canada and Victoria, Australia 1930-1975.” Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, Volume 4, Issue 2, 2017, 165-186. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14516/ete.161
‘In Accord with British Traditions’: The Rise of Compulsory Religious Education in Ontario, Canada, and Victoria, Australia, 1945–50. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. Vol 42, Issue 4, 2014, 693-709.

Books

The Patchwork of World History in Texas High Schools: Unpacking Eurocentrism, Imperialism, and Nationalism in the Curriculum, 1921-2021 (Routledge, 2022). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003323785
Constructing National Identity in Canadian and Australian Classrooms: The Crown of Education. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
Religious Education and the Anglo-World: The Impact of Empire, Britishness, and Decolonisation in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004432178

Book Chapters

“USF.” In Jon Lauck and Patrick Hicks (eds.), The Queen City: A Sioux Falls Anthology. Expected publication in late 2021.
“In War as in Peace, Culture for Service: Sioux Falls College and the Crisis of the Second World War,” in John Laukaitis, Denominational Higher Education During World War II, New York: Springer International Publishing, 2018.
Contributor to Mark Doyle ed., The British Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia Volumes I and II (Denver: ABC-CLIO, 2018).

Reviews

David Nash. Christian Ideals in British Culture: Stories of Belief in the Twentieth Century. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Pp. 272. \$85.00 (cloth). Reviewed by: Stephen Jackson Journal of British Studies / Volume 53 / Issue 02 / April 2014, pp 548 - 549 DOI: 10.1017/jbr.2014.44, Published online: 22 April 2014.
Prairie Fever: British Aristocrats in the American West, 1830-1890. By Peter Pagnamenta. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. xxiv + 338 pages. Illustrations, maps, notes, index. Hardcover, $27.95. Reviewed by: Stephen Jackson. Annals of Wyoming: The Wyoming History Journal. Winter 2013.
Michael H. Fisher. Migration: A World History. The New Oxford World History Series. Oxford University Press, 2013. Reviewed by: Stephen Jackson, H-Net Reviews, published electronically May 2014.

Presentations

“Textbook Imperialism: American World History Textbook Depictions of the British Empire, 1945-Present.” North American Conference on British Studies Virtual Conference, November 2020.
“An Empire Hiding in Plain Sight: American Imperialism in Texas World History Textbooks, 1939-Present.” History of Education Society (US) Virtual Conference, November 2020.
“National Belonging in an Imperial Framework: Textbook Narratives from Ontario and Victoria, 1930-1965,” History of Education Society, Providence, Nov. 6, 2016.
“Rethinking Britishness in the Era of Decolonization: The Politics of History Education in Ontario, Canada and Victoria, Australia, 1960-1975.” American Historical Association, Chicago, Jan 3-6, 2019.
“Narrativizing Decolonization: Exploring the Changing Meaning of Decolonization in Classrooms in the United States, Canada, and Australia.” American Historical Association Annual Meeting. January, 2016.
“Teaching Decolonization: Integrating Decolonization into Survey Seminars.”National History Center’s Decolonization Seminar Reunion Conference. July, 2016.
"The Place of Religious Education in the Schools of Ontario and Victoria in the Late 1960s." North American Conference on British Studies Annual Meeting, November 2013.
“Teaching Temperance in Manitoba, 1900-1955.” Presented to the 2014 North American Conference on British Studies held in Minneapolis, Minn.
“Grappling with Discrimination in the Classroom: Ontarian and Victorian Attempts to Eliminate Prejudice in the Schools.” Western Conference on British Studies, 2012.
“Explaining the Empire: Canadian and Australian Textbook Representations of the non-white territories within the British Empire, 1935-1975.” Mid-West Conference on British Studies, 2011.

Electronic Publications

"Trump, Brexit, and a New Era for British Studies Scholars Parts I and II." British and Irish Studies Intelligencer, 2017.
"Who Historicizes the Historians? A Conversation with Dane Kennedy on the Field of British Imperial History." British and Irish Studies Intelligencer, 2015.
"Building a Textbook: A Conversation with the Authors of Britain Since 1688: A Nation in the World."
“Adam Hochschild on World War I and the Role of the Historian: An Interview by Stephen Jackson.” British and Irish Studies Intelligencer, August 13, 2014.