Our speaker on Oct. 28, 2016:
Dr. Jeffrey L. Zvengrowski
PhD
Jeffrey L. Zvengrowski is an expert on the history of the antebellum South and American Civil War. He received his history honors B.A. from the University of Calgary in 2007, his M.A. in U.S. history from Toronto’s York University in 2008, and his Ph.D. in U.S. history from the University of Virginia in 2015. His dissertation is titled, “‘They Stood Like the Old Guard of Napoleon’: Jefferson Davis and the Pro-Bonaparte Democrats, 1815-1870” (to be published by the Louisiana State University Press in the near future).
“I first became interested in the American Civil War studying undergraduate history in my hometown of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I wanted to understand why English-Canadians overwhelmingly supported the Union (tens of thousands of Anglo-Protestant Canadians even served in the U.S. army); whereas French-Canadian Catholics usually sympathized with the Confederacy (the archbishop of Montreal even sent holy water and oils to an imprisoned Jefferson Davis in 1865). To that end, I accepted an offer to pursue a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Virginia, where my research under professors Gary Gallagher, Peter Onuf, and Elizabeth Varon indicated that the pattern which prevailed in British North America was to be found on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Education:
University of Virginia
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), American History (United States)
2008 – 2015
Dissertation Title: "'They Stood Like the Old Guard of Napoleon': Jefferson Davis and the Pro-Bonaparte Democrats, 1815-1870."
Activities and Societies: Southern Historical Society; St. George Tucker Society
York University
Master’s Degree, American History (United States)
2007 – 2008
MA Thesis Title: “John C. Calhoun and the Rise of Proslavery Modernity in the Antebellum South”
University of Calgary
Bachelor’s Degree, History Honors, Political Science Minor
2003 – 2007