John A. Kirk joined the department as Chair and Donaghey Professor of History in 2010. He was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, in the United Kingdom, and holds an undergraduate degree in American Studies from the University of Nottingham and a PhD in American History from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Dr. Kirk taught at the University of Wales, Lampeter (1994-99) and Royal Holloway, University of London (1999-2010) before coming to UALR.
Dr. Kirk’s research focuses on the history of the civil rights movement in the United States, the South, and Arkansas, and the history of post-New Deal southern politics, society and culture. He has published five books and written in a wide variety of journals, edited book collections, and popular history magazines including BBC History, History Today and Historically Speaking. He has won a number of awards for his research including the F. Hampton Roy Award (1993) from the Pulaski County Historical Association, and the Walter L. Brown Award (1994), the J. G. Ragsdale Book Award (2003), and the Lucille Westbrook Award (2005) from the Arkansas Historical Association.
Dr. Kirk has held grants from the British Academy, the British Association of American Studies, the Roosevelt Study Center (Middleburg, the Netherlands), the Rockefeller Archive Center (New York) and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library (Boston).
Select Publications:
Arsnick: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas, 1962-1967. Co-editor with Jennifer Jensen Wallach. Forthcoming 2011.
An Epitaph for Little Rock: A Fiftieth Anniversary Retrospective on the Central High Crisis. Editor. Foreword by Juan Williams. 2008.
Beyond Little Rock: The Origins and Legacies of the Central High Crisis. Foreword by Minnijean Brown Trickey. 2007.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement: Controversies and Debates. Editor. 2007.
Martin Luther King, Jr. 2005.
Redefining the Color Line: Black Activism in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1940-1970. 2002.
