Professor Scott Gac

Professor Scott Gac

Trinity College

Experience

  • Graduate Director of American Studies, Trinity College, 2014 - present.
  • Director of American Studies, Trinity College, 2013-2015, 2017-present.
  • Associate Professor, Trinity College, joint appointment in the History Department and American Studies Program, 2012-present.
  • Assistant Professor, Trinity College, joint appointment in History and American Studies, 2009-2012.
  • Visiting Assistant Professor, Trinity College, History and American Studies, 2008.
  • Visiting Lecturer, Trinity College, History Graduate Studies, fall 2007.
  • Lecturer, Yale University, American Studies and History, 2003, 2004.
  • Adjunct Assistant Professor, CUNY (Queens and Baruch Colleges), History, 1999-2003.

Education

  • The Graduate Center, City University of New York, Doctor of Philosophy, 2003, U.S. History
  •  The Juilliard School, New York, NY, Master of Music, 1996, Double Bass
  •  Columbia University, New York, NY, Bachelor of Arts, 1995

Awards

  • CTL Fellow, Center for Teaching and Learning, Trinity College, Hartford, CT, 2014.
  • Selected Participant, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Summer Seminar (Slave Narratives), Yale University, New Haven, CT, 2009.
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 2005.
  • Mellon Special Collections Humanities Fellow, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 2003, 2004.
  • Society of Colonial Dames Fellowship, New York, 2002.
  • Kate B. and Hall J. Peterson Fellow, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA, 2001.
  • Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow, Library Company of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 2001.
  • Ph.D. Alumni Dissertation Support Fund Award, CUNY, 2000-2002.
  • Writing Fellow, CUNY, 1999, 2000.
  • University Tuition Scholarship, CUNY, 1996-1998.
  • University Fellowship, CUNY, 1996, 1998.
  • The Juilliard School Scholarship, New York, 1994, 1995.

Scott Gac is an author, historian, and teacher. At Trinity College in Connecticut, he is an Associate Professor of American Studies and History. As Director of Trinity undergraduate and graduate programs in American Studies, he oversees curriculum, lectures, working groups, and public outreach for one of the most distinguished liberal arts American Studies endeavors. He has published on American violence in ChoiceRethinking History, and Reviews in American History. His forthcoming book is Born in American Blood (Cambridge University Press), which is based on his popular course entitled “Born in Blood: Violence and the Making of America.” His first book, Singing for Freedom (Yale Press, 2007), details interracial social activism of the pre-Civil War era through the abolitionist musicians, the Hutchinson Family Singers. In spring 2015, the Rose Ensemble staged this book in a series of performances in St. Paul, Minnesota. Professor Gac is a graduate of Columbia University, The Juilliard School, and The Graduate Center at CUNY.

My Courses

American Slavery

by Professor Scott Gac

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Civil War

by Professor Scott Gac

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Reconstruction Era

by Professor Scott Gac

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Why we love teaching history
Q: Why do you love teaching religion and politics?

A: I love teaching the history of religion and politics in America because there is no better way to shed light the confusing culture wars of our own time. Plus, this history lets us explore the spiritual practices and philosophies that different Americans have used to impose some kind of order on the chaos of life—and I think its our passion for ideas, for sweeping theories about good and evil and the meaning of existence, that make us human.
Professor Molly Worthen

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Q: Why do you love teaching national defense?

A: I am first and foremost a historian, but I also like for students to see how much the past is constantly influencing what we do in the present. This is true in many aspects of our past (and present), but it is often strikingly visible in national defense and security issues. In one sense, I’m using the students’ awareness of and interest in the present to awaken an interest in the past.
Professor Watne Lee

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill