Rate My Professor Paul Quigley

Paul Quigley is the James I. Robertson, Jr. Associate Professor of Civil War History in the Department of History at Virginia Tech, a position he has held since joining the faculty in 2013. He currently directs the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies and the Center for Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. Before arriving at Virginia Tech, Quigley served as a lecturer in American history at the University of Edinburgh from 2007, where he also acted as associate editor for Southern Cultures for five years, book review editor and list editor for H-National, and took on various administrative roles in the master’s degree program in history, including directing the new online master of science degree in history. Quigley earned his Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his B.A. from Lancaster University in Great Britain.

Quigley's scholarly work centers on the Civil War era, with particular emphasis on nationalism in the American South, the transformation of citizenship during wartime, political violence exemplified by Preston Brooks in the 1850s, and the international dimensions of the conflict. His acclaimed first book, Shifting Grounds: Nationalism and the American South, 1848-1865 (Oxford University Press, 2011), received the British Association for American Studies Book Prize, the Jefferson Davis Award from the Museum of the Confederacy, and an Honorable Mention for the Deep South Book Prize. Additional publications include articles such as "Reconciliation after Civil Wars" (2018) and "The Civil War and the Transformation of American Citizenship" (2018). He is completing The Man Behind the Cane: Preston Brooks, Political Violence, and the Coming of the Civil War. Quigley incorporates augmented reality into public history projects addressing slavery and the Civil War. Noted among younger Civil War historians for innovative perspectives, he excels in teaching, mentorship—directing numerous student research projects—and outreach. Quigley was reappointed to his endowed professorship in 2018, reflecting his exemplary service and contributions to the field.