Ellen Holmes Pearson, Ph.D.

New Hall 219
828-251-6651
epearson@unca.edu

Office Hours, Fall, 2007:
Mon/Wed 9-10 a.m.; Tu/Th 10-11 a.m.
or by appointment

 

Education:
Ph.D., History, The Johns Hopkins University, 2000
M.A., History, The Johns Hopkins University, 1998
M.A., History, The University of New Orleans, 1996
B.A., Spring Hill College, 1984, summa cum laude

Teaching Interests:

Colonial and Revolutionary Americas
Cultural and Intellectual History
American Legal Culture
Early Modern Atlantic World
Native American History

Research Interests and Publications:

Professor Pearson is revising her manuscript, "A Difference of Customs: Legal Scholars and the Construction of Identity in Early America."  Her recent publications include book chapters on the legal rights of free people of color in antebellum New Orleans and American legal scholars' interpretations of the common law, published by Louisiana State University and Johns Hopkins University Presses, and an essay on Connecticut during the Revolution and early national period, published by Greenwood Press.  Professor Pearson has served as faculty for a National Endowment for the Humanities Workshop entitled "Wiping Away the Tears: Renewing Cherokee Culture and American History through the Cherokee Heritage Center and the Trail of Tears.  She has given papers at conferences for the New England American Studies Association, the American Society for Legal History, and the Organization of American Historians.  

Course Web pages: 

Historiography (spring, 2008)

Senior Thesis (HIST 452)

Every single one of my students should read the following documents:

Departmental requirements for meeting minimum competency for the Senior Thesis

General standards for papers and essay exams

The Ten Commandments of Good Historical Writing, by Theron F. Schlabach

Footnote/Endnote guidelines

Taking Lecture and class notes (Dartmouth University)

Other useful links:

Common abbreviations for footnotes and other places
Examples of annotations for bibliography
Plagiarism and How to avoid it (Indiana University)