Graham A. Peck, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History
Email: gpeck@sxu.edu
Areas of Specialization
Pre-Civil War American History; Illinois History; Modern Japanese History; Historical Methods; Documentary Filmmaking
Biography
Abraham Lincoln is my nam[e]
And with my pen I wrote the same
I wrote in both hast[e] and spped
and left it her for fools to read
-Abraham Lincoln (aged 15 to 17)
A native of Oakland, California, and a devoted fan of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, Professor Peck graduated from California State University, Hayward in 1991 with a B.A. in history. He came to the Chicago metropolitan area in 1992 for graduate school, earning a Ph.D. at Northwestern University in American history in 2001. He then spent a year as a visiting professor of history at Rhodes College in Memphis before accepting a permanent position at Saint Xavier University in 2002. At Saint Xavier, he has taught a wide range of courses in American history, in addition to teaching modern Japanese history, and historical methods. He is excited to teach his first course on documentary filmmaking this year. He has also led an overhaul of the department's curriculum for history, history education, and social science education students, strengthening their training in research and writing.
Professor Peck's scholarly work has built on the interests he developed in graduate school. He has published three articles on Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, has recently completed a book chapter on antebellum politics, and is currently working on a book mauscript titled Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Coming of the Civil War. Three Saint Xavier students have assisted Professor Peck in his historical research over the past seven years, and more will likely be recruited in the years to follow!
Courses Offered
- HIST 103: United States History to 1877
- HIST 104: United States History since 1877
- HIST 200: Introduction to the Discipline of History
- HIST 230: Illinois History
- HIST 235: Colonial America
- HIST 245: History of Modern Japan
- HIST 250: Historical Documentary Filmmaking
- HIST 250: Early American Republic
- HIST 348: Civil War and Reconstruction
- HIST 395: Senior Seminar
Selected Publications
"New Records of the Lincoln-Douglas Debate at the 1854 Illinois State Fair: The Missouri Republican and the Missouri Democrat Report from Springfield." Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 30 (Summer 2009): 25-80.
"Abraham Lincoln and the Triumph of an Antislavery Nationalism." Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 28 (Summer 2007): 1-27; or http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jala/28.2/peck.html.
"Was Stephen A. Douglas Antislavery?" Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 26 (Summer 2005): 1-21; or http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jala/26.2/peck.html.
Selected Honors
Saint Xavier University Scholar Recognition Award, 2005-2006
Nominated for the Saint Xavier University Excellence in Teaching Award, 2004-2005
The Abraham Lincoln Institute's Hay-Nicolay Scholars Prize, 2003
J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management Dispute Resolution Research Center Fellowship,
1998
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Award, 1997
Illinois State Historical Society's King V. Hostick Fellowship, 1996
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