Kevin Waite

PhD - History
University of Pennsylvania - 2016

MPhil - History
University of Cambridge - 2011

B.A. - History and English
Williams College - 2009

“The U.S. War on Indigenous Society, 1860-1900,” in Andrew J. Huebner and Jennifer D. Keene, eds., The Cambridge History of War and Society in America, (New York: Cambridge University Press) 2026 - Book chapter

“The Brittle West: Secession and Separatism in the Southwest Borderlands during the Civil War Era," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 127:1 2023 - Journal article

West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire (University of North Carolina Press) 2021 - Book

“The ‘Lost Cause’ Goes West: Confederate Culture and Civil War Memory in California,” California History 97:1 2020 - Journal article

“War in Indian Country,” in Aaron Sheehan-Dean, ed., The Cambridge History of the American Civil War, 3 vols. (New York: Cambridge University Press) 2019 - Book chapter

“Custer’s Last Stands: Remaking a Frontier Legend in Hollywood Film,” in John Inscoe and Matthew C. Hulbert, eds. Writing History with Lightning: Representations of Nineteenth Century America on Film (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press) 2019 - Book chapter

“The Largest Confederate Monument Can’t Be Taken Down,” in Catherine Clinton, ed. Confederate Statues and Memorialization (Athens: University of Georgia Press) 2019 - Book chapter

“Jefferson Davis and Proslavery Visions of Empire in the Far West,” Journal of the Civil War Era, 6:4  2016 - Journal article

Anne Stark Watson and Chester Watson Distinguished Professor of History, and Associate Professor
University of Texas at Dallas [2025–Present]

Associate Professor
Durham University [2022–2025]

Assistant Professor
Durham University [2016–2022]

Biography

I’m a historian of the American West, with a focus on slavery and freedom at the far edges of the nation. My first book, West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire (UNC Press), won the 2022 Wiley-Silver Prize from the Center for Civil War Research and was a finalist for three other book awards, including the Lincoln Prize. The Civil War Monitor named West of Slavery one of the “Five Best Books” ever written on the war in the Far West. My second book, forthcoming from University of California Press, is a biography of Biddy Mason, a Mississippi slave turned California real estate entrepreneur.  

Much of my work extends beyond the academy, with the aim of bringing history to the broader public. My articles have appeared in the Atlantic, the Washington Post, National Geographic, Time, the New Republic, Slate, and the Los Angeles Times, among others. I regularly consult for the National Park Service to identify and preserve historic sites of interest in the American West. We recently registered two new California sites in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. 

Like the L.A. cliché that I am, I moonlight as a struggling (and only occasionally successful) TV screenwriter. I co-wrote the eight-episode docuseries, “Pirates: Behind the Legends” (National Geographic, Hulu), and I’m currently writing and producing a six-episode series on the American Revolution for National Geographic and Disney+. Before that, I was the lead historical consultant on the Emmy-nominated docuseries “Frontier” (National Geographic, Paramount+). I appear as a talking head in five documentaries.  

Before coming to UTD, I taught for nine years at Durham University in the U.K., where I remain an Honorary Fellow and an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.  

I’m delighted to be teaching talented undergraduate and graduate students at UTD, and I welcome inquiries from prospective grad students on a range of topics, including the history of the West, slavery and emancipation, the Civil War era, and American empire. I’m also actively seeking students interested in public history and filmmaking. 

Principle Investigator, “Beyond Jim Crow,” Research, Development, and Engagement Fellowship

$307,000 - Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK [2023/09–2025/08]