R

R. Volney Riser, Ph.D.

	Assistant Professor of History Station 22 Wallace Hall 310B (205) 652-3463 rriser@uwa.edu
Degrees:	Ph.D., University of Alabama, 2005 M.A., University of Alabama, 2000 B.A., Florida State University, 1998 B.A., Florida State University, 1995
Employment Date:	2005
Teaching / Research Interests:	African-American History Civil and Voting Rights Gilded Age and Progressive Era Reconstruction New South United States Legal and Constitutional History
Publications:	BOOK MANUSCRIPTS Completed: Defying Disfranchisement: Black Voting Rights Activism, 1890-1908 (under review, Louisiana State University Press). Judges and Historically Significant Decisions of the United States Court for the Middle District of Alabama (commissioned by the Historical Committee of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama; forthcoming from the Bounds Publications Series, University of Alabama School of Law). In Progress: The Litigious Mr. Washington: Booker T. Washington, the Courts, and the Battle Against Jim Crow. (under contract, University of Georgia Press) Alabama’s Supreme Court and Legal Institutions: A History (with Tony A. Freyer, Paul M. Pruitt, Timothy W. Dixon, and Howard P. Walthall). ARTICLES Published: "Disfranchisement, the U.S. Constitution, and the Courts: Alabama’s 1901 Constitutional Convention Debates the Grandfather Clause." (forthcoming, American Journal of Legal History) "'The Milk in the Cocoanut': Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Fear of Conspiracy in Alabama’s 1901 Constitutional Ratification Referendum." Southern Historian 26 (Spring 2005): 30-54 (awarded the 2005 Charles G. Summersell "Best Article" award. "The Burdens of Being White: Empire and Disfranchisement." Alabama Law Review 53, no. 1 (Fall 2001): 243-272. In Progress: "Williams v. Mississippi: Widely-noted, Little-studied, and Misunderstood." "Disfranchisement, the Disfranchisers, and the Hawaiian Organic Act of 1900: 'Northern Acquiescence' Revisited." (under review) DICTIONARY ENTRIES "NAACP" in the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (forthcoming, Scribner's) "Reconstruction" and "Convict Leasing" in the Encyclopedia of Anti-Slavery and Abolition (Greenwood Press, 2007). "Trilateral Commission," in the Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia (ABC-Clio, 2004). "Joseph Philo Bradley," "William Rufus Day," and "Sanford Ballard Dole," in the Historical Dictionary of the Gilded Age (M. E. Sharpe Publishers, 2003). "Saenz v. Roe," "U.S. v. Butler," "Missouri v. Holland," "Craig v. Boren," "Balanced Budget Amendment," "American Tobacco Case," "Granger Cases," "ex parte Garland," and "Collector v. Day," in the Dictionary of American History (Scribner’s, 2002). BOOK REVIEWS Michael A. Ross, Justice of Shattered Dreams: Samuel Freeman Miller and the Supreme Court During the Civil War Era. (Southern Historian 25 [Spring 2004]: 109-110). David W. Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory. (Southern Historian 25 [Spring 2004]: 107-108). Charles B. Dew, Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War. (Southern Historian 24 [Spring 2003]: 65-66). Michael Perman, Struggle for Mastery: Disfranchisement in the South, 1888-1908. (Southern Historian 23 [Spring 2002]:127-129). J. C. A. Stagg, ed., The Papers of James Madison, Presidential Series, Vol. 4: 5 November 1811-9 July 1812. Southern Historian 22 [Spring 2001]: 135-136).
Presentations:	"Black Voting Rights Activism in Disfranchisement Era Alabama." Southern Historical Association Annual Meeting, Birmingham, November 2006. "The Cases of Jackson Giles: Black Voting Rights Activism in the Progressive Era." Social Science History Association Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, November 2006. "The Anti-Disfranchisement Cases of 1894-1915." Association for the Study of African American Life and History Annual Meeting, Atlanta, September 2006. "The Origins of Alabama’s 1901 Constitutional Convention." Fred Gray, Sr. Civil Rights Symposium, Thomas Goode Jones School of Law, Faulkner University, Montgomery, September 28, 2006. "‘The Colored Attorney from New York City’: Wilford H. Smith’s Legal Challenge to Alabama’s 1901 Constitution." Faculty Symposium, Jones School of Law, Faulkner University, Montgomery, September 27, 2006." "Booker T. Washington, Thomas Goode Jones, and the Effort to Undermine Alabama’s 1901 Constitution." Alabama Department of Archives and History, Architreats Lecture Series, February 16, 2006. "To Move on the Enemies’ Works: Wilford Smith and the Fight Against Disfranchisement," University of Alabama, History Department Brown Bag Lecture Series, April 2003.
Awards and Honors:	University of Alabama Outstanding Dissertation Award, 2005-2006 College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Dissertation Award, 2005-2006 Charles G. Summersell "Best Article" Fellowship, 2005, awarded by Southern Historian Artemas Killian Callahan Sr. Scholarship, 2004-2005, University of Alabama School of Law Judge Henry H. Mize Scholarship, 2004-2005, University of Alabama School of Law History Department Dissertation Fellowship, 2003-2004 University of Alabama Graduate Council Dissertation Fellowship, 2002-2003 Phi Theta Kappa
Memberships:	Alabama Historical Association American Historical Association American Society for Legal History Association for the Study of African American Life and History Organization of American Historians Southern Historical Association