Evan Turiano, Ph.D.

Historian & Postdoctoral Fellow



About


Evan Turiano is the 2023 Walter O. Evans Fellow at Yale University, sponsored by the Beinecke Library and the Gilder Lehrman Center.  He received his Ph.D. from the Graduate Center, CUNY in 2022. 

He researches nineteenth-century United States History, with a focus on slavery, politics, and law. His book manuscript, under advance contract with LSU Press's "Antislavery, Abolition, and the Atlantic World" series, examines the contested legal rights of African Americans accused of being fugitive slaves from before the American Revolution through the onset of the Civil War. His research offers a new origin story for the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law and demonstrates new connections between freedom seekers and the coming of the Civil War.

His dissertation was awarded the 2023 Bradford-Delaney Dissertation Prize by the St. George Tucker Society. His work has been supported by fellowships from the New York Public Library's Lapidus Center, the John Carter Brown Library, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, and the University of Virginia's Nau Center for Civil War History.
Before coming to Yale, Evan was the Macaulay Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Queens College, CUNY, where he taught courses on US History, African American History, and Legal History from 2017 to 2023.

Journal Articles


"Prophecies of Loss": Debating Slave Flight During Virginia's Secession Crisis


Evan Turiano

Journal of the Civil War Era, vol. 12(3), 2022, pp. 338-361



Encyclopedia Entries


Underground Railroad


Evan Turiano

Race and Ethnicity from Pre-contact to Present, Volume 2, ABC-Clio, 2019



Book Reviews


Review of Escott, Paul D.. The Worst Passions of Human Nature: White Supremacy in the Civil War North


Evan Turiano

Indiana Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 118(4), 2022, pp. 336-7



Book in Progress


The Politics of Fugitive Slave Rendition and the Coming of the Civil War


Drawing from political history, legal theory, and the study of enslaved resistance, my book manuscript, The Politics of Fugitive Slave Rendition and the Coming of the Civil War, uncovers the conflict surrounding the contested legal rights of people acc...

Teaching



Graduate Courses


Black Citizenship in the U.S. from the Revolution to Reconstruction

Queens College, Hist. 797 (Studies in U.S. History)

This graduate course introduced students to political, legal, social, and cultural history scholarship on Black rights before the Civil War. Students had the opportunity to interact with authors who made guest appearances in class, including Kate Masur...



Undergraduate Courses


Fugitive Slaves: Fighting for Freedom in the Courts

Queens College, Hist. 288 (Law, Crime & Society in U.S. History)

This course used my research subject as a gateway to introduce History majors to topics and methods in Legal History (Spring 2021, Online, 30 students).


Nation, Community, and Identity: U.S. History to 1877 (Honors)

Queens College, Hist. 163H

This course-which I designed for first-year honors students-used early U.S. history as a lens for considered key historiographical themes including nationalism and identity-formation. I collaborated with a member of the English faculty to design a cumu...


The New Nation, 1800-1850

Queens College, Hist. 260

This course introduced intermediate history students to the Early Republic and Antebellum eras, with particular focus on slavery, the Indian Removal Act, and the US War with Mexico (Fall 2020, Online, 30 students).


Civil War and Reconstruction

Queens College, Hist. 262

This course for intermediate history courses surveyed the conflict over slavery in the U.S., the political, legal, military, social, and cultural history of the war, and key themes in the Reconstruction era (Spring 2023, in person, 15 students).


American History, 1607-1865

Queens College, Hist. 103

This introductory history course offers students a chance to study key themes in early U.S. history, explore a range of historical methodologies, and produce a scaffolded research project (2017-2022, In-person and online, 35-55 students).


American History, 1865-present

Queens College, Hist. 104

This introductory history course offers students a chance to study key themes in contemporary U.S. history, explore a range of historical methodologies, and produce a scaffolded research project (Fall 2018, In-person, 50 students).



Faculty Development Courses


Writing In the Disciplines (WID) Faculty Seminar

LaGuardia Community College

In this seminar, I introduced faculty members to Writing in the Disciplines and Writing Across the Curriculum pedagogical techniques (2020-2021, Online, 6-8 participants).


Other Work


Public Writing

In addition to my scholarly work, I write articles and op-eds about politics, education, history, and New York City for a variety of national and local publications


Video

Here are some opportunities to hear me speak about my scholarship, public interest writing, and other subjects.

Contact


Evan Turiano

Walter O. Evans Fellow



Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Yale University


Share




Follow this website


You need to create an Owlstown account to follow this website.


Sign up

Already an Owlstown member?

Log in