Evan Turiano is a scholar of history, law, and politics with a focus on the nineteenth century United States. He received his Ph.D. in History from the Graduate Center, City University of New York in 2022. He is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Law at Trinity College.
Evan's research seeks to uncover how constitutional politics—using arguments about the Constitution's text, meaning, and creation to wield partisan political power—have been deployed across American history in ways that fundamentally shape the meaning of law in the United States, even its seemingly most "fixed" elements. His research—on topics that range from fugitive slave rendition to early American gun regulation—forces us to appreciate that core elements of constitutional law have been forged in the fires of political debate and that the field of participants who have shaped American constitutional law is broader than many have previously imagined.
At Trinity, Evan teaches courses related to American legal history and American constitutional law. Prior to coming to Trinity, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Wesleyan University's Center for the Study of Guns and Society. He's held fellowships at Yale University, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 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.
Journal Articles
Proslavery Constitutional Politics and the Making of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, 1793-1850
Evan Turiano
Journal of the Early Republic, forthcoming, 2026
"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
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
Somerset, Subjection, and Reciprocal Rights in American Abolitionism
Evan Turiano
Omohundro Institute Press, David Waldstreicher, Matthew Mason, Somerset v. Steuart: Law, Politics, and Slavery in North America, University of North Carolina Press, 2026
English Tradition, American Violence: The Origins of American Gun Regulation
Evan Turiano, Brennan Gardner Rivas
Scott Gac, Caroline Light, Routledge Handbook of American Violence, Routledge, 2026
Review Essays
The "Reintegration" Trap: Fugitives from Slavery and Synthesis in American History
Evan Turiano
Reviews in American History, vol. 52(3), 2024, pp. 214-229
Recent Book Reviews
Review of Bell, John Frederick, Degrees of Equality: Abolitionist Colleges and the Politics of Race
Evan Turiano
Journal of Southern History, vol. 89(3), 2023, pp. 557-558
Evan Turiano
Pennslyvania History, vol. 90(4), 2023, pp. 647-650
Evan Turiano
American Nineteenth Century History, vol. 23(3), 2022, pp. 315-217
Evan Turiano
Indiana Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 118(4), 2022, pp. 336-7
Evan Turiano
Louisiana History, vol. 61(3), 2020, pp. 319-321
Review of Rugemer, Edward B., Slave Law and the Politics of Resistance in the Early Atlantic World
Evan Turiano
Southern Historian, vol. 41, 2020
Evan Turiano
H-FedHist, H-Net Reviews, 2019 Feb
Review of Sexton, Jay, A Nation Forged by Crisis: A New American History
Evan Turiano
H-CivWar, H-Net Reviews, 2019
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...
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).
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).
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
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
Here are some opportunities to hear me speak about my scholarship, public interest writing, and other subjects.