Michael Phillips CV
Education
Ph.D., History, University of Texas at Austin, 2002.
Dissertation: The Fire This Time: The Battle Over Racial, Regional, and Religious Identities in Dallas, Texas, 1860-1990.
M.A., History, University of California at Riverside, 1994.
B.A., Communications (Journalism), University of Texas at Arlington, 1983.
Academic Appointments
Clements Senior Fellow for the Study of Southwestern America, William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University, 2022-2023.
Historical Consultant, The Civil War and the Fight for America (Keri Leigh Merritt, producer), 2022-
Professor, Collin College, 2007-2022.
Adjunct Professor, University of Texas at Arlington History Department, 2010.
History Lecturer, University of Texas at Austin Extension Education Department, 2004-2007.
Adjunct Professor, University of Texas Journalism Department, 2004-2007.
Researcher/Coordinator, Center for American History, Texas House Speakers Oral History Project, 2003-2005.
Lecturer, University of Texas at Austin History Department, 2002-2003.
Assistant Instructor, University of Texas at Austin History Department, 2001-2002.
Teaching Assistant/Grader, University of Texas at Austin History Department, 1997-2000.
Awards, Scholarships and Grants
East Texas Historical Association Ottis Lock Award for Educator of the Year, 2021.
(With Betsy Friauf):Texas Oral History Association Kenneth E. Hendrickson, Jr. Sound Historian Best Article Award, 2019-2020.
East Texas Historical Association Board of Directors Appointment, 2019-Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies Community College Faculty Fellowship, 2019-2020.
(With Betsy Friauf): C.K. Chamberlain Award for Best Article of the Year in the East Texas Historical Journal, 2018.
Baylor University Charlton Oral History Research Grant, 2013.
East Texas Historical Association Ottis Lock Endowment Research Grant, 2013.
Collin College Study Grant, 2013.
Texas Historical Commission T.R. Fehrenbach Book Award for Best Book on Texas History, 2007, for White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001.
University of Texas at Austin Texas Blazers Teacher of the Year Award, 2002.
Annual Faculty Appreciation Award, University of Texas at Austin Services for Students with Disabilities Office, 2001-2002.
University of Texas at Austin Outstanding Dissertation Award, 2001-2002.
University of Texas at Austin History Department Barnes D. Lathrop Prize for Best Dissertation, 2001-2002.
University of Texas at Austin Texas/Southwestern History Dissertation Fellowship, 2000-2001.
University of Texas at Austin Thematic Fellowship on Race, Ethnicity and Nationality, 1999-2000.
Centennial Graduate Student Support Fund, 1998.
Clara Driscoll Fellowship, 1997.
Texas Sesquicentennial Fellowship, 1997.
Centennial Graduate Student Support Fund, 1997.
Centennial Graduate Student Support Fund, 1996.
Publications: Scholarly Books
“‘Texan by Color: The Racialization of the Lone Star State,” in David Cullen and Kyle Wilkison, eds., The Texas Right: The Radical Roots of Lone Star Conservatism (College Station: Texas A&M Press, 2014).
“‘The Current is Stronger’: Images of Racial Oppression and Resistance in North Texas Black Art During the 1920s and 1930s, ” in Bruce A. Glasrud and Cary D. Wintz, eds., The Harlem Renaissance in the West: The New Negroes’ Western Experience (New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2011).
“Why Is Big Tex Still a White Cowboy? Race, Gender, and the ‘Other Texans’” in Walter Buenger and Arnoldo de León, eds., Beyond Texas Through Time: Breaking Away from Past Interpretations (College Station: Texas A&M Press, 2011).
The House Will Come to Order: How the Texas Speaker Became a Power in State and National Politics. Co-Written with Patrick Cox. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010).
White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity and Religion in Dallas, Texas, 1841-2001 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006).
Publication: Academic Journal Articles
(With Betsy Friauf): “‘A Shot at the Border’: The Harrowing Escapes and Joyful Life of Dr. Milan Reban,” Sound Historian, Volume XXI (Fall 2020).
(With Betsy Friauf): “A Serviceable Villain: Eugenics, The Fear of the ‘Underman,’ and Anti-Democratic Discourse in Texas Thought and Culture, 1900-1940,” East Texas Historical Journal Vol. 55, No. 2 (Fall 2017).
(With Betsy Friauf): “‘God Carved in Night,’: Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Texas and the Battle Against Racism,” Sound Historian, Volume XIX (Fall 2017).
“White Violence, Hegemony, and Slave Rebellion in Dallas, Texas, Before the Civil War,” East Texas Historical Journal Vol. 37, No. 2 (Fall, 1999).
Oral History Projects
(With Betsy Friauf and Kyle Wilkison) An Interview with Journalist, Author, and Civil Rights Activist Dick J. Reavis, University of North Texas Oral History Program Collection, https://oralhistory.unt.edu/oh-1950, May 11 and June 22, 2019.
(With Betsy Friauf) An Interview with University of North Texas Professor Emeritus Milan Reban, University of North Texas Oral History Program Collection, April 8, 2017.
(With Betsy Friauf) God Carved in Night: Black Intellectuals in Texas, Baylor University Institute for Oral History, http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/search/collection/buioh/field/subpro/searchterm/God%20Carved%20in%20Night:%20Black%20Intellectuals%20in%20Texas/mode/exact, 2013-2014.
Texas House Speakers Oral History Collection Guide, Briscoe Center for American History website. http://www.cah.utexas.edu/projects/speakers.php. 2003-2005.
Publications: Encyclopedia Entries
(With Betsy Friauf) “Carrie Weaver Smith (1885-1942),” Handbook of Texas (https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/smith-carrie-weaver, 2021.)
“Dallas, 1989-2011,” in Richardson Dilworth, ed. Cities in American Political History (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2011).
“Dallas,” “IQ Testing”, “Medical Profession,” “Southern Poverty Law Center,” and “White Supremacy” in Paul Finkelman, L. Diane Barnes, Graham Russell Hodges, Gerald Horne and Cary Wintz, eds., Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896-Present: From The Age of Segregation to the 21st Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.)
"George Fitzhugh" and “Slave Preachers” in Junius P. Rodriguez, ed., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political and Historical Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara, Ca.: ABC-CLIO Inc., 2007).
"Dallas" in Steven A. Reich, ed., Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006).
"Ed Wood" in The Fifties in America (New York: Salem Press, 2005).
"Coalition Against Blaxploitation," "Council for United Civil Rights Leadership," "Dallas: Civic, Literary, and Mutual Aid Societies," "Houston: Civic, Literary, and Mutual Aid Societies," "National Alliance of Black Organizations," "Southern Commission on the Study of Lynching," and "Southern Organization for United Leadership" in Nina Mjagkij, ed., Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations (New York: Garland Publishing, 2000).
"Dallas" and "Houston" in Ronald Gottesman, ed., Violence in America: An Encyclopedia (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999).
"Malcolm X," in Frank N. Magill, ed., Dictionary of World Biography, Volume VIII, The 20th Century (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1999).
"Ku Klux Klan" and “Oklahoma City Federal Building Bombing” in John C. Super, ed., The Encyclopedia of North American History (New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1998).
"George Fitzhugh," “Gilberto Freyre,” “Slave Preachers,” and “Frank Tannenbaum,” in Junius P. Rodriguez, ed., The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery (Santa Barbara, Ca.: ABC-CLIO Inc., 1997).
Guest Lectures and Participation at Academic Conferences, Panels, and Education Forums
Panelist: “Understanding the Present by the Past: The Texas Prison System from Convict Leasing to Mass Incarceration: A Roundtable,” East Texas Historical Association,” Nacogdoches, Texas, October 16, 2021.
Guest Lecturer: “What Happens in Dallas Doesn’t Stay in Dallas: What This City’s History Says About Racism in the United States,” Dr. Jennifer Collins’ “Dallas, Systemic Racism, and the Law” class, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, September 9, 2020.
Panelist: “Equity and Justice in Dallas: Past, Present, and Future,” Doing the Work Series, Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, Dallas, Texas, July 15, 2020.
Paper Presented: “A Serviceable Villain: Eugenics, The Fear of the ‘Underman,’ and Anti-Democratic Discourse in Texas Thought and Culture, 1900-1940,” The Texas Center for Working-Class Studies Sixth Annual Conference, Collin College, Plano, Texas, February 20, 2020.
Paper Presented: “Slouching Towards Armageddon: American End Times Religion and Middle East Politics,” Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, Florida, April 11, 2019.
Invited Speaker: “Whitewash: Political Propaganda and Confederate Monuments,” Jacksonville University’s Philosophy Slam, Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, Florida, April 10, 2019.
Paper Presented, “‘Leave That to the Negroes’: Pancho Medrano, Civil Rights, and the Mexican American Working Class in Dallas,” The Texas Center for Working-Class Studies Fifth Annual Conference, Collin College, Plano Campus, Plano, Texas, February 28, 2019.
Paper Presented: “Not So New, Not So ‘Alternative’: The Long History of the American Alt-Right,” Spring Public Affairs Forum of the College of Arts and Sciences, “What’s So ‘Alt’ About the Alt-Right?”, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas, April 23, 2018.
Paper Presented: “What Happens in Dallas Doesn’t Stay in Dallas: Race, Religion, and the Post-World War II Republican Party,” Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting, San Marcos, Texas, March 8, 2018.
Docent: Sixth Floor Museum Tour, Southern Historical Association Annual Meeting, Dallas Texas, Dallas, Texas, November 11, 2017.
Guest Lecturer: “Whiteness and Dallas Racial Politics,” Dr. Candice Lucas-Bledsoe, The Struggle for Black Freedom in America Graduate Seminar, Action Research Center, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, October 5, 2017.
Panel Organizer: “Confederate Monuments: Where Do We Go from Here?” Paul Quinn College, Dallas, Texas, September 25, 2017.
Session Chair: “Conquest and Oppression,” Transatlantic History Student’s Organization Annual Conference, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, October 21, 2016.
Paper Presented: “The Idea of the ‘Talented Tenth’ in the God Carved in Night Oral History Project,” Texas Oral History Association Annual Meeting, Baylor University, Oral , Texas, April 23, 2016.
Paper Presented: The Purifying Knife: The Strange Career of Eugenics in Texas, 1850-1940,” Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting, Irving, Texas, March 5, 2016.
Paper Presented: “Uncertain and Moveable Boundaries: Texas Segregation and Resistance to the 1964 Civil Rights Act in the Lone Star State,” University of North Texas 2014 Texas History Symposium, April 12, 2014.
Paper Presented: “Doctors, Planters, and Doomsday Preachers: The Surprising Failure of the Eugenics Movement in Early 20th Century Texas,” Cheiron: The International Society for the History of Behavioral and Social Sciences 45th Annual Meeting, University of Dallas, Irving, Texas June 21, 2013.
Paper Presented: “Free to Follow His Line of Employment: Race, Religion and the Dallas Open Shop Association,” Southern Labor Studies Association Biennial Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 9, 2013.
Panelist: Manuscript Workshop, Remaking Dixie: Migration and the Question of Blackness in Jim Crow Houston by Tyina Steptoe, Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, November 10, 2012.
Paper Presented: “The Strange Career of Eugenics in Texas, 1880-1930,” East Texas Historical Association Fall Meeting, Nacogdoches, Texas, September 28, 2012.
Panelist: Discussion of Harvey Graff’s The Dallas Myth: The Making and Unmaking of an American City, Masters of City and Regional Planning Program, the University of Texas at Arlington “One Book” Program, Arlington, Texas, December 6, 2011.
Paper Presented: “From Afterthought to Power Center: The Evolution of the House Speakership,” Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting, Austin, Texas, March 26, 2009.
Panel Discussant: “The Common and Continual Mischiefs of the Spirit of Party: Politics and the Transformation of Southern Cities,” Urban History Association Meeting, Houston, Texas, November 7, 2008.
Panel Discussant: “Author Meets Critics: The Dallas Myth: The Making and Unmaking of an American City,” Social Sciences History Association Meeting, Miami, Florida, October 24, 2008.
Paper Presented: “White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity and Religion in Dallas, 1841 to 2001,” Phi Alpha Theta Meeting, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, February 9, 2006.
Paper Presented: “White Like Me: Mexicans, Jews and the Elusive Politics of Identity,” Clements Center for Southwest Studies Brown Bag Series, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, February 1, 2006.
Paper Presented: “East Texas House Speakers and the Political Dilemma of Segregation,” East Texas Historical Association Fall Program in Nacogdoches, Texas, September 16, 2005.
Paper Presented: “‘Separated from the Mass of Mankind’: Jews and Attaining Whiteness in Dallas, Texas, 1865-1920.” East Texas Historical Association Fall Program in Nacogdoches, Texas, September 28, 2001.
Paper Presented: "Good Yankees, Southern Gentlemen and Race Traitors: The Frontier, the Idea of Democracy and the Construction of Reconstruction in American Film." Annual Meeting, Southwestern Social Sciences Association, March 15-18, 2000.
Panel Discussant: “Independents, Populists and Progressives: Reform Movements and Municipal Politics in Dallas, Texas.” Annual Meeting, Texas State Historical Association in Austin, Texas, March 2-4, 2000.
Paper Presented: “The Music of Cracking Necks: White Violence, Hegemony, and Slave Rebellion in Dallas, Texas Before the Civil War.” Seventeenth Gulf South History and Humanities Conference in Hammond, Louisiana, October 9-10, 1998.
Paper Presented: “Party Realignment, Race and the Career of Dallas Congressman Bruce Alger, 1954-1964.” Eleventh Citadel Symposium on Southern Politics, Charleston, South Carolina, March 5-6, 1998.
Paper Presented: “Reading, Writing, and Racism: The Discourse of White Dominance in Dallas Public Schools.” Southwestern Social Sciences Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, March 26-29, 1997.
Paper Presented: “Popular Culture as Resistance: The Building of an African American Community in North Central Texas in the 1860s.” East Texas Historical Association Spring Program in Galveston, Texas, February 21-22, 1997.
Paper Presented: “Moments of Doubt: Anxieties of Race, Class and Gender in Dallas During the Civil Rights Era.” Southwestern Social Science Association 74th Annual Meeting in Houston, Texas, March 20-23, 1996.
College Service
Advisor and Panel Moderator (With Dr. Suzanne Statler-Jones), “American Gun Violence: Its Impact (and Possible Solutions),” Collin College. Plano Campus, Plano, Texas, February 10, 2020.
Panelist and Organizer (With Dr. Betsy Brody), “Are You Good People? The Vietnam War, Refugees, and the Politics of Asylum,” Collin College, Plano Campus, Plano, Texas, October 8, 2019.
Faculty Advisor, Students Demand Action, Collin College, 2019 -2020.
Panelist and Organizer: From Freedmen to Citizens: The 14th Amendment at 150, Collin College, Plano Campus, Plano, Texas, November 1, 2018.
Member, History Department Search Committee, Plano Campus, Spring 2018.
Member, Collin College Intellectual Property Subcommittee, 2017-2018.
Host and Faculty Organizer (With Dr. Millie Black): “The Life of DREAMers: A Conversation About Immigration and American Politics,” Collin College, Plano Campus, Plano, Texas, September 12, 2016.
Member, Collin College Faculty Council Academic Freedom Committee, 2016-2019
Member, Collin College Faculty Council, 2016-2018
Host and Faculty Organizer, “Voter 101: How to Make Your Voice Heard,” A Muslim Students Association Event, Collin College, Plano Campus, Plano, Texas, November 4, 2015.
Member, Faculty Council Campus Carry Subcommittee, Collin College Faculty Council, 2015-2017
Assistant Faculty Advisor, Working-Class Heroes, Collin College, 2014-Present.
Host and Faculty Organizer, “An Evening with Zan Holmes: A Dallas Civil Rights Leader Reflects on the 1965 Voting Rights Act,” Collin College, Plano Campus, Plano, Texas, September 21, 2015.
Member, Academic Freedom Committee, Collin College Faculty Council, 2015-2018
Member, History Department Search Committee, Plano Campus, Spring 2015.
Faculty Organizer and Panel Chair: “Israel, Palestine, and the West Bank: Understanding a Conflict,” Sponsored by the Muslim Students Association, Collin College, Plano Campus, Plano, Texas, February 9, 2015.
Co-founder and Steering Committee Member: The Texas Center for Working-Class Studies, Collin College, Plano, Texas, June 18, 2014-Present.
Assistant Faculty Advisor: Muslim Students Association, Collin College, Plano Campus, Plano, Texas, 2014-Present.
Member: Committee for the Civil Rights Act Fiftieth Anniversary Commemoration, Collin College, Plano Campus, Plano, Texas, 2014.
Faculty Organizer and Panel Chair: “Muslim Women in America” Discussion Panel, Collin College, Plano Campus, Plano, Texas, October 18, 2012.
Member, History Search Committee: (1 position), Collin College, Plano Campus, Plano, Texas, Spring 2011.
Member, History Search Committee: Collin College (2 positions), Frisco Campus, Collin College, Frisco, Texas, Spring 2009.
Search Committee Member: History Professor (1 position), McKinney Campus, Collin College, McKinney, Texas, Spring 2008.
Public Lectures and Appearances
Invited Speaker: “The Free Speech Crisis at American College Campuses,” Common Power Texas Learning Tour, Embassy Suites by Hilton, Dallas, Texas February 18. 2022.
Panelist: A Discussion of the Film “Civil War (or Who Do We Think We Are),” Texas Theater, Dallas, Texas, October 7, 2021.
Panelist: “Teach-In: “Living Legacies of White Supremacy at UTD & Beyond: A Roundtable Discussion on the History of Racism & White Supremacyin Urban Texas,” University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas, February 12, 2021.
Panelist: “Black Citizenship Today,” University of Texas at Dallas and the New York Historical Society, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas, January 28, 2021.
Historical Consultant: Dallas Equal Justice Initiative video, “Dallas County EJI Remembers William Taylor,” Dallas, Texas, September 12, 2020, https://vimeo.com/457132553/802a9ee2a7?fbclid=IwAR1W7-GxBVwxIfPaPj9B2EFVh4i0WJJBNFUxe-33qqHnu95BbwY6QWHcDfE.
Narrator: “The 1860 Dallas Fire and A Remembrance of a Hanging” video, Remember Black Dallas and The Dallas Equal Justice Initiative, Dallas, Texas, July 24, 2020, https://vimeo.com/441149034/65542bef4d?fbclid=IwAR3nFGk3uO5WLqhj4t8t_VmhGecNCUKyWr_HTrx6mBrXT1DZCSfWUAvPAWQ
Panelist: “Undesign the Redline: Screening and Panel Discussion,” City of Dallas Office of Equity and Human Rights and the Building Community Workshop, South Dallas Community Center, Dallas, Texas, August 6, 2019.
Panelist: “A Critical History of North Texas: Segregation, White Flight, and Redlining,” Dallas Urban Futures Summit 2019, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas, May 2, 2019.
Panelist: “The ‘G’ Word: An Historical Look at Gentrification and the Opportunities It Presents,” Mayor’s Star Council, Engage Dallas 2018, Dallas, Texas, March 9, 2018.
Panelist, “From State Thomas to Fair Park,” African American Leadership Institute Fall Summit, Paul Quinn College, September 10, 2016.
Panelist: “Our Fair Park: A Conversation About a Dallas Treasure,” The Foundation for Community Empowerment, Dallas, Texas, August 1, 2016.
Panelist: “Race Relations in Dallas,” Mayor’s Star Council Corporate Meeting Panel, Latino Culture Center, Dallas, Texas, November 10, 2015.
Panelist: “Dallas’s Gritty History: A Conversation on Race,” a Panel Hosted by D Magazine’s “Big D Reads Program,” Gilley’s South Side Music Hall, Dallas, Texas, April 21, 2015.
Paper Presented: “‘Alive to The Possibility of Educating Their Children’: African American Education in Dallas History,” The State of Black Dallas Seminar, Urban League Greater Dallas Young Black Professionals, Concord Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, October 18, 2014.
Paper Presented: “History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, But It Rhymes: The Parallels Between the Texas Right of the Progressive Era and of Today,” The University of Texas at Arlington Friends of the Library Program, University of Texas at Arlington, September 19, 2014.
Panelist: ‘Welcome to Nut Country! A Discussion About Dallas and the Kennedy Assassination,” CentralTrak, University of Texas at Dallas Artist Residency and Gallery, Dallas, Texas, November 8, 2013.
Panelist: “Feeding the Fires of Hatred: Media, Rights, and Race in the Leo Frank Case.” Dallas Holocaust Museum, Dallas, Texas, November 4, 2013.
Paper Presented: “’Whiteness’ and Dallas’ Troubled Racial Past,” Dallas County Juvenile Department’s “That Was Then, This Is Now.” Black History Month Series, Dallas, Texas, February 8, 2012.
Paper Presented: “‘No Confidence in the Man Without Property’: New Racial Discourses in Twentieth Century Texas.” Master of Liberal Arts Social Justice Reading Group, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, September 23, 2011.
Featured Author: “A Discussion of White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001,” The “Real Men Read Books” Club. The African American Museum, Dallas, Texas, June 11, 2011.
Featured Author: “Discussion on White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001, Urban Engagement Book Club, Central Dallas Ministries, Dallas, Texas, November 6, 2008.
Roundtable Panelist: “The Dallas Civil Rights Movement.” African American Museum, “381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott Story,” Dallas, Texas, December 8, 2007.
Paper Presented: “Racial Terror and Social Control: The Dark Side of Texas Progressivism in the 1920s.” Texas State Historical Association, “From George to George: Teaching American History Workshop,” Houston, Texas, June 7, 2007.
Paper Presented: "Less Than White: The Hidden Racial Conflict in Dallas History,” Dallas Heritage Village/Dallas Historical Society Chautauqua Lecture Series, Dallas, Texas, October 24, 2006.
Other Professional Service
Member, Scholarship Committee, Dallas Equal Justice Initiative, 2020-2021.
Editorial Consultant for the Southwestern Historical Quarterly.
Editorial Consultant for University Press of Colorado.
Editorial Consultant for Texas A&M University Press, 2012.
Editorial Consultant, University of Texas Press, 2005.
Editorial Consultant for Mary Dodson Wade, Texas History (Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2003).
Editorial Consultant for Mary Dodson Wade, All Around Texas: Regions and Resources, (Chicago: Heinemann Library 2003).