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Posted: 4/01/21

TAMIU’s ‘Bringing the University to You’ Concludes with Thompson Lecture

 

Dr. Jerry Thompson
 

Texas A&M International University’s (TAMIU) “Bringing the University to You” virtual lecture series concluded with a presentation by Texas and Southwest U.S. historian and Regents Professor Dr. Jerry Thompson.

The lecture, “Fifty Years on the Texas-Mexico Border” was Thursday, April 8 at 7 p.m. Interested individuals attended virtually at https://go.tamiu.edu/thompson-border. Attendance was free and open to the public.

During the lecture, Thompson spoke on border history and his own experiences as a scholar chronicling its changing realities.

Thompson is Regents and Piper Professor of History at TAMIU. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors from the Arizona Historical Society, Historical Society of New Mexico, and the Texas State Historical Association. He has received the Best Scholarly Book Award from the Texas Institute of Letters three times.

Additionally, his book, Tejano Tiger: Jose de los Santos Benavides and the History of the Texas-Mexico Borderlands,1823-1891, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Thompson received the Kate Broocks Bates Award from the Texas State Historical Association for Civil War and Revolution on the Rio Grande Frontier, which he co-authored with Larry Jones.

Thompson is the recipient of the Senator Judith Zaffirini Medal for his teaching excellence and academic accomplishments, as well as The Texas A&M University System Teaching Excellence Award. 

Thompson received his doctorate in history from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a former president of the Texas State Historical Association. Currently, he serves on the Editorial Board for the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. His A Civil War History of the New Mexico Volunteers and Militia won the Fray Atanasio Francisco Domínguez Award from the New Mexico Historical Association and the Pate Award from the Fort Worth Civil War Round Table.

His recent publication by the University of Oklahoma Press, Wrecked Lives and Lost Souls: Joe Lynch Davis and the Last of the Oklahoma Outlaws, tells the story of Thompson’s Cherokee outlaw grandfather. Thompson’s Courage Above All Things: General John Ellis Wool and the American Military Experience, 1812-1863 (with Harwood P. Hinton) was published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 2020. 

The University’s “Bringing the University to You” was a four-part lecture series sponsored by Humanities Texas. The interactive speaker events focused on topics related to Borders. Previous lecturers were noted academics, including Sergio Troncoso, author, Fulbright scholar and president of the Texas Institute of Letters; Suzanne Strempek Shea, noted author and faculty member at the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program; and Dr. Scott Manning Stevens, associate professor and director of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Program and Syracuse University.

To view previous virtual lectures, visit https://go.tamiu.edu/borders2021

For additional information on the Series, please contact Dr. Adam Kozaczka, TAMIU assistant professor of Humanities, at adam.kozaczka@tamiu.edu or at 956.326.3300.

University office hours are 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.