Faculty
Dr. Adam Zucconi
Associate Professor of History / Chair of Social & Behavioral
Contact Information:
Ernst Hall 134(804) 862-6100, ext. 8553
azucconi@rbc.edu
Education & Publications:
Undergraduate:
Bridgewater College, 2009Graduate:
Clemson University, 2011Doctorate:
West Virginia University, 2016Publications:
“‘[P]reserve us from such democracy’: Politics, Slavery, and Political Culture in antebellum Northwest Virginia, 1850-1861,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 123, no. 4 (2015): 325-354.“(Some) Mountaineers are Always Free: The Politics of Slavery in West(ern) Virginia,” Bridgewater College Civil War Institute, Bridgewater, VA, March 18, 2017
Review of Seven Myths of the Civil War, ed. Wesley Moody (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2017) [https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=54754]
Review of The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to the Civil War (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018) [https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=53558]
“To “whiten” the Mountains: Abolishing Slavery in West(ern) Virginia, 1861−1863,” The Smithfield Review, 24 (2020): 67-96
Bio:
Dr. Adam Zucconi received his B.A. in History and Political Science from Bridgewater College (Bridgewater, VA) in 2009, an M.A. in History from Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina) in 2011, and a Ph.D. in History from West Virginia University (Morgantown, West Virginia) in 2016. Dr. Zucconi’s research interests include the American Civil War era, American political history, political culture, constitutional law, and international relations. In particular, Dr. Zucconi focuses on the development of democratic governments and institutions in various historical contexts, specifically in the American South during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.
His current research explores the “politics of slavery” and “slaves politics” in West(ern) Virginia throughout the antebellum and postbellum eras, and how both black and white West(ern) Virginians navigated the creation of a new slaveholding state while a war for slavery’s existence unfolded. Dr. Zucconi’s future research plans will focus on how Americans interpreted the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, notably in political relations between newly freed slaves and white southerners.
Outside of the classroom, Dr. Zucconi enjoys spending time with his family, tackling DIY projects, reading, and playing video games.
