Donald R. Shaffer received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Maryland, College Park, where he studied under Ira Berlin. Since then, Dr. Shaffer has held positions with the National Park Service, San Diego State University, SUNY Plattsburgh, University of Wyoming, and the University of Northern Colorado.
His scholarly work to date primarily addresses the experience of African-American veterans after the U.S. Civil War (1861-65). Dr. Shaffer's book on this subject, After The Glory: The Struggles of Black Civil War Veterans was published in 2004 by the University Press of Kansas. It won the 2005 Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship. Dr. Shaffer is presently working with Elizabeth Regosin of St. Lawrence University, from NYU Press to produce a primary source reader on Civil War pension files as they pertain to the experiences of former slaves. This publication, titled Voices of Emancipation, is scheduled for publication in May 2008.
Dr. Shaffer also has articles which have appeared in Union Soldiers and the Northern Home Front: Wartime Experiences, Postwar Adjustments, edited by Paul A. Cimbala and Randall M. Miller for Fordham University Press; Civil War History; and the anthology, Southern Families at War, edited by Catherine Clinton for Oxford University Press.
His most recent conference paper was the keynote address for "Understanding the African American Civil War Experience," the second annual conference on the Civil War hosted by the University of Mississippi. Dr. Shaffer also has delivered papers at the annual meetings of the American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Southern Historical Association, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, and the Society for Military History. In addition, he has been a participant at the Black History Workshop put on by the University of Houston; the Conference on African Americans in the Civil War at Virginia State University; and at "Frontlines: Gender, Identity, and War" sponsored by Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
Dr. Shaffer also was a fellow at the 2005 West Point Summer Seminar in Military History at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. View Dr. Shaffer's pictures from the 2005 West Point Summer Seminar in Military History.
Fall 2007, Session 1 Office Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 9:30-10:30 a.m. and by appointment.
Course Pages for Fall 2007, Session 1:
Hist 100, World Civilization I
Hist 371, Colonial and Revolutionary America: The U.S., 1607-1787
Dr. Shaffer teaches the following courses at UIU: