A. ROGER EKIRCH

Department of History                                
Virginia Tech                                             
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061                                                               
Email: arekirch@vt.edu
Ph: 540-231-8381 or 540-798-4571                   
Fax: 540-772-1339       

EDUCATION:

Dartmouth College, A.B., Cum Laude, Highest Distinction in History, Rufus Choate Scholar, 1972
Johns Hopkins University, M.A., 1974, Ph.D., 1978

EMPLOYMENT

1971-72  Research Assistant, Papers of Daniel Webster
1975-76  Part-Time Instructor, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
1977-78  Instructor, Virginia Tech
1978-82  Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech
1982-88  Associate Professor, Virginia Tech
1987-88  Visiting Editor of Publications, Institute of Early American History & Culture
1988-      Professor, Virginia Tech

PRIZES/HONORS

“Outstanding Faculty,” Virginia Tech “Measures of Excellence,” 2000-2001 (one of ten faculty members from the university)
James L. Clifford Prize for Best Article, 2002, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies                
Percy G. Adams Prize for Best Article, 2002, Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
“Outstanding Faculty,” Virginia Tech “Measures of Excellence,” 2005-2006, 2006-2007
          (one of four faculty members from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences)
Phi Beta Kappa Sturm Award for Excellence in Faculty Research, Virginia Tech, 2006
At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past
          An Observer Book of the Year, 2005
          An Amazon Editors’ Best History Book of the Year, 2005
          A Discover Magazine Science Book of the Year, 2005
          A Columbus Dispatch Book of the Year, 2005
          Library of Virginia Literary Award in Nonfiction, 2006
          Charles Smith Book Award, 2006, Southern Historical Association, European Section
          Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society Prize (“Best subsequent book”), 2007

 
FELLOWSHIPS/GRANTS (EXTERNAL)

Paul Mellon Research Fellow, Faculty of History, Cambridge University, 1981-82
Fellow Commoner, Peterhouse, Cambridge, 1981-82
American Philosophical Society Grants, 1981, 1993
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, 1982-83, 1986-87, 1992-93
American Historical Association Grants, 1986, 1990
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Fellow, 1987, 1990
American Council of Learned Societies Grant-in-Aid, 1991
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for School Teachers (Director),1995
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow, 1998
         
PUBLICATIONS

Books:

"Poor Carolina": Politics and Society in Colonial North Carolina, 1729-1776 (Chapel Hill, N.C.:
University of North Carolina Press, 1981). Pp.305.

Bound for America: The Transportation of British Convicts to the Colonies, 1718-1775
(Oxford: Clarendon/Oxford University Press, 1987). Pp.296. Paperback edition (1990).

At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005). Pp.480.  Published
in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, 2005). In Germany: In der Stunde der Nacht: Eine Geschicte der Dunkelheit (Lübbe, 2006).  In the Netherlands: Nacht en Ontij: Een Geschiendenis van het Duister (De Bezige Bij, 2006).  Translations forthcoming in Turkey, China, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Birthright: Betrayal, Redemption, and the Kidnapping of Jemmy Annesley (New York: W.W. Norton, in progress).

Articles and Anthology Chapters:

"A New Government of Liberty': Hermon Husband's Vision of Backcountry North Carolina, 1755," William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Ser., XXXIV, no. 4 (October 1977), 632- 646.

"The North Carolina Regulators on Liberty and Corruption, 1766-1771," Perspectives in American History, ed., Donald Fleming (Harvard University: The Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, 1977-1978), XI, 197-256.

"Great Britain's Secret Convict Trade to America, 1783-1784," American Historical Review, LXXXIX, no.5 (December 1984), 1285-1291.

"Bound for America: A Profile of British Convicts Transported to the Colonies, 1718- 1775," William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Ser., XLII, no.2 (April 1985), 184-200.

"Whig Authority and Public Order in Backcountry North Carolina, 1776-1783," in Ronald Hoffman, Thad W. Tate, and Peter J. Albert, eds., An Uncivil War: The Southern Backcountry during the American Revolution (Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1985), 99-124.

"The Transportation of Scottish Criminals to America during the Eighteenth Century,"
Journal of British Studies, XXIV, no.3 (July 1985), 366-374.

"'Hungry as Hawks': The Social Bases of Political Leadership in Colonial North Carolina, 1729-1776," in Bruce Daniels, ed., Power and Status: Officeholding in the American Colonies (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1986), 139-145.

"Exiles in the Promised Land: Convict Labor in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake,"
Maryland Historical Magazine, LXXXII, no.2 (Summer1987), 95-122.

"Sleep We Have Lost: Pre-industrial Slumber in the British Isles," American Historical
Review,  CV, no.2 (April 2001), 343-387.

Other Publications:

"Poverty, Class, and Dependence in Early America," Historical Journal, XXVII, no.2 (June
1984), 493-502.

"Bound for the Chesapeake: Convicts, Crime, and Colonial Virginia," Virginia Cavalcade,
XXXVII, no.3 (Winter 1988), 100-113.

"Sometimes an Art, Never a Science, Always a Craft: A Conversation with Bernard
Bailyn," William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Ser., no.4 (October 1994), 625-658.  Translated
into Japanese.

“Dreams Deferred,” New York Times, Feb. 19, 2006, “Week in Review,” 13.

Miscellaneous dictionary entries and book reviews

INVITED LECTURES

“Beyond William Bryd’s Dividing Line,” Association for the Preservation of Virgnia Antiquties, Blacksburg, Va., 1978

“Whig Authority and Public Order in Backcountry North Carolina, 1776-1783,” American Studies Seminar, Cambridge University, 1982; American History Seminar, Oxford University, 1982

“The Transportation of British Convicts to America,” Southwestern Virginia Genealogical Society, Roanoke, Va., 1984

“Strife and Contention: Eighteenth-Century Society,” University of North Carolina at Charlotte Continuing Education, Gastonia, Salisbury, Charlotte, 1984

“Great Britiain’s Secret Convict Trade to America, 1783-1784,” Phi Alpha Theta, University of Richmond, 1987

“At Day’s Close: Nighttime in the Early Modern World,” Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Va., 1988

“Night Life in Colonial America,” Fossieck Memorial Lecture, State University of New York at Albany, 1989

“Patterns of Preindustrial Sleep,” Johns Hopkins University, 1997

“Be Afraid of the Dark,” Arts Club of Washington,  2001

“Sleep We Have Lost,”  Blacksburg Torch Club, 2002; Rotary Club of Arlington, Va. 2002

“Night is No Man’s Friend,” 24th Annual Statewide Conference, Virginia Crime Prevention
Association, Roanoke, Va., 2002

“Night in Times Past,” Higher Education Center, Roanoke, Va.,  2003

“Nighttime in Preindustrial Europe,” Louisiana State University, 2002; Ohio State
University, 2004

“At Day’s Close,” Center for the Book, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., 2005; Exchange Club of Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., 2005; the Library of Virginia, Richmond, 2005; Western Virginia Historical Society, Roanoke, 2005; Reynolds Homestead, Critz, Va., 2006; Prof. Kathryn Lebow’s Western Civilization class at the University of Virginia, 2006; Virginia Festival of the Book, Charlottesville, 2006; Phi Beta Kappa Meeting, Virginia Tech Chapter, 2006; National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington, D.C., 2006

“Sleep in Times Past,” Keynote Address, British Sleep Society, Robinson College, Cambridge University, 2007

RECENT INTERVIEWS

“Ideas,” CBC Radio, Toronto, 2004
“Documents,” BBC, London, 2004
 “On Point,” NPR, 2005
“Whad’Ya Know,” NPR, 2005
“Jamie Owen,” BBC Radio Wales, Cardiff, 2005
“Up All Night,” BBC Radio 5 Live, London, 2005
“Late Night Live,” ABC Radio National, Sydney, 2005
“Talk of the Nation,” NPR, 2006
Book TV, C-Span, 2006
“Morning Edition,” NPR, 2006
“Moncrieff with Sean Moncrieff,” Newstalk Radio, Dublin, 2007
“Mornings with Margaret Throsby,” ABC Radio National, Sydney, 2007

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Joyce and Richard Wolkomir, “When Bandogs Howle and Spirits Walk,” Smithsonian
(January 2001), 38-44.

Walter A. Brown, M.D., “Acknowledging Preindustrial Patterns of Sleep May
Revolutionize Approach to Sleep Dysfunction,” Applied Neurology, May 2006, 32-34
(revised and reprinted in Psychiatric Times, March 2007).

Walter A. Brown, M.D., “Ancient Sleep in Modern Times,” Scientific American Mind
(December 2006), 14-15.

Articles discussing my research, apart from book reviews, have also appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine (11/18/07); Boston Globe (4/10/06), Los Angeles Times (10//06), Chicago Tribune (1/19/2001), Denver Post (2/3/01), Richmond Times Dispatch (11/28/05), Columbus Dispatch (7/3/05), Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (5/30/05), Baton Rouge Advocate (9/17/05), US News & World Report (10/16/2000), Ode Magazine (11/05), Psychology Today (11/07),  Science News (9/25/99, 8/11/01), Pediatrics (1/05), Medicine Weekly (3/15/06), Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients (7/02), Arena Magazine (6/06), Toronto Star (2/7/99, 9/23/07), Montreal Globe & Mail (1/10/01), Financial Times (5/13/06, 5/26/07), Manchester Guardian (8/10/99), BBC News Magazine (3/16/07), International Herald Tribune (4/11/06), Historisch Nieuwslad (7/8/03), Amsterdam Elsevier (3/17/07), Askim Ovre Samaalenene (11/10/02), Stockholm Östermalms (4/27/07), Economic Times of India (5/30/05), Malaysia New Straits Times (12/12/99), and Canberra Times (6/30/06).

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY

Member of the American Association for the History of Medicine, American Historical Association, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Associates of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Irish Historical Society, and the North American Conference on British Studies

Manuscript referee for D.C. Heath; Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture; Routledge, Chapman, and Hall; University of North Carolina Press; University of South Carolina Press; Penn State University Press; University Press of Kentucky; Johns Hopkins University Press; William and Mary Quarterly; Pennsylvania History; Journal of American History; Virginia Magazine of History and Biography; Body & Society 

Reviewer of grant and fellowhip applications, National Endowment for the Humanities, Wellcome Trust

Member, 2002-2003, Clifford Prize Committee, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

HISTORY DEPARTMENT SERVICE

Society of the Cincinnati Committee, 1977-2001 (Chair, 1988-2001)
Graduate Committee, 1977-78, 1991-99, 2000-2001, 2002-2004, 2006-
Research Committee, 1978-81, 1983-85, 1988-89, 1993-94, 1996-98
Colloquia Director, 1978-81
Black History Search Committee, 1978-79, 1985-86
United Fund Coordinator, 1979
Committee of Public Safety, 1979-81
History Club Faculty Advisor, 1979-81
Phi Alpha Theta Faculty Advisor, 1980-81, 1982-86
Tenure and/or Promotion Committees, 1982-83, 1983-84, 1989-90, 1992, 1997, 2004
Executive Committee, 1984-85, 1997-98, 2007                               
Southern History Search Committee, 1985-86
Long-Range Planning Committee, 1988-89, 1997-99, 2000-2001
Governance Guidelines Committee, 1989-90
Diggs Professor Search Committee, 1989-90
Undergraduate Committee, 1990, 2001-
Outreach Committee, 2002-
Medieval Search Committee, 2004-2005

COLLEGE SERVICE

Humanities Summer Stipend Committee, 1993, 2007
Honors/Awards Committee, 2004-2006
Reviewer, Faculty Grant Writing Institute, 2006

UNIVERSITY SERVICE

Search Committee for Chair of History Department, 1980-81
Virginia Tech Representative to the Potomac River Basin Consortium, 1980-93
Consultant, Theatre Arts production of "Places and the Displaced,” 1993
Judge for Phi Beta Kappa Sturm Award, 2007
Reviewer, Graduate Student Research Grants, Graduate Student Assembly, 2007