Colin Gordon

Department Chair

Professor

Drop-in Hours: by appointment only

Colin Gordon writes on the history of American public policy and political economy. He is the author of Patchwork Apartheid: Private Restriction, Racial Segregation, and Urban Inequality (Russell Sage Foundation, 2023), Citizen Brown: Race, Democracy, and Inequality in the St. Louis Suburbs (University of Chicago Press, 2019); Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008); Dead on Arrival: The Politics of Health in Twentieth Century America (Princeton University Press, 2003), and New Deals: Business, Labor and Politics, 1920-1935 (Cambridge University Press, 1994).

He has written for the Nation, In these Times, Jacobin, and Dissent (where he is a regular contributor). His digital projects include online companions to Patchwork Apartheid, Citizen Brown, Mapping Decline; the data-visualization project Growing Apart: A Political History of American Inequality (Institute for Policy Studies, 2013); and public history on the history of racial segregation in Iowa counties, and in St. Louis.

His recent research support includes a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (2021-22), a visiting scholar fellowship at the Russell Sage Foundation (2022-23), and (with co-PI Ashley Howard) a Mellon Foundation Higher Learning Grant (2023-26). He is a senior research consultant at Common Good Iowa for which he has written or co-written reports on health coverage, economic development, and wages and working conditions (including the biennial State of Working Iowa series).

Professor Gordon is the recipient of an F. Wendell Miller Professorship (2016), the University of Iowa Regents Award for Faculty Excellence (2016), the University of Iowa Award for Distinguished Achievement in Publicly Engaged Research (2015), and the College of Liberal Arts and Science Collegiate Fellowship (2014).

Teaching

Courses recently taught by Professor Gordon include:

HIST:1219 Big Ideas: Equality, Opportunity, and Public Policy in America
HIST:1262 American History 1877-Present
HIST:2151 Introduction to the History Major – Iowa History
HIST:2195 Digital History Workshop
HIST:3232 History of American Inequality
HIST:4264 USA in a World at War 1931-1945
HIST:4266 The New Era and the New Deal 1920-1940
HIST:6001 First Year Graduate Colloquium
HIST:7192 Pre-Dissertation Writing Seminar
HIST:7241 Readings in U.S. Social Policy
HIST:7263 Readings in Contemporary United States

Awards and service

Chair, Department of History, University of Iowa, 2006-2011, 2023-present
Mellon Foundation Higher Learning Grant, 2023-26
Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar, 2022-23
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2021-22
F. Wendell Miller Professor of History, July 2016
University of Iowa Regents Award for Faculty Excellence, May 2016
Major Research Grant, UI Internal Funding Initiative, September 2015
Distinguished Achievement in Publicly-Engaged Research Award, University of Iowa, 2015
CLAS Collegiate Fellow, 2014
May Brodbeck Fellowship, 2007-08
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2004-05
Arts and Humanities Initiative Grant, University of Iowa, 2002-03
Obermann Center Interdisciplinary Research Grant, Summer 2002
Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History, University of Iowa, 2000-04
Faculty Scholar Award, University of Iowa, 1998-2000
Central Investment Fund for Research Enhancement Grant, 1997