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Thomas O'Brien

Professor Thomas O'Brien

Professor

Bio

Thomas V. O'Brien is Professor of Educational Studies in the School of Education, Interim Director of the Center for Black Studies, and a Faculty Fellow in Honors College. and affiliate faculty at the Center for Black Studies and Honors College. O'Brien studies the history of race and schooling in the U.S. He earned a B.A. at Brown and Ph.D. at Emory University. He has taught middle-school and high-school science and math and held tenured positions at Millersville University and The Ohio State University.

  • PHD - Emory University (1992)
  • MED - Emory University (1988)
  • BA - Brown University (1981)

History of American Education; History of Higher Education in America; Critical Issues in American Education, Comparative Education Policy Analysis and Research on a Global Level; P-12 School Law; Historical Research Methods; Public Education in the U.S.; Epistemology in Social Science Research

  • Promoting “the Kingdom of God”: Louisiana College and G. Earl Guinn At Dawn of Culture Wars, 1951-1957 , Louisiana History Journal, 2019
  • “Pork Choppers, Presidents, and Perverts: The Response of two University Presidents to Attacks on the Privacy and Academic Freedom of Professors by the Florida Legislative Investigative Committee, 1956 to 1965).” , American Educational History Journal, 2016
  • The Paradigm Shift in Education in Big Data Era: Exploring the Intersection of Historical Assessment Frameworks and AI-Powered Assessment Methods in Education, Journal of Education and Training Studies, , https://redfame.com/journal/index.php/jets/issue/view/361
  • Perils of Accommodation: The Case of Joseph W. Holley, AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL, 2007, 10.3102/0002831207308646
  • Not Quite ‘Déjà Vu All Over Again’: No Child Left Behind Meets Effective Schools Research. , The Educational Forum, 2012, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131725.2012.682200
  • What Happened to the Promise of Brown? An Organizational Explanation and an Outline for Change, TEACHERS COLLEGE RECORD, 2007
  • Bridging Theory and Practice in Teacher Education, 2007
  • The Dog that didn't Bark: Aaron v. Cook and the NAACP Strategy in Georgia before Brown, Journal of Negro History, 1999, https://doi.org/10.2307/2649084
  • Old Dogs Can Learn to Like New Tricks: One Instructor’s Change in Attitude to Online Instruction from 2009-2017, 5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'19), Peer-reviewed Proceedings 5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd’19), 2019, 10.4995/head19.2019.9234
  • Democracy, Privilege, and Schooling in Georgia: Testing the effects of politics and markets. , JAI Series in Advances in Educational Policy, 1998
  • American Association of University Professors
  • Society for the Study of Curriculum History
  • Southern History of Education Society
  • The Organization of Educational Historians
  • English (Native or Bilingual)
  • Italian (Elementary)
  • Spanish (Elementary)
  • French (Elementary)

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Contact Me

Owings-McQuagge Hall (OMH) 122E map

Hattiesburg

Email
Thomas.OBrienFREEMississippi

Phone
601.266.6093

Areas of Expertise

Education; History of American Education; Social Foundations of Education; Education Policy and Politics; Race, Class, and Education; School Law; Higher Education