Kenneth Nivison
Kenneth Nivison is an assistant professor of history at Southern New Hampshire University, where he also serves as coordinator of the history program. He holds an AB in politics from Saint Anselm College and an MA and PhD in history from the Catholic University of America. Trained as a specialist in 18th- and 19th-century American history, he teaches a wide range of courses, including American Environmental History, The Civil War and Reconstruction, Colonial New England, World War II, and The Common Good. His research interests focus on the interplay of politics, culture, and society from the era of the American Revolution through the American Civil War. He is the author, most recently, of an essay entitled “Field of Mighty Memory: Gettysburg and the Americanization of the Civil War,” in Clayton Jewett, ed., The Battlefield and Beyond (LSU Press, 2012). He is also the author of “‘But a Step from College to the Judicial Bench’: College and Curriculum in New England’s ‘Age of Improvement’,” in The History of Education Quarterly (November 2010). His current book project, Proving Grounds: New England Colleges and the Making of Civil War Leadership, studies how five colleges in New England formed the characters of the generation of men who would later prove pivotal in the advent and execution of the Civil War. He believes that the Tuning Project will assist SNHU’s history program articulate the value of history education to students irrespective of their preferred career paths.