Dr. Marlin C. Barber

Biography

From Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Dr. Marlin Barber is a senior instructor of history at Missouri State University. He has been at Missouri State since 2012. His specialty area is 19th century Black American history and slavery. His current research is on Black educational autonomy and community in the late 19th century. He's researching how Black communities utilized schools and education after emancipation and argues that schools were just as important as churches in being pillars of those communities.

Barber also serves as faculty advisor for the African Students Association and the academic advisor for Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc, (the oldest collegiate Black Greek Letter fraternity).

Details

Education

• PhD, United States History, 2011, University of Missouri
• MA, United States History, 2005, University of Houston – Clear Lake
• MS, Mass Communications, 1998, Murray State University
• BA, History, 1996, Murray State University

Teaching

• HST 121: Survey of the History of the United States to 1877
• HST 210: Writing II: Historical Inquiry
• HST 345: Slavery in the Atlantic World
• HST 536: History of Missouri

Professional experience

Affiliations:

• Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
• Greene County Archives Foundation Board Member
• NAACP – Springfield
• State Historical Society of Missouri – Missouri Conference on History Steering Committee member

Research and professional interests

Dr. Marlin Barber is a historian of early and 19th century United States with particular interests in 19th century Black American history and Southern and rural studies. His research to date centers on black radicalism and African American social institutions. He is currently working on forthcoming articles on enslaved and free African American radicals in mid-19th century Missouri; black public schools in post-Civil War Kentucky; and alcohol production, consumption and culture in late-19th century Missouri.

Awards and honors

• Clear Lake endowment scholarship, University of Houston, 2005
• History Department Service Award, University of Houston, 2005

Areas of Expertise

Media Appearances