The Department Welcomes Two New Faculty Members | Fall 2024
Baylor University's Department of History is happy to announce that we have added two spectacular scholars to our faculty. With this step forward in pursuit of academic excellence in both research and education, these new faculty members bring with them expertise and fresh perspectives that will benefit faculty, staff, and students at the university.
The new faculty members joining the Department of History this fall are Dr. Maggie Elmore, historian of Southwest Borderlands, and Dr. John Handel, historian of Britain and the British Empire.
Dr. Maggie Elmore
Associate Professor of History
Maggie Elmore is a historian of borderlands, with a focus on migration, religion and politics, and human rights. She earned her PhD in History from the University of California, Berkeley, where her dissertation was nominated for the prestigious Allan Nevins Prize. She recently served as a co-editor of Faith and Power: Latino Religious Politics Since 1945 (NYU Press, 2022). Her article, "Presidential Martyr: How Kennedy's Death Created New Political Possibilities for Mexican American Catholics" received the Patrick Foley Award for best article in the Catholic Southwest Journal, and her latest article, “In the Shadow of the Law: The Hanigan Case and the Genesis of the Immigrant Rights Movement,” was just published in The Journal of American History. Dr. Elmore's current book project, Unholy Border: How Catholics Created New Gateways to the United States, is a study of 20th century religion, politics, and migration and is under contract with the University of Pennsylvania Press. Dr. Elmore is a 2023-2025 Young Scholar in American Religion. In addition, she serves as the Vice-President and President-Elect of the Texas Catholic Historical Society. Dr. Elmore has previously held academic positions and fellowships at Sam Houston State University, the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University, the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, and the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Elmore will teach courses on U.S. and Texas history.
Dr. John Handel
Assistant Professor of History
John Handel comes to us after a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Finance at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce where he taught and researched financial market micro-structure and the relationship between the financial system, society, and ethics. He received his PhD in History from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2021, where he was awarded the George Guttridge Prize for outstanding work in British or American colonial history. Dr. Handel is currently at work on two book projects: the first is a history of the infrastructures that underpinned Britain’s financial empire in the 19th century, while the second is a history of the British financial sector’s investments in slavery abroad after Britain abolished slavery within its own empire during the 1830s. He has published “The Material Politics of Finance: The Ticker Tape and the London Stock Exchange, 1860s-1890s,” in the journal Enterprise and Society. In addition to his research in economic history, he also maintains a secondary interest in the life and work of theologian John Henry Newman, and notes that he is delighted to be at a place like Baylor where “academic research and pastoral care depend on each other.” Dr. Handel will teach courses on British history, imperialism, and economics.
Dr. Elmore joins a vibrant group of historians working on Latino/Chicano history and Latin American history. Dr. Handel brings a new specialty - economic history - to our undergraduate and graduate course offerings in empire and colonialism. Both will contribute to our growing graduate program.