Danny Dunn

Advisor

Dr. Michael Parrish

Education

B.A. in History, Baylor University, 2000
M.A. in American Studies, Baylor University, 2020

Biography

Danny Dunn is seeking a  PhD in the Department of History at Baylor University. His research is focused on how the cultural, social, economic, and political trends have changed the state of Texas during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and how these changes have brought challenges to stereotypical Texas culture and the mythologized history of the state.

Danny served as Mayor of Temple, Texas, until May 2018.  Danny was elected to his first term as Mayor in May 2013. Previously, he was elected to the Temple City Council, District 1 in May 2010, and was elected Mayor Pro-Tem in June 2012. 

Danny has been active in many civic organizations. He has served as Vice Chair on the Board of Directors of the Bell County Museum. He is a member of the NAACP- Temple Branch.  He has served on the Executive Committee for the Central Texas Council of Governments as well as the Temple Economic Development Corporation.  He was a vice chair and a member of the Temple Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, chair of the Killeen-Temple Metropolitan Planning Organization and is a former member of the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Central Texas Chapter board of governors. He is past president of the Rotary Club of Temple, past chair of the Temple Education Foundation and past chair of the City of Temple’s Building and Standards Commission.  He also served as a member of the city’s Parks and Leisure Services Advisory Board and the Strategic Investment Zone Group.

Danny and his wife, Alicia, married on November 15, 2008 and they reside in Temple.  Alicia is the Chief of Staff to the Dean of Baylor Medical School.  Both are members of Christ Episcopal Church. Both are active in social causes and awareness. Woodford (Woody), and India, both miniature schnauzers have unapologetically turned them into “those” people.

Research Interests

Twentieth Century Texas Political History

Biography

Baylor was always my first choice!

Selected Publications

Danny Dunn (25 Feb 2026): "Terror and Truth: Civil Rights Tourism and the Mississippi Movement (Race, Rhetoric, and Media Series)," The Oral History Review, DOI: 10.1080/00940798.2026.2632533

Selected Activities

Awards/Fellowships/Grants

• Top American Studies Graduate Student, 2020