John Stauffer

John Stauffer is the Sumner R. and Marshall S. Kates Professor of English and African and African American Studies at Harvard University He is the author or editor of 19 books and over 100 articles focusing on antislavery and/or photography. Two of his books ("GIANTS" and "State of Jones") were national bestsellers. "The Black Hearts of Men" was the co-winner of the Frederick Douglass Book Prize and the Lincoln Prize runner-up. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Picturing Frederick Douglass" were Lincoln Prize finalists. His writings on photography have appeared in "21st Editions"; "Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth and Hawes," "WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY," "Aperture," "Beyond Blackface," and "Listening to Cement." The paperback edition of his most recent book, "Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century's Most Photographed American," will be available in early 2018, in time for Douglass's 200th birthday. His interest in visual culture extends to exhibitions and film. He consulted on the traveling exhibition "WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY" (2012-14). He advised and appeared in three award-winning documentaries ("God in America"; "The Abolitionists"; and "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross"); and he has been a consultant for feature films including "Django" and the forthcoming "Free State of Jones", directed by Gary Ross and starring Matthew McConaughey, which is based on his book. His essays and reviews have appeared in "Time", "Wall Street Journal", "New York Times", "Washington Post", "Huffington Post", and in scholarly journals and books. He has appeared on national radio and television shows, including "The Diane Rehm Show," "C-SPAN," and "Book TV with Susan Swain," and he has lectured throughout the United States and Europe. In 2009 the U.S. State Department's International Information Programs hired him as one of its speakers. That same year Harvard named Professor Stauffer the Walter Channing Cabot Fellow for "achievements and scholarly eminence in the fields of literature, history or art." He has also received two teaching awards from Harvard: the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award; and the Jan Thaddeus Teaching Prize. He lives in Cambridge with his wife, Deborah Cunningham, and their two sons, Erik and Nicholas. (August 2017)