Dr. Grem is Associate Professor of History and Southern Studies. In the Department of History and at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in twentieth-century U.S. history, southern history and southern studies, and modern politics and culture.
Research Interests
Dr. Grem's research interests are in 20th century U.S. history, with a focus on the American South, religion, capitalism, culture, and politics.
Biography
Dr. Grem earned his B.A. from Furman University and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. He held postdoctoral fellowships at Yale University and Emory University before joining the faculty at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of The Blessings of Business: How Corporations Shaped Conservative Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2016), a book that details how conservative evangelicals strategically used business leaders, organizations, methods, and money to advance their cultural and political aspirations in twentieth-century America. With John Corrigan and Amanda Porterfield, he is co-editor of The Business Turn in American Religious History (Oxford University Press, 2017), a collection of essays that reconsiders the role of business in American religious culture and politics. Also, with Ted Ownby and James Thomas, Jr., he is co-editor of Southern Religion, Southern Culture: Essays Honoring Charles Reagan Wilson (University Press of Mississippi, 2019). His next book, Hard Times, USA: The Great Depression and New Deal in American Memory, will be an expansive study of how Americans after World War II remembered and used the Great Depression in popular culture (memorial sites, music, literature, art, film) and in political activism for and against the New Deal state.
Courses Taught
- SST101 Introduction to Southern Studies
- SST108 Introduction to Southern Music
- SST118 Intro Topics in Southern Music (Country Music)
- SST401 Undergraduate Seminar in Southern Studies
- SST601 Graduate Seminar in Southern Studies
- HST131 Intro to U.S. History Since 1877
- HST408 U.S. History: World War II to Watergate
- HST426 The American Dream
- HST434 U.S. Religious History
- HST451 The South in the Twentieth Century
- HST455 History of Religion in the U.S. South
- HST456 Southern Music History
- HST479 Alcohol in the Americas
- HST606 Graduate Readings: U.S. from Civil War to Present
- HST607 Graduate Readings: Southern U.S. History
- HST613 Graduate Readings: Contemporary U.S. History
- HST693 Graduate Readings: History of U.S. Capitalism
- HST702 Graduate Research: U.S. History from Civil War to Present
Education
B.A. History, Furman University (2001)
M.A. History, University of Georgia (2004)
Ph.D. History, University of Georgia (2010)