Rebecca Marchiel

Associate Professor of History

Dr. Rebecca Marchiel is an Assistant Professor of History in the Department of History at the University of Mississippi. She is a historian of U.S. political and urban history.

Research Interests

Dr. Marchiel's research interests include the relationship between financial institutions and ordinary people in the United States, the rise of an affordable housing policy regime in the 20th century, and housing discrimination and financial exploitation in the era after civil rights victories.

Biography

Dr. Marchiel is an historian of urban history, political history, and the history of American capitalism. In 2020, she published her first book, “After Redlining: The Urban Reinvestment Movement in the Era of Financial Deregulation.” The book examines how the U.S. financial system shaped and was shaped by the political organizing of ordinary people during the last third of the twentieth century. It charts the story of a multiracial coalition of low- and moderate-income urbanites who sought community control over investment capital. Drawing on the unprocessed archive of the movement’s lead organization, National People’s Action, the project explores how activists fought to preserve the benefits of regulated banking at a time when the New Deal financial regime began to crumble.

She is currently writing a book that explores the emergence of “affordable housing” as a policy priority in the late 20th century. Marchiel taught U.S. history at Franklin and Marshall College for one year before joining the UM faculty in 2015. She was awarded a fellowship from Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center, 2015-2106.

Publications

Books
After Redlining: The Urban Reinvestment Movement in the Era of Financial Deregulation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020).

Articles
"The Keys to Ensuring a New Anti-Redlining Initiative Succeeds,” Washington Post, November 15, 2021.

Courses Taught

  • HST 131 U.S. History, 1877-Present
  • HST 409 U.S. since 1974
  • HST 432 U.S. Economic History
  • HST 490 The American Consumer
  • HST 491 The Vietnam War
  • HST 506 Historiography: U.S. 1877-present
  • HST 606 U.S. Urban History

Education

M.A. History, Northwestern University (2008)

Ph.D. History, Northwestern University (2014)