An innovative narrative historian who employs a variety of methodologies in social, economic, diplomatic, and narrative history. Author of The Ballad of Roy Benavidez, Hattiesburg, and To Write in the Light of Freedom, professor and scholar.
The Ballad of Roy Benavidez: The Life and Times of America’s Most Famous Hispanic Veteran, offers a new history of twentieth century America through the biography of Roy Benavidez, a poor orphaned Hispanic farmworker who became the nation’s most widely celebrated Hispanic veteran. Like his other books, Sturkey’s The Ballad of Roy Benavidez highlights the lives of marginalized groups who made great contributions to the American Century.
“Sturkey has lyrical powers as a biographer… Beautiful and harrowing story”
—David W. Blight, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
William Sturkey is the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Associate Professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in the history of race in the American South since 1865. He is an innovative narrative historian who employs a variety of methodologies in social, economic, diplomatic, and narrative history. Most of his research focuses on the experiences of working-class racial minorities living in the United States.
Dr. Sturkey is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. He teaches a variety of courses, including America in the Sixties, the History of the Civil Rights Movement, and graduate courses in American History and African American History. He is an experienced and decorated instructor who has won numerous awards for classroom instruction. His courses, whether lectures or seminars, seek to empower students to use History to better understand their society.