Brandon Jett

Biography

I am a historian of race, crime, and criminal justice in American history. Originally from Texas, I received my BA and MA from Texas State University and my PhD at the University of Florida. I spent two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and started teaching at Florida SouthWestern State College in August 2019. In all of my course, I emphasize that history is about more than learning names and dates. Instead, each of my courses promote active and engaged learning that allows students to dive into historical sources and better understand the causes and effects of historical processes. Students engage in discussions of readings, voice their opinions, and engage in conversations with their classmates. I include assignments like student interviews with family members about historical events, local research projects, and the occasional field trip. So far at FSW, class projects focused on local history. Students in my AMH 2010 courses debated whether Hendry County should be renamed because the county’s namesake, Francis A. Hendry, served in the Confederate military. In AMH 2091, students conducted research on the lynching of Henry Patterson, which occurred in LaBelle, Florida in 1926. Currently students are collecting sources and constructing a website about the event. If you’re interested in projects like this or have ideas for other local history projects, let me know and sign up for one of my classes. My research explores the intersections between race, crime, and criminal justice in the United States from 1865 to the present. My scholarship has explored issues of policing in the early-twentieth-century South, extralegal violence in East Texas, and homicide trends in Memphis, and resulted in two awards. My current manuscript, "I Will Have to Get the Laws for You": Race, Crime, and Policing in the Jim Crow South, 1900-1945, is under contract with LSU Press and will be published as part of the “Making the Modern South” series. I am also working on an edited volume entitled, “Steeped in a Culture of Violence”: Violence in Texas, 1965-2018 that is under contract with Texas A&M University Press.

Website

Education (Degrees and Certifications)

• Ph.D., History, University of Florida, 2017
• M.A., History, Texas State University, 2012
• B.A., Political Science, Texas State University, 2007

Courses (Classes Taught Regularly)

• AMH 2010
• AMH 2020
• AMH 2091
• WOH 1030