James Reagan Fancher | Department of History

James Reagan Fancher

Email: JamesFancher@my.unt.edu

Preferred pronouns: He/Him/His

Specialty Areas: Osama bin Laden's Arab guerrilla unit in the Soviet-Afghan War and the Yemeni Civil War of 1994, Ronald Reagan's Cold War foreign policy.

I am a PhD student here at the University of North Texas. I am originally from Monroe, Louisiana and earned my master's degree in history at the University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM), focusing my primary research and interests on Osama bin Laden in the Soviet-Afghan War. My wonderful wife, Grazi, is originally from Brazil, and we celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary this summer. I enjoy reading history books when we are not working out or running. Before moving to Denton to begin my doctoral studies at UNT, I had the exciting opportunity to teach both World and U.S. history survey courses as an adjunct instructor at ULM, and I also taught these as dual enrollment courses as a full time teacher at a private high school in Monroe. My passion, however, is teaching the World history survey course from the sixteenth century to the present.

Additional information:

Publications:

BOOKS (ORIGINAL RESEARCH):

  • Reagan Fancher, author. The Holy Warrior: Osama Bin Laden and his Jihadi Journey in the Soviet-Afghan War. Published by Vernon Press, January 2022. (ISBN 978-1-64889-397-1)

SOLICITED BOOK REVIEWS:

  • Frank Ellis, Barbarossa 1941: Reframing Hitler's Invasion of Stalin's Soviet Empire, published by University Press of Kansas, 2015, in Army History magazine (Summer 2018 issue).
  • Ali Ahmad Jalali, A Military History of Afghanistan: From the Great Game to the Global War on Terror, published by University Press of Kansas, 2017, in Army History magazine (Fall 2019 issue).
  • Andreas Umland, Felix Ackerman, Michael Galbas, Uilleam Blacker (eds.), Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society Double Special Issue: "Back from Afghanistan: The Experiences of Soviet Afghan War Veterans," vol. 1, no. 2 (2015), published by ibidem Press, 2016, in H-Net Online (November 2021).

    Awards:

    • Awarded the Outstanding Graduate Student Award by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America for outstanding research, Spring 2017.
    • Awarded the Teacher of the Month Award by the Student Council at St. Frederick High School in January 2019.
    • Awarded the Nation's Heritage Scholarship for 2020-2021 for $500.00.