Micah Carlson

Micah Carlson is a PhD candidate in the Department of History with a concentration in Body, Place, and Identity. Her research focuses on violence, justice, memory, and the archive. Carlson’s current project, “The Resistance Archive of Ghosts,” examines how past injustices are represented in spectral forms in the present. Her work on ghosts in the U.S. South integrates questions of historical methodology and the philosophy of history with a focus on collective memory and the practice of public history.

 

Education

University of North Texas, PhD (History) In progress. May 2026.

“The Resistance Archive of Ghosts,” Committee Members: Dr. Jennifer Wallach, Dr. Todd Moye, Dr. Michael Wise, Dr. Andrew Torget, and Dr. Anthony Stanonis.

University of North Texas, M.A. (History) May 2020

“In The Tall Grass West of Town: Racial Violence in Denton County During the Rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan,” Committee Members: Dr. Jennifer Wallach, Dr. Todd Moye, Dr. Andrew Torget.

 

Awards and Honors

Recipient. Texas Society for the Daughters of the American Revolution Scholarship. 2023-2024.

Recipient. Toulouse Graduate School Academic Achievement Scholarship. 2021-2022.

Recipient. History Department Faculty Scholarship. 2021-2022.

Recipient. Ernie Kuehne Fellowship. 2020-2023.

Recipient. Toulouse Graduate School Academic Achievement Scholarship. 2020-2021.

Recipient. Hatton W. Sumners Foundation Endowed Scholarship. 2020-2021.

Citizen Watchdog 2019. Dallas Morning News. January 2020. 

Recipient. Ledbetter Family Scholarship. 2019-2020.

Recipient. Ledbetter Family Scholarship. 2018-2019.

Gil Samples Award for Best Undergraduate Research Paper. University of North Texas. Spring 2018.

 

Conference Papers, Addresses, and Invited Speeches

March 2023. “Haunted Histories.” African American History Symposium. University of North Texas by invitation.

June 2021. "Did Klavern 136 Have the Keys to the Denton County Jail?" Race and the Space Between 1914-1945, Virginia Commonwealth University.

February 2021. “The Disappeared: Racial Violence in Denton County during the Rise of the Second Ku Klux Klan.” Texas State Historical Association General Conference 2021, Texas State Historical Association by invitation. 

September 2019. “Lynching in Texas.” Graduate Journalism Course Lecture, University of North Texas by invitation.

August 2019. “Jim Crow High Life.” Making a Mess: Intersectionality and Food Studies. University of Minnesota.

April 2019. “St. John’s Community and the Digital Humanities.” University of North Texas Digital Humanities Day by invitation.

March 2019. “Disappeared, Last Seen in Jail: The Search for Ennis Johnson.” Body, Place, and Identity Conference, University of North Texas.

February 2019. “Disappeared, Last Seen in Jail: The Search for Ennis Johnson.” Working Class Conference, Collin County Community College.

April 2019. “Swinging Noose: The Untold Story of Alexander D. Scott.” Central Texas Historical Association Conference 2019, Central Texas Historical Association (Round Rock, TX).

 

Books, Articles, and Miscellaneous published, awaiting publication, or proposed:

“St. John’s Community,” Texas Historical Marker, Texas State Historical Commission. Approved 2023.

Rethinking Violence. Fall 2022. www.rethinkingviolence.com

“Swinging Noose: The Untold Story of Alexander D. Scott.” Touchstone Magazine. Texas State Historical Association. March 2019.

“Virginia Duff.” Handbook of Texas. Texas State Historical Association. 2020.

 

Media Appearances:

Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe. “Lost, Waterlogged, Destroyed: Fate of Old Denton Criminal Justice Records.” Denton Record-Chronicle. January 2020. https://dentonrc.com/news/lost-waterlogged-destroyed-fate-of-old-denton-criminal-justice-records/article_ec8a3822-8b72-5a5e-8662-f6ca65c561c1.html

Dave Lieber. “These Texans are ‘Citizen Watchdogs’ who Fought Hard to Expose Wrongdoing and Succeeded.” Dallas Morning News. January 2020. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/watchdog/2020/01/02/these-texans-are-citizen-watchdogs-who-fought-hard-to-expose-wrongdoing-and-succeeded/

Erin Cristales. “The Past as a Present.” North Texan. December 2019. https://northtexan.unt.edu/issues/2019-fall/past-present

Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe. “Group Sets Sights on Square for Lynching Memorial.” Denton Record-Chronicle. June 2019. https://dentonrc.com/news/group-sets-sights-on-square-for-lynching-memorial/article_e1532dc8-5549-53a9-a98a-c50e5080a5bd.html

Dalton LaFerney. “Officials in Pilot Point Give Family More Time on Historic Home.” Denton Record-Chronicle. June 2019. https://dentonrc.com/news/pilot_point/officials-in-pilot-point-give-family-more-time-on-historic/article_cb9ea064-faa1-54a2-a8c0-bbe3f314b884.html

Seth Voorhees. “Researcher Races to Save Former African American Schoolhouse in Pilot Point.” NBC DFW. April 2019. https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Researcher-Races-to-Save-Former-Black-Schoolhouse-in-Pilot-Point-508912281.html

Dalton LaFerney. “Pilot Point Home, Linked to Historic Schoolhouse, Spared from Demolition.” Denton Record-Chronicle. April 2019. https://dentonrc.com/news/pilot_point/pilot-point-home-linked-to-historic-black-schoolhouse-spared-from/article_19715a55-1a49-5d58-8f86-6a3c80e9f2ff.html

Dave Lieber. “How Secrets of the Old Denton County Klan Were Discovered by Four UNT Students.” Dallas Morning News. January 2019. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/watchdog/2019/01/10/secrets-old-denton-county-klan-discovered-four-unt-history-students

Seth Voorhees. “UNT Students Uncover Community’s History of Racial Violence.” NBC DFW. January 2019. https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/UNT-History-Research-Uncovers-Stories-of-Racial-Violence-and-a-Long-Disappeared-Community-504883332.html

Dalton LaFerney. “Bearing Records, Four UNT Students Give Historical Rendering of Racial Violence in Pilot Point.” Denton Record-Chronicle. October 2018. https://www.dentonrc.com/news/bearing-records-four-unt-students-give-historical-rendering-of-racial/article_c9e6d695-56ab-5b5c-8558-0f5248e9c579.html