Daniel Vivian is a historian of the American South. His first book, A New Plantation World: Sporting Plantations in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1900-1940 (Cambridge University Press, 2018), examined the creation of large sporting estates in the coastal region of South Carolina during the early twentieth century and the consequences for historical memory of slavery and contemporary ideas about plantations. He is currently working on a study of historical memory of slavery between the world wars. Dr. Vivian has published articles in The Public Historian, Winterthur Portfolio, the South Carolina Historical Magazine, and Ohio Valley History. He is also the author of several successful nominations to the National Register of Historic Places and has written extensively about interpretation of controversial pasts. Dr. Vivian currently serves on the boards of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians and the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation.

Dr. Vivian has received several awards for his teaching, including recognition for community-engaged courses that put students in conversation with working professionals, interested citizens, and activists in exploring contested historical subjects. He routinely teaches courses on the history, theory, and practice of historic preservation, public history, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century American architecture.

Before earning his Ph.D., Dr. Vivian held positions with the National Register of Historic Places, the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, and the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training.

Recent Publications

A New Plantation World: The Sporting Plantations of the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1900-1940.New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018.

“Investigating Kentucky’s LBGTQ Heritage: Subaltern Stories from the Bluegrass State.” Co-authored with Catherine Fosl. The Public Historian 41, no. 2 (May 2019): 218-244.

“Charting the Course: Challenges in Public History Education, Guidance for Developing Strong Public History Programs.” Coauthored with Robert Weyeneth. The Public Historian 38, no. 3 (Aug. 2016): 25-49.

“Contesting Neoliberalism: The Value of Preservation in a Globalizing Age,” in Bending the Future: Fifty Ideas for the Next Fifty Years of Historic Preservation in the United States, ed. Max Page and Marla Miller (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2016): 250-53.

“Does Historiography Matter for the National Register?” In Tamara Gaskell, ed., Preserving Places: Reflections on the National Historic Preservation Act at Fifty from The Public Historian (Indianapolis: National Council on Public History, 2016): 35-37.

Julia Brock and Daniel Vivian, eds. Leisure, Plantations, and the Making of a New South: The Sporting Plantations of the South Carolina Lowcountry and Red Hills Regions, 1900-1940. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015.

“Interpreting the History of the Underground Railroad in Southwest Ohio: The John P. Parker House.” Ohio Valley History 11, no. 3 (Fall 2011): 65-77.

“‘A Practical Architect’: Frank P. Milburn and the Transformation of Architectural Practice in the New South, 1890-1925. Winterthur Portfolio 40, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 17-46.