B.A. Baldwin-Wallace College; M.A. and Ph.D., Kent State University
Bio
Dr. Mezurek joined the Walsh University faculty in 2000, first as an adjunct in the Department of History and then in 2008 as an assistant professor. She is now a full professor serving the Humanities Division, where she teaches General Education courses and upper division history classes for the Integrated AYA Social Studies majors. A lifelong Ohio resident, Mezurek earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from Baldwin Wallace College and a Master of Arts in Public History and a Ph.D. in Nineteenth United States History from Kent State University. She is the advisor for Alpha Nu Sigma, the Walsh University chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the honor society of history, and is the Constitution Day program coordinator. Mezurek was awarded the 2019 Nau Civil War Fellowship at the University of Virginia, and her book, For Their Own Cause: The 27th United States Colored Troops, was a finalist for the 2017 Ohioana Book Award for nonfiction.
Publications
For Their Own Cause: The 27th United States Colored Troops. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 2016.
“The Colored Veteran Soldiers Should Receive the Same Tender Care”: Black Veterans, Soldiers’ Homes, and the Post-Civil War Midwest,” in The War Went On: Reconsidering the Lives of Civil War Veterans, edited by Brian Matthew Jordan and Evan C. Rothera. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, April 2020.
‘“De Bottom Rails on Top Now”: Black Union Guards and Confederate Prisoners of War,” in Crossing the Deadlines: Civil War Prisons Reconsidered, edited by Michael P. Gray with a forward by John T. Hubbell. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, October 2018.
“Civil War Incarceration in History and Memory: A Roundtable.” Civil War History, volume 63, no. 3, September 2017.
Dear Mother: The Letters of William C. Quantrill to his Mother Caroline, 1885-1860. Editor. Dover, Ohio: Dover Historical Society, 2017.
Recent Presentations and Media
Ohio v. the World with Alex Hastie. “Remembering the Black Soldiers that Won the Civil War.” Podcast episode 5. June 14, 2021. https://ohiovtheworldpodcast.com/2021/06/14/remembering-the-black-soldiers-that-won-the-civil-war-click-to-hear-episode-5/
USA Today.com. “Remembering the United States Colored Troops who helped win the Civil War.” May 31, 2021. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/05/31/memorial-day-united-states-colored-troops/7470065002/
“Condolence Letters from the United States Colored Troops.” National Museum of Civil War Medicine. Frederick, MD. February 19, 2021. https://youtu.be/bfwmZ5WMNf4
“Roundtable on the African American Families in the Civil War Era.” H-Civ War Diversity Initiative. February 9, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMUiVx3s-S8uBRbR_S0I2qbFP6SWQ8ohV
“‘Passed from the Hands of His Friends to the Soldiers’ Home’: Black Civil War Veterans and the Southern Branches of the NHDVS.” Southern Historical Association 85th Annual Meeting. Louisville, Kentucky. November 9, 2019.
‘“Since I have put on Lincoln blue’: The Personal Military Experiences of Black Civil War Soldiers Expressed in their Private Letters Home.” Paper presented at the 86th Annual Meeting of the Society for Military History. The Ohio State University. Columbus, Ohio. May 10, 2019.
“They Were More Than ‘Lucky’: Black Veterans, Their Choices, Their Rights, and Their Presence in the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers System.” Paper presented at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History 103rd Annual Meeting and Conference. Indianapolis, Indiana. October 4, 2018.
“Civil War Era Letters: Digital Research, Pedagogy, and Scholarship.” Paper presented at the Phi Alpha Theta Biennial Conference. New Orleans, Louisiana. January 4, 2018.
“Removing Controversial Monuments.” Speaker and Moderator. Ohio Local History Alliance Annual Meeting and Conference. Dublin, Ohio. October 6, 2017.
“‘Rebel Soldiers and Darkies on Guard over Them!’: Race, Retaliation, and Black Soldiers as Civil War Sentinels.” Fourth Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge. Spotsylvania, Virginia. August 4, 2017. Available on CSPAN. https://www.c-span.org/video/?431932-3/us-colored-troops-prisoner-guards
Service
Dr. Mezurek has been a member of the Ohio Humanities Speakers Bureau since 2010. She served as a content reviewer for the National Veterans Memorial and Museum (Columbus, Ohio), is a previous executive board member of the Ohio Academy of History, and served on the Ohio Civil War 150 Advisory Committee.
