Don DeBats

Don DeBats is Professor and Head of American Studies and Director of the Jeff Bleich Center for the US Alliance in Digital Technology, Security, and Governance. His research interests cover contemporary and past US politics; he is a frequent commentator on current US politics and has written extensively on US political history.

His research appointments include the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the National Humanities Center of the United States, and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities at the University of Virginia. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia and the College of William and Mary in the United States.

His degrees are from Michigan State University (Mathematics) and the University of Wisconsin, Madison (MA, History) and PhD (major field: American History; minor field: Political Science).

His current research, supported by the Collaborative Research Division of the US National Endowment for the Humanities, combines the contemporary interest in "the social logic of politics" with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) methodologies to the study of past political engagement and networks, using unique individual level political records from 19th century America.

For the Jeff Bleich Centre he has written on cultural lag associated with the societal impact of rapid technological change.