Office Hours
By Appointment
Education
PhD, Brown University
MA, Brown University
BA, Willamette University
About Me
Alicia Maggard is a historian of the 19th-century United States with particular interests in political economy, technology, and American empire. Her current book project explores the rise of American sea power in the Pacific in the age of steam. It argues that legislators frustrated with failed attempts to cultivate technical production within the federal bureaucracy turned to corporations to develop and operate the ships and shore facilities that were deemed essential to American political, economic, and geostrategic interests. In turn, corporate actors assumed many of the powers of governance in places like Gold Rush era California, the Panamanian isthmus, and trans-Pacific ports.
Maggard’s research has been supported by, among others, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies and the U.S. Navy. She earned her PhD in history at Brown University and was a postdoctoral fellow with Williams College at Mystic Seaport Museum before joining the Auburn faculty in 2020. At Auburn, she teaches courses on military history, the history of technology, and the history of energy.
Research Interests
19th-century United States with particular interests in political economy, technology, and American empire