PhD Student
North America
Ben Sheriff is a PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his MPhil from the University of Cambridge, where he studied on a Keasbey Memorial Foundation Scholarship, and his BA from Wesleyan University. Sheriff specializes in the nineteenth-century United States, with research interests including state formation, empire, and the Civil War era. His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly and Civil War History. He is currently completing a co-authored book tentatively entitled Schoolbook Politics: History Battles in the Former Confederacy, which examines North Carolina’s and Virginia’s twentieth-century controversies related to history textbooks and their portrayals of the Civil War and Reconstruction
Research Interests
- Civil War Era
- State Formation
- Empire
- Borderlands
- Comparative History
Education
MPhil (American History), University of Cambridge, 2026
BA (College of Social Studies, History), Wesleyan University, 2025
Publications
“The Richmond Municipal War of 1870: Reconstruction’s Violent End in the Former Confederate Capital.” Civil War History 72, no. 3 (2026): 9–41. (Link)
“The Battle of San Juan Island? The Puzzling Account of Private William Henry Royle.” BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly 225 (2025): 87–101. (Link)
Works-In-Progress
Schoolbook Politics: History Battles in the Former Confederacy (with Carol Sheriff; drafted and available upon request)
"'Is There No Government That Will Stay the Hand of the Oppressor?': Black Agrarian Activism in Postemancipation Hampton Roads, 1865–70" (in progress)
Awards and Fellowships (Selected)
Keasbey Memorial Foundation Scholarship, Keasbey Memorial Foundation, 2025–26
Sarah Norton Research Grant, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge, 2025–26
Phi Beta Kappa, Connecticut Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, 2025
Hallowell Prize, Public Affairs Center, Wesleyan University, 2025
Meyer Prize, Department of History, Wesleyan University, 2025
Joan W. Miller Prize, College of Social Studies, Wesleyan University, 2025
White Fellowship, Department of History, Wesleyan University, 2024
Teaching Experience (Selected)
Head Residential Teaching Assistant, National Institute of American History & Democracy, 2025
Residential Program Assistant, National Institute of American History & Democracy, 2023