Matthew L. Downs, Ph.D., is professor of history and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Mobile. He received his B.A. from Birmingham-Southern College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Alabama. He has published two books: Transforming the South (LSU Press, 2014), which won the James F. Sulzby Book Award from the Alabama Historical Association, and a co-edited collection, The American South and the Great War (LSU Press, 2018). In addition, Dr. Downs has published several articles and given presentations on a variety of topics focused on the modernization of the American South during the middle of the twentieth century. He currently serves as editor of the Alabama Review, the scholarly journal of the Alabama Historical Association. He lives in Daphne, Alabama, with his wife and two children.
