Evan Turiano (he/him) is a scholar of history, politics, and law in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century United States and Atlantic World. He received his Ph.D. in U.S. History from the Graduate Center, City University of New York in 2022. His research interests include political and legal conflicts over slavery and abolition; civil rights; the use and regulation of deadly weapons in the United States; and American political and legal thought. Professor Turiano’s first book will examine the conflict over what legal rights were due to African Americans accused of being fugitives from slavery. The book will show how activism on this issue shaped the coming of the Civil War and the long history of civil rights in the United States. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Journal of the Civil War Era, and Reviews in American History.

A graduate of Trinity College, Professor Turiano values lively, discussion-based classrooms where students engage with ongoing scholarly, legal, and political issues. As a proponent of undergraduate research, he welcomes opportunities to mentor and collaborate with students outside the classroom.

curriculum vitae

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:

• “Proslavery Constitutional Politics and the Making of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, 1793-1850.” Accepted for publication, Journal of the Early Republic.
• “‘Prophecies of Loss’: Debating Slave Flight during Virginia’s Secession Crisis.” Journal of the Civil War Era 12, no. 3 (September 2022), 338-361.

Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters:

• “Somerset, Subjection, and Reciprocal Rights in American Abolitionism,” in Somerset v. Steuart and America, ed. David Waldstreicher and Matthew Mason. Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture/University of North Carolina Press (forthcoming).

Review Essays:

• “The ‘Reintegration’ Trap: Fugitives from Slavery and Synthesis in American History.” Reviews in American History 52 (3) (September 2024), 214-229.

Encyclopedia Entries:

• Race and Ethnicity in America: From Pre-contact to Present, ed. Russell M. Lawson and Benjamin A. Lawson (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2019), Vol. 2, “Underground Railroad.”

Op-Eds and Public Writing:

• “Justice Jackson Offered Democrats a Road Map for Securing Equal Rights,” Washington Post: Made by History, October 10, 2022.

Recent Presentations:

• “The Shadow of Black Procedural Rights and the Development of Proslavery Constitutionalism,” Southern Historical Association Conference, St. Pete Beach, FL, November 5-8, 2025.
  
• [with Brennan Gardner Rivas] “Historical Gun Laws Across Five States,” Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Guns and Society Conference, Middletown, CT, October 18-19, 2024.
• “The Politics of Fugitive Slave Rendition and the Coming of the Civil War,” Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Teleconference, October 30, 2023.
• “Somerset and Subjecthood, Allegiance and Protection: Rereading Black Legal Rights in the Revolutionary Era,” Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, For 2026: Contested Freedoms, Williamsburg, VA, October 27-28, 2023.

• Lapidus Long-Term Fellowship, Schomburg Center, NYPL, 2024
• Gilder Lehrman Scholarly Fellowship, Gilder Lehrman Institute, 2024
• Abraham Lincoln Association Hay-Nicolay Dissertation Prize, 2024
• Walter O. Evans Fellowship for the Study of Slavery or Race, Yale University, 2023
• Short-Term (4 month) Fellowship, John Carter Brown Library, 2023
• Carolina Lowcountry and the Atlantic World Hines Dissertation Prize, 2023
• St. George Tucker Society Bradford-Delaney Dissertation Prize, 2023
• African American Studies Fellowship, Massachusetts Historical Society, 2020
• Andrew W. Mellon Research Fellowship, Virginia Museum of History & Culture, 2020
• Nau Center Library Fellowship, University of Virginia, 2020