Dr. Richard Hughes
Professor, Director of History & Social Sciences Education Program
History
Office
SCH Schroeder Hall 302B
Office Hours
Spring 2025 MW 12:45-1:45 pm and By Appointment
Office Phone
Email
- About
- Education
- Awards & Honors
- Research
Current Courses
136.001History Of The United States Since 1865
136.002History Of The United States Since 1865
390.001History-Social Science Teaching Methodology II
390.002History-Social Science Teaching Methodology II
Teaching Interests & Areas
Professor Hughes teaches courses in both United States history and history education and currently serves as the director of the Secondary History and Social Sciences program. Before obtaining his graduate degrees, he taught history, government, and economics at Southern High School in Durham, North Carolina and has served as a reader for the College Board's Advanced Placement U.S. History exam. His research interests include twentieth-century social and cultural American history and the scholarship of teaching and learning with a focus on the evolving disciplinary understandings of history teachers and teacher candidates. He has published book chapters and articles in The Oral History Review, The Historian, The History Education Research Journal, The History Teacher, Social Education, The Social Studies, and Social Studies Research and Practice. He has also served on the editorial board of Teaching History: A Journal of Methods. Most recently, he has co-authored a chapter on teaching history in the United States and the United Kingdom in The International Review of History Education.
Research Interests & Areas
20th Century America Social History, History Education
Ph D History
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
MA History
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Other
St. Edward's University
Austin, Texas
BA Political Science
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Influential and Inspirational Teaching Award
Department of History
2022
Influential and Inspirational Teacher Award
Department of History
2022
Influential and Inspirational Faculty Award
Department of History
2021
Impact Award
University College, Ilinois State University
2021
Influential and Inspirational Faculty Award
Department of History
2020
Influential and Inspirational Faculty Award
Department of History
2020
Influential and Inspirational Faculty Award
Department of History
2019
Influential and Inspirational Teaching Award
2018
Nomination - Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching
Baylor University
2018
Outstanding University Teacher Award
Illinois State University
2018
Book Review
Hughes, R. Review of Going to College in the Sixties, by John Thelin. Jessamyn Neuhaus (EDs). Teaching History: A Journal of Methods 47 (2022): 69-70.
Hughes, R. The First Code Talkers: Native American Communicators in World War I. Great Plains Quarterly 41.1-2 (2022): 170-171.
Hughes, R. Tiny You: A Western History of the Anti-Abortion Movement. Benjamin H.Irvin (EDs). Journal of American History 108.4 (2022): 879-880.
Hughes, R. Citizen Reporters: S.S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, and the Magazine that Rewrote America. Sarah Drake Brown (EDs). Teaching History: A Journal of Methods 46.1 (2021): 37-39.
Hughes, R. The Great Texas Social Studies War of 1961-1962. Shirley Marie McCarther (EDs). American Educational History Review 48.1 (2021): 83-87.
Book, Chapter
Hughes, R., & Brown, S. Searching for Metaphors: Exploring Teacher Candidates’ Epistemological Frames. Henrik Astrom Elmerso and Paul Zanazanian (EDs), Teachers and the Epistemology of History. Palgrave MacMillan Teachers and the Epistemology of History.2024 (2024): 191-210.
Hughes, R., & Brown, S. “Teaching History in a Place with a Different History: Theory, Policy, and Practice in England and the United States,”. Bain et al. (EDs), History Education and Historical Enquiry. International Review of History Education 10 (2024)
Hughes, R., Hawkins, M., & Lopez, K. History, Literacy, and Popular Culture: Using Graphic Novels to Teach the Struggle for Racial Justice. Edward Janek and Ludovic A. Sourdot (EDs), Educating through Popular Culture: “You’re Not Cool Just Because You Teach with Comics". Lexington Books (2017)
Journal Article
Hughes, R., & Brown, S. “What Does a History Teacher Do?: Knowing, Understanding, and Enacting the Work of Teaching History,”. Robert Parkes (EDs), No. Historical Encounters: A Journal of Historical Consciousness, Historical Cultures, and History Education 11.2 (2024): 114-132.
Hughes, R., & Shields, T. Propaganda and the 1936 Olympics: History, News Literacy, and Selling Nazi Germany to American Tourists. Jennie Bauduy (EDs). Social Education 85.3 (2021): 180-185.
Richard Hughes and Sarah Drake Brown. Collective memory and historical narratives: The African American civil rights movement. History Education Research Journal. Vol. 18(2):166-182. DOI: 10.14324/HERJ.18.2.03
Hughes, R. Why Teach History. Grace Leatherman (EDs). History Matters 32.6 (2020)
Hughes, R., & Mendoza, N. Assessment in the History Classroom. Teaching History: A Journal of Methods 44.2 (2019): 51-56.
Presentations
Crash Course as a Secondary Source: Teaching Content and Historical Thinking. National Council for History Education Annual Conference. National Council for History Education. (2025)
“Education Programs, History Departments, and the Current State of K–12 Teacher Preparation,”. American Historical Association. (2024)
Reorienting the Past: Reimagining a Survey Course Amid Calls for ‘Uncoverage.’. Teaching and Learning Symposium. Illinois State University. (2024)
Teaching History in a Place with a Different History: Theory, Policy, and Practice in the United States and England. American Historical Association. (2024)
What Happens When Teaching Mandates Go Your Way: Challenges of Reimagining History Teaching and Curricula in Blue States. H-Net Teaching Conference. H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online. (2024)
Collaborating to Engage and Enhance The Visual Literacy Skills of Pre-Service History Teachers. IVLA 2023 Annual Conference. International Visual Literacy Association. (2023)
“Reorienting the Past: The Impact of a Survey Course on Teaching and Learning History.”. SoTL Commons. (2023)
SoTL Research and the Tenure and Promotion of Historians. Annual Meeting. American Historical Association. (2022)
What Does a History Teacher Do?: Knowing, Understanding, and Enacting the Work of Teaching History. History teachers’ epistemic considerations A symposium on how teachers make sense of histo. University of Umea. (2022)
Civil Rights and Historical Narratives: Assessing Students as Emerging Teachers. Annual Conference of the Organization of American Historians. Organization of American Historians. (2021)
Grants & Contracts
Integrating Critical Visual Literacy with Library of Congress Visual Primary Sources for Equitable Education in Illinois. National Louis University. Federal. (2024)
Reorienting the Past: Impact of a Survey course on Teaching and Learning History. Center for Integrated Faculty Development- SoTL Research Grants (URGs). Illinois State University. (2022)
College of Arts and Sciences International Travel Grant. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (2019)
SoTL Travel Grant. Cross Chair for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Illinois State University. (2019)
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Travel Grant. Cross Chair for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Illinois State University. (2018)