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Education

Ph.D., Texas A&M University
B.A., Dallas Baptist University

Dr. Brian Franklin is the Associate Director of the ÃÛÌÒ½´Center for Presidential History and an adjunct Lecturer in the Clements Department of History and the University Honors Program. Dr. Franklin’s research focuses on the religious, political, and regional history of the United States in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. His current manuscript America’s Missions explores the role of Protestant mission societies in shaping the early American republic. He teaches courses on Texas History and American History.

 

Publications

• “Towns and Toleration : The Disestablishment of the Church in New Hampshire.” In Disestablishment and Religious Dissent: Church-State Relations in the New American States, 1776-1833. Eds. Carl H. Esbeck and Jonathan Den Hartog (University of Missouri Press, forthcoming, 2019)
• “Baptists, the Mississippi Valley, and the Transformation of American Home Missions,” American Baptist Quarterly vol. XXXV (Fall/Winter 2016): 224-246
• “Missions and Missiology.” In The Jonathan Edwards Encyclopedia, eds. Harry Stout, Kenneth Minkema, & Adrian Neele (William Eerdmans, November 2017)
• “” (Editor and Webmaster), in (an ongoing, filmed oral history project dedicated to enhancing the archival record of the George W. Bush Presidency)
• Book Reviews in the Journal of the Early Republic, The Journal of ÃÛÌÒ½´History, Baptist History & Heritage, and ÃÛÌÒ½´Historian
• “John Mason Peck: Missionary for the West.” In More Witnesses to the Baptist Heritage, edited by Michael E. Williams (Mercer University Press, 2021)
• “Texas Republicans take aim at history this Juneteenth. It could backfire.” NBCnews.com, June 19, 2021.
• “Towns and Toleration: Disestablishment in New Hampshire.” In Disestablishment and Religious Dissent: Church-State Relations in the New American States, 1776-1833. Eds. Carl H. Esbeck and Jonathan Den Hartog (University of Missouri Press, 2019)
• “Baptists, the Mississippi Valley, and the Transformation of American Home Missions,” American Baptist Quarterly vol. XXXV (Fall/Winter 2016): 224-246

 

Fellowships, Awards, and Grants

• Fellow, Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute, “Religion and American Public Life: The Challenge of Pluralism,” ÃÛÌÒ½´Methodist University, 2013-2014
• Seminar Participant and Grant Recipient, “Protestant Foreign Missions and Secularization in Modern America,” John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, Washington University in St. Louis, 2013
• Texas A&M University Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 2011-2012
• Lynn E. May Study Grant, ÃÛÌÒ½´Baptist Historical Library and Archives, 2010
• SMU-George W. Bush Institute Fellowship, “A Global Oral History of PEPFAR,” 2023-2024 and 2025-2026 (awarded as Principal Investigator, with Dr. Augusta Dell'Omo and Dr. Jill Kelly)
• Faculty Information Literacy Award, “Engaging with Historical Texas Newspapers.” ÃÛÌÒ½´Methodist University Library, Spring 2019
• Fellow, Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute, “Religion and American Public Life: The Challenge of Pluralism,” ÃÛÌÒ½´Methodist University, 2013-2014
• Seminar Participant and Grant Recipient, “Protestant Foreign Missions and Secularization in Modern America,” John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, Washington University in St. Louis, 2013
• Lynn E. May Study Grant, ÃÛÌÒ½´Baptist Historical Library and Archives, 2010

 

Presentations and Lectures

• “Church-State Cooperation in American Home Missions to Indians, 1796-1815.” John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, Mar. 2018
• “Christian Nationalism and the American Church: A Historical Problem.” Dallas Baptist University, Nov. 2017
• “The Second Great Awakening and the Making of “Christian America.” Redeemer Seminary, Oct 2014, Nov 2015
• “George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush: Leadership at Home & Abroad.” Travels with Lonestar Presidents Teachers Institute, George W. Bush Presidential Library, July 2014
• “Missionary, Speculator, Spy?: Church and State in Gideon Blackburn’s Mission to the Cherokee, 1803-1810.” American Society of Church History, Jan 2014
• “Moderator, “” ÃÛÌÒ½´Center for Presidential History, Sept 2013
• “The Presidents of the Republic of Texas.” Young Presidents Organization, Dallas (October 2023)
• “Teaching History Amidst the History Wars: A Conversation with Secondary School History Teachers.” Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (July 2022, New Orleans)
• “Teaching Texas: Truth or Tall Tales?” Lyceum Speaker Series (October 2021, Lone Star College-University Park)
• “Home or Foreign? American Indians in the Early American Missionary Mind.” American Society of Church History (Jan 2019, Chicago)
• Organizer and Moderator, “Faith, the White House, and the Public Square.” Featuring every Director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, 2001-2013 (Sept. 2013, Dallas)