Skip to main content

2014 Thomas Jefferson Award

Larry GraggLarry D. Gragg, Ph.D.

Curators’ Teaching Professor of History
Missouri University of Science and Technology

Dr. Larry Gragg is a Curators’ teaching professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology, where he is the chair of the department of History and Political Science. Gragg is widely recognized by faculty and students for being fiercely devoted to teaching and promoting excellence throughout all departments of the university.

Gragg’s passion for teaching is exemplified in that he has taught over ten courses on campus, meets individually with most all of his students, fosters independent research with students and consistently mentors professors in his department and others.  Gragg also serves the campus by chairing committees such as the Campus Committee on Effective Teaching and the Arts and Sciences Education Task Force.

“Dr. Gragg has a genuine love of learning that marks him as an outstanding academician,” wrote a nominator and mentee of Gragg’s. “His keen interest in me as a person, advancing the status of the university, and giving back to the university community is apparent at every turn.”

Gragg’s research reflects a wide range of intellectual curiosity and has resulted in the publication of seven books and more than three dozen articles. He seeks a broad understanding of American development in his research, and has pursued topics from migration in early America and the Salem witch trials to the English colonization of Barbados and perceptions of Las Vegas in popular culture.

Reviewed 2019-10-01