Jessica Brannon-Wranosky, Ph.D.
Commerce, TX
Jessica Brannon-Wranosky is the Distinguished Professor of Digitial Humanities and History at Texas A&M University-Commerce. She received her Ph.D. in history from the University of North Texas. Dr. Brannon-Wranosky specializes in women, gender and sexuality history and digital humanities applications. Her work has appeared in a number of regional and national academic journals, anthologies, and a variety of online digital publications and exhibits. Her most recent publications include Impeached: The Removal of Texas Governor James E. Ferguson, A Centennial Examination coedited with Bruce A. Glasrud, (Texas A&M University Press, forthcoming 2017), and essays by her in Texas Women/American Women: Their Lives and Times (University of Georgia Press, 2015)—a 2016 winner of the Liz Carpenter Award, Discovering Texas History (University of Oklahoma Press, 2014), and This Corner of Canaan: Essays on Texas in Honor of Randolph B. Campbell (University of North Texas Press, 2013). Dr. Brannon-Wranosky has received several awards for her research including TSHA’s John H. Jenkins Award in 2015 and the Texas Oral History Association’s Best Article Award in 2016. She is currently working on a book project that examines southern state legislatures’ regulation of sexuality, sexual violence, and women’s reproductive health from 1870-1975.
Publications
Impeached: The Removal of Texas Governor James E. Ferguson
In 1917, barely into his second term as governor of Texas, James E. Ferguson was impeached, convicted, and removed from office. Impeached provides a new examination of the rise and fall of Ferguson’s political fortunes, offering a focused look at how battles over economic class, academic freedom, women’s enfranchisement, and concentrated political power came to be directed toward one politician.
Jessica Brannon-Wranosky and Bruce A. Glasrud have brought together top scholars to shine a light on this unique chapter in Texas history. An overview by John R. Lundberg offers a comprehensive survey of the impeachment process. Kay Reed Arnold then follows the Ferguson story into the halls of academia at the University of Texas—which Ferguson threatened to close—sparking a fierce response by faculty, alumni, students, and, especially, the Women’s Committee for Good Government. Rachel M. Gunter further places the Ferguson impeachment in the context of the suffrage movement. Leah LaGrone Ochoa then explores Ferguson’s hot-and-cold relationship with the Texas press, and Mark Stanley examines the impact of the impeachment on Texas politics in the decades that followed. Jessica Brannon-Wranosky concludes with an assessment of the historical memory of Ferguson's impeachment throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
TSHA Awards
TSHA Positions
- Board Member (2018–2021)
TSHA Committees
Handbook Entries
| Title | Contributor Type |
|---|---|
| Hayes, Rebecca Henry | Author |
| Idár, Jovita | Revision Author |
| League, Edith Hinkle | Author |
| O’Connor, Maconda Brown | Author |
| Texas Equal Rights Association | Revision Author |
| Watson, Margaret L. | Author |
| Williams, Maude Evangeline Craig Sampson | Author |
| Wilson, Isabel Brown | Author |
| Woman Suffrage | Revision Author |
| July, Johanna | Author |
Locations
Texas A&M University-Commerce
Commerce, TX
