Expertise

British History, British Empire History, Colonial American History, Atlantic History, Eighteenth-Century History

Biography

Travis Glasson is a historian of Britain, the British Empire, and the transnational Atlantic world. An Associate Professor in the History Department and an Affiliated Faculty member of the Global Studies Program, he has worked at Temple since 2006 after completing his PhD at Columbia University. Especially interested in the eighteenth century, some of his recent research examines the American Revolution as an imperial civil war through the histories of the many people in North America, the Caribbean, and Britain who were neutral or otherwise “in the middle” during the conflict. His book, Nobody Men: Neutrality, Loyalties, and Family in the American Revolution (Yale University Press, 2025) considers the wider history of neutrality through the experiences of the extended Cruger family, a New York-based merchant clan whose members included the radical Bristol MP Henry Cruger Jr. Although active in the pre-war colonial resistance movement, most of the Crugers were neither ardent “patriots” nor committed “loyalists” once the empire’s constitutional conflict turned into a shooting war, and their stories crystallize some of the dilemmas and decisions faced by those in the middle. Glasson’s book, Mastering Christianity: Missionary Anglicanism and Slavery in the Atlantic World (Oxford University Press, 2012) analyzes the efforts of eighteenth-century Church of England missionaries to convert enslaved and free black people to Christianity in colonial America, the Caribbean, and west Africa. That book also reveals how such missionary encounters contributed to wider debates about the nature of human difference, the morality of slavery, and the questions of abolition and emancipation. His other publications include book chapters and articles in the William and Mary Quarterly and the Journal of British Studies.

Glasson is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has received grants and fellowships from institutions including the John Carter Brown Library, the Huntington Library, the Harvard University Atlantic Seminar, the American Historical Association, the Center for the Humanities at Temple, and Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge. He has served as an officer and executive committee member of the North American Conference on British Studies. 

At Temple, Glasson teaches undergraduates courses in subjects including British History, Irish History, Atlantic History, and the Age of Revolutions. He also regularly teaches required courses within the History major including the introductory class The Historian’s Craft, the Intermediate Writing Seminar, and the Capstone Writing Seminar. He frequently participates in the History Department’s Honors Thesis Program and has served as its Director. Active in graduate student teaching and mentoring, Glasson has served as the Temple History Department’s MA Coordinator and its Director of Graduate Studies. He welcomes inquiries from potential graduate students interested in Atlantic History, the histories of Britain and the British Empire, the Age of Revolutions, and the transnational history of the long eighteenth century.

Selected Publications

Books 

• Nobody Men: Neutrality, Loyalties, and Family in the American Revolution (Yale University Press, 2025).
• Mastering Christianity: Missionary Anglicanism and Slavery in the Atlantic World (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Book Chapters

• “The Intimacies of Occupation: Loyalties, Compromise, and Betrayal in Revolutionary-era Newport” in Michael Zuckerman and Patrick Spero, eds. The American Revolution Reborn: New Perspectives for the 21st Century (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016).

Articles 

• “‘Baptism doth not bestow Freedom’: Missionary Anglicanism, Slavery, and the Yorke-Talbot Opinion, 1701—30,” William and Mary Quarterly, 67, no. 2 (April 2010).
• “Missionaries, Methodists, and a Ghost: Philip Quaque in London and Cape Coast, 1756-1816,” Journal of British Studies, 48, no. 1 (January 2009).

Courses Taught

Undergraduate

• History of Britain, 1688-1832 (Hist 3332)
• History of Britain, 1832 – Present (Hist 3333)
• Irish History (Hist 3321)
• The Historian's Craft (Hist 2001)
• Intermediate Writing Seminar in History (Hist 3496)
• Capstone Writing Seminar in History (Hist 4096)
• Honors Historiography and Research Methods (Hist 4934)
• Honors Thesis Seminar (Hist 4997)
• Honors Seminar: "Gaming the Age of Revolutions" (Hist 2900)

Graduate Courses

• Graduate Seminar: “Atlantic Revolutions” (History 8800)
• Research Seminar in International History (History 9208)
• Historical Methods (History 8714)
• Atlantic History  (History 8302)
• Introduction to European History (History 8301)