University of Mobile Professor Featured at National Archives Symposium

Matthew Downs, assistant professor of history at the University of Mobile (UMobile), was a featured speaker at the National Archives third annual scholarly symposium in Atlanta.

The Sept. 20 symposium, “The Valley of the Dams: The Impact and Legacy of the Tennessee Valley Authority,” completed the National Archive’s yearlong effort to promote the facility’s records on the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

Downs, who specializes in modern American and southern history, gave a presentation titled “A Democratic Labor: The Tennessee Valley Authority and Economic Development, 1933–1953.”

“The agency, a New Deal organization designed to manage the resources of the Tennessee River watershed and best known for hydroelectric dams, became an important force in encouraging industrial and commercial growth in the region,” Downs said.

Downs’ research focused on the modernization of the South in the 20th century. His most recent work, “Transforming the South,” will be published by LSU Press in December.