Shae Smith Cox

Shae Smith Cox is an Assistant Professor of History in the War and Society Program and a core member of the Public History faculty at Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on the U.S. Civil War, Reconstruction, and the memory of the war through the lens of objects. LSU Press published her first book The Fabric of Civil War Society, Uniforms, Badges, and Flags, 1859-1939.

Her next book examines the auditory experience of surgeons and hospital staff who cared for the wounded and dying United States and Confederate troops in Civil War hospitals and on the battlefield, emphasizing their diaries and letters. “The Suffering and Groans of the Wounded and Dying Were Terrible to See and Hear”: Auditory Experiences of Civil War Hospitals explores the recollections of hospital staff hearing the sounds of war, the noises made by the men in their care, the boom of distant cannons, or the or the peaceful sounds of final words that are all intimately described and recorded in letters, diaries, and memoirs.

Dr. Smith Cox takes a community-centered approach to public history, seeking to preserve elders’ memories for future generations. In her ongoing oral history project, Smithridge, she actively collaborates with members of the historically Black community in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. This community, established after the Civil War by formerly enslaved people, was a thriving cultural center for many years. Combining digital history and the oral traditions of community elders, Smith Cox works with the community to safeguard the stories of this society against challenges caused by governmental neglect and costal erosion.