The Honors College

Honors College Faculty

Email: dzharwell@uh.edu
Phone: 713.743.3123

Debbie Harwell received her doctorate in U.S. history from the University of Houston where, since 2009, she has served as the managing editor, and now editor, of Houston History magazine, published by the UH Center for Public History. A native Houstonian, she incorporates personal knowledge with historical research writing for the magazine and training the staff.

Since 2012, Harwell has taught a Houston history class in the Honors College that has her students conducting oral histories, creating short films, and writing articles for the magazine. Over 75 student articles have been published as of 2018. Additionally, she teaches U.S. History Since 1877 and a new Voices from the Storm class where students study Houston’s history of flooding and conduct interviews documenting Hurricane Harvey.

Debbie has published her research on women’s activism during the civil rights movement in The Journal of Southern History and her book, "Wednesdays in Mississippi: Proper Ladies Working for Radical Change, Freedom Summer 1964," which won the 2015 Julia Cherry Spruill Prize for the best book in southern women’s history. She currently serves on the board of the Houston History Alliance.