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Michele Gillespie is an American historian, editor, academic administrator and educator. She is the "Presidential Endowed Professor of Southern History" and former provost at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. [1] [2] Her work specializes in American history, focusing on gender, race, class, and region in the American South. [3]
Gillespie received a M.A. degree and Ph.D. from Princeton University, where she studied under the direction of James M. McPherson. She studied at Rice University in Houston, Texas as an undergraduate student, and has a B.A. degree. [1] [4]
In 2005, she served as president of the Southern Association for Women Historians. She is series co-editor of New Directions in Southern History, published by the University Press of Kentucky, with William Link.
In 2015, Gillespie was named dean of Wake Forest University's undergraduate college. [5] In 2022, she was appointed provost. [2] She returned to her professorship in 2025. [6]