Luke Manget, PhD

About me…

I am a historian, writer, (occasional) musician, father, and husband who recently moved to Morganton, North Carolina, with my wife, Natalie, and three boys: Henry (14), Charlie (10), and Jack (6).  My primary expertise is 19th-century American history and, more specifically, southern environmental and rural history and Appalachian History.  However, my research and teaching interests are diverse.

I grew up in Georgia, moving from Stone Mountain to Decatur to Conyers over the first fifteen years of my life.  Family has been a very important influence in my life.  My mom, Debbie, was the director of Nancy Guinn Public Library in Conyers for more than two decades before she retired in 2009.  My father, Tom, was a long-time environmental protection officer for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources until his retirement in 2014.  Among the many things they have passed on to me was a love of books and a commitment to protecting the environment.  My brother, Daniel, lives in Asheville and works as an environmental educator at the Pisgah Wildlife Center in Brevard.  My sister, Helen, graduated from Georgia Gwinnett College with a Bachelor’s Degree in biology and is currently doing what she loves most, loving and caring for animals as a pet groomer.

In 1999, I enrolled at Georgia Tech on a football scholarship, and for four years I was the starting placekicker for the Yellow Jackets.  By the time I graduated with a major in History, Technology, and Society, I was the school's all-time leading scorer and owner of several more records.  In 2015, I was inducted into the school's athletic hall of fame. I signed as a free agent with the New Orleans Saints and spent one, long, hot summer in southern Louisiana before the Saints sent me packing.  Rather than continue to pursue a career in the NFL, I decided to move to the mountains of western North Carolina.  In the town of Murphy, population 1,800, I took a job as a staff writer for a weekly newspaper, the Cherokee Scout, and moved into a house in Brasstown.  For nearly two years, as I covered the politics/government and outdoors/environment beats, I came to know intimately the issues facing rural Appalachia, the weight of the past, and the challenges of the future.  In 2005, I started a job teaching social studies and running the soccer program at Murphy High School.  Along the way, I got married, bought a house, and had two boys, but my writing took a back seat while I worked hard at being a professional educator. Natalie soon got a job teaching art at MHS, and we were poised to settle in for the long term.  But the attraction of teaching in higher education, where I could research, write, and teach, was never far from my mind.

So in 2010, I applied to the M.A. program in history at Western Carolina with the hopes of eventually getting my PhD and teaching at the college level.  For two years while Natalie kept her teaching job, I commuted nearly every day over two mountain ranges--an hour and fifteen minutes one way--to Cullowhee, where I began studying Appalachian history with Richard Starnes.  In 2012, I was accepted into the PhD program at the University of Georgia to work with the legendary Appalachian historian, John C. Inscoe.  And my supporting, loving wife agreed to uproot the family, rent our house out, sell or give away most of our stuff, and move to Athens.  That fall, we said goodbye to our life in Clay County and headed south, finding a new home in a 2-bedroom apartment in university housing.  Our five years in Athens were some of the most precious years of our lives.  We had another son, made some close friends, and I got to teach college classes and travel all over the country, researching and presenting my research to all kinds of wonderful people. My writing passion reignited, I finished my dissertation on root diggers and herb gatherers of Appalachia in February of 2017.  In May, I became the first of my cohort to be hooded.

After accepting a Lecturer position at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga for the 2017-2018 school year, I took a tenure-track position as assistant professor of history at Dalton State College, where I spent 4 great years. In the spring of 2022, I took a position as a founding faculty member of the Morganton Campus of the North Carolina School for Science and Mathematics. But this was not to last, for my dream job was calling. In February of 2023, I accepted a position as assistant professor of history and history education at my alma mater, Western Carolina University. I will start there in the fall of 2023. For more on my professional achievements, see my Curriculum Vitae.