Paul Deslandes, a Connecticut native, joined the department in 2004. He is a specialist in British history, the history of the British Empire, and the history of gender and sexuality. In addition to offering courses in these fields at UVM, he has also taught classes on the history of London and on LGBTQ+ history. He currently serves as Associate Dean for Student Success within the College of Arts and Sciences. Deslandes earned his B.A. at Trinity College in Hartford, CT and his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. Before arriving in Burlington, he spent five years on the faculty at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.
Deslandes has written articles and reviews for many journals and is the author of The Culture of Male Beauty in Britain: From the First Photographs to David Beckham (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021), Notorious London: A City Tour (The Teaching Company, 2021), and Oxbridge Men: British Masculinity and the Undergraduate Experience, 1850-1920 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005/Paperback Version 2015). The Culture of Male Beauty in Britain was the 2022 recipient of the American Historical Association’s Morris D. Forkosch Prize for the best book on a British history topic since 1485. His most recent essay, an examination of sex and sexuality in nineteenth-century London, will appear in the Cambridge World History of Sexualities. He is also currently editing a six-volume Cultural History of Beauty series for Bloomsbury Press. From 2013-2018 and again in 2021 and 2022, Deslandes served as Chief Reader for the College Board’s AP European History program.
In addition to regular travel for research and pleasure, Deslandes enjoys outdoor life in Vermont and the Adirondacks and tries to stay in shape by running, skiing, and hiking and by keeping up with his two Australian Cobberdogs, Tate and Bertie.
