Michele Gillespie
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. Her work specializes in American history, focusing on gender, race, class, and region in the American South.
About
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.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. In 2022, she was appointed provost. She returned to her professorship in 2025.