Edward L. Ayers

Ayers was born on January 22, 1953 in Asheville, North Carolina.

Ayers received a Bachelor of Arts degree in American studies from the University of Tennessee in 1974, summa cum laude, and a doctorate in American Studies from Yale University in 1980.

Academic service

Organization of American Historians, president (2017–2018); executive board officer (2017–2020)

American Council for Education, executive committee and co-chair of accreditation committee, 2008–2012

National Humanities Center, board member, 2007–2011

National Council for the Humanities, 2000–2004, appointed by the president of the United States to advise the National Endowment for the Humanities

Ayers taught at the University of Virginia from 1980 to 2007, where he became the Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History and the Buckner W. Clay Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 2001 through 2007. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001.

At Virginia, Ayers won several teaching prizes, including U.S. Professor of the Year for Doctoral and Research Universities, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Council for Advancement and Support of Education in 2003, and the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award in 1991. The university awarded Ayers its highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award, in 2006. Ayers directed the dissertations of more than forty doctoral students at Virginia, most of them in the history of the American South.

Elected president of the University of Richmond in 2007, Ayers developed The Richmond Promise, a five-year strategic plan to guide University priorities. During his term, the university increased students of color from 11 percent to 28 percent, doubled the percentage of students receiving Pell Grants, covered the full cost of attendance for all Virginia students with family income below $60,000, and created the Richmond Guarantee, a paid summer fellowship for all undergraduate students. Ayers completed his term as president in 2015, when he was named the Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities.

In 2025 Ayers was named as the 2026 Fritz and Claudine Kundrun Fellow at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies. Cited by Monticello as their most prestigious, the nine-month fellowship will enable Dr Ayers to devote his time to research and writing on topics directly related to Thomas Jefferson, his times, and legacy.

Ayers is the author of six and editor of seven books on the history of nineteenth-century America. The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. His book, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, Civil War in the Heart of America, won the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American history and the Beveridge Award for the best book in English on the history of the Americas since 1492. The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America, was awarded the Lincoln Prize from the Gilder Lehrman Institute and the Avery O. Craven Award from the Organization of American Historians. Southern Journey: The Migrations of the American South, 1790-2020, narrates the evolution of southern history through the migration of indigenous, white, Black, and immigrant people, with maps created by Justin Madron and Nathaniel Ayers. What Caused the Civil War is a collection of original essays. Edward Ayers co-edited The Oxford Book of the American South and edited America's War for the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Ayers is married to Abby Ayers. They have two grown children, Nathaniel Ayers and Hannah Ayers.