Dr. Timothy J. Lombardo is new to the University of South Alabama, having joined the
USA History Department in August 2015. With expertise in modern American History,
Dr. Lombardo will teach a number of courses in US History, recent U.S history, and
American Urban History.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he spent his formative years in his
hometown and remains a Philadelphian at heart. He earned both his Bachelors and Masters
Degrees at Temple University before leaving the City of Brotherly Love for small-town
Indiana to pursue a Ph.D. in American history at Purdue University. After finishing
his doctorate, Dr. Lombardo spent several years as a quasi-nomadic academic in the
Midwest, where lived for short spells in Indianapolis and Grand Rapids, Michigan and
taught history at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis and Grand Valley
State University. Now at the beginning of a new southward sojourn, he is excited to
bring his deeply-ingrained East Coast attitude and adopted Midwestern sensibilities
to the Gulf South.
Philadelphia was never far from Dr. Lombardo’s mind as he followed his academic career
from one new strange place to another. At Purdue University, he ended up researching
and writing a dissertation on his treasured hometown. Combining his interests in modern
American urban, social, and political history, his research focused on the white ethnic
and working class supporters of Frank Rizzo—Philadelphia’s controversial police commissioner
turned mayor in the 1960s and 1970s—and their engagement with the interwoven politics
of law enforcement, school desegregation, affirmative action, and open housing. Using
his case study as an example of broader trends in American urban and political history,
Dr. Lombardo’s work examined the roots of what he calls “blue-collar conservatism”
in modern United States history. He is now in the process of turning his dissertation
into his first book, tentatively titled The Rise of Blue-Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo’s Philadelphia and the Politics
of the Urban Crisis.
Dr. Lombardo hopes to continue exploring the confluence of modern urban and political
history while at the University of South Alabama, albeit with a more national focus.
A few of his budding future projects promise to examine the intersection of urban
and poverty policy on the American political development since the 1960s as well as
the recent politics and process of urban renewal and gentrification through private,
small-business revitalization. In the meantime, he looks forward to spending some
of his free time exploring and learning more about his new home in Mobile, Alabama
and the entire Gulf South region.
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