Professor James Burns has been named the Kathryn and Calhoun Lemon Professor of History, one of the most prestigious endowed professorships in the College of Arts and Humanities.
Established in 1986, the Kathryn and Calhoun Lemon fund created endowed professorships in English, History and Philosophy at Clemson, and has supported decades of groundbreaking scholarship in the humanities.
“It is a tremendous honor because it was chosen by my peers in the Department of History and Geography,” Burns said. “It will provide me with the opportunity to conduct research all over the world.”
As the new Kathryn and Calhoun Lemon Professor of History, Burns continues a distinguished career of research, teaching and administrative service at Clemson.
Burns currently serves as the Director of the Humanities Hub, which sponsors and organizes outreach and scholarship activities across campus. Previously, he served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities and Chair of the Department of History.
As a researcher, Burns has made a significant impact in the study of African history and the social history of film.
His book, “Flickering Shadows: Cinema and Identity in Colonial Zimbabwe” was named an outstanding academic title for 2002 by Choice magazine, and he is the co-author of “A History of Sub-Saharan Africa” (Cambridge University Press) with Robert O. Collins.
He has also been instrumental in two significant recent grants. He served as the principal investigator on “Teaching Civic Engagement and Voting Rights,” a $500,000 Higher Learning grant from the Mellon Foundation, and he supported at Teagle Foundation grant of $300,000 for teaching in the humanities.
He has won multiple awards for teaching excellence, including, most recently, the 2024 Douglas W. Bradbury Award for outstanding contributions to the Clemson University Honors College, and the 2025 National Scholars program Award for Student Mentoring.
“Dr. Burns is an accomplished historian, recognized both nationally and internationally for his scholarship For that alone, he is deserving of this recognition, but beyond this, he continues to be a beloved teacher whose students include countless alumni, whose eyes light up every time they talk about him,” said Nicholas Vazsonyi, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities. “His leadership contributions over the years as Department Chair, Associate Dean and, most recently, as Director of the Humanities Hub have helped make the College what it is today. There are 1,001 reasons why I am delighted he has been awarded this honor.”
Global Research
As the Kathryn and Calhoun Lemon Professor of History, Burns plans to increase his attention on publishing research already underway, starting with a book titled “Global Bollywood” on the impact of films produced in India in the late 20th century.
“It is often said that Bollywood releases more films annually than Hollywood—yet there has never been a study of who sees these films, or what impact they have on audiences,” he explained. “The book’s focus is on regions of the world with large South Asian diasporic populations such as South Africa, Trinidad, and Fiji, where Bollywood has never been more popular.”
The book flows from his study of the continuing cultural influence of the British Empire in former colonies. After its completion, he plans to write a sequel to his book, “Closing the Empire: Cinema and Society in the British Commonwealth, 1940-1968” that is itself a sequel to “Cinema and Society in the British Empire, 1895-1940,” each of which tracks the impact of British colonialism around the globe.
The Kathryn and Calhoun Lemon Professorship has a history of enabling prolific scholarship. H. Roger Grant, the previous Clemson faculty member to hold the position, published 40 books on the history of American railroads before he passed away in 2023.
