Lunch and Learn: Senator Sam Houston with Dr. Jeremy Pedigo

Details

At noon, on May 15 with speaker and author Dr. Jeremy Pedigo for “The Life and Politics of United States Senator Sam Houston”.

The “The Life and Politics of United States Senator Sam Houston” explores Sam Houston’s life events and developed ideology, and examined their impact on his actions and decisions as a U.S. Senator on four major issues: the acquisition and organization of Oregon, the Mexican American War, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The findings showed that Houston’s actions and decisions supported the Union, opposed Texas secession, embraced compromise to settle political disputes, recognized the rights and contributions of Native Americans. Furthermore, Houston directly confronted people in which he disagreed with.

Speaker’s Biography
Jeremy Pedigo is a full-time Professor of Government and History at San Jacinto College, teaching both face-to-face and online classes. His primary teaching and research interests are American and Texas politics, public policy, the bureaucracy, early American history, and the Antebellum period. In 2023, Jeremy received the Silver Award from San Jacinto College and a scholarship from the Katy Heritage Society for an original paper titled, “John W. Balliger: Railroad Pioneer and M-K-T Executive.” Here is also a member of the East Texas Historical Association, having presented at their 2024 and 2023 Fall Conferences in Nacogdoches.

Prior to joining San Jacinto College full-time in 2018, Jeremy was employed for twenty years with the Harris County Domestic Relations Office in Houston, co-founding the agency’s Community Supervision Unit and later serving as its Director. Also, since 2013 Jeremy has served as an adjunct political science professor (online) at Southern New Hampshire University. In 2023, he was named the SNHU Social Sciences Adjunct Instructor of the Year.

Jeremy is from Livingston, and he attended college at Baylor University, earning a B.A in Political Science in 1996, and Sam Houston State University, earning an M.A. in Political Science in 1997. While in graduate school at Sam Houston State, he served as a congressional intern for former Congressman Jim Turner. In March, Jeremy earned a Ph.D. in History from Liberty University after successfully defending his dissertation “The Life and Politics of United States Senator Sam Houston.”