About
Jasper works on the history of disabled African Americans in the modern U.S. South. Combining archival research with oral history, his work explores the lived experiences of Black disabled people at residential schools, at work, and in the community. His work is informed by the birth of his second child, who is Deaf. He is a current Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Carter G. Woodson Institute.
Jasper recently published his first peer-reviewed article titled “Blind and Deaf Together: Cross-Disability Community at Virginia's Residential School for Black Disabled Youth” in the Fall 2023 issue of Disability Studies Quarterly.
Jasper has also published “Education of Deaf and Blind African Americans in Virginia, 1909-2008” as a part of the Social Welfare History Project with Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries in 2022.
Jasper has presented research at the annual conferences for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the Labor and Working-Class History Association, the Southern Labor Studies Association, the Organization of American Historians, the American Association for the History of Medicine, and the History of Education Society. His research has been supported by the Archie K. Davis Fellowship, Kentucky Historical Society Research Fellowship, VCU Publishing Research Award, and the William P. Heidrich Research Fellowship.
Jasper received his BA from Virginia Commonwealth University in African American Studies in 2016.
Contact info
gjconner@wm.edu
William & Mary
Harrison Ruffin Tyler Department of History
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
757-221-3720