Professor of History
Austin College
Dr. Light T. Cummins holds the Guy M. Bryan Chair of American History at Austin College, where he is a Professor of History and has been a member of the faculty since 1978. In May of 2009, the Governor of Texas appointed him to a two year term as the official State Historian of Texas. Dr. Cummins received his B.A. and Master’s degrees from Southwest Texas State University, now known as Texas State University.
After serving as an officer in the United States Air Force, he received a Ph.D. from Tulane University. He has been a Fulbright Scholar to Spain. He is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and the Philosophical Society of Texas. Dr. Cummins is interested in late 18th and early 19th century Louisiana, Texas, and the Gulf Coast, especially the Anglo-American migration into these areas during and after the American Revolution.
His publications include A Guide to the History of Texas, Spanish Observers in the American Revolution and United States History to 1877, a textbook for college survey and Advanced Placement courses. Cummins is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Texas Council for the Humanities, now known as Humanities Texas, and of the Louisiana Historical Association. He is a lifetime fellow of the Texas State Historical Association. Dr. Cummins is at present researching a biographical study of Dallas sculptor Allie Victoria Tennant, 1892-1971.