Author, Editor, Historian

A proponent of open access publishing, he manages peer-reviewed journals, supports the publication of books and digital projects, and supervises a digital humanities internship program at Virginia Tech Publishing & Press, producing student-centered, community-engaged oral history projects.

Dr. Jason A. Higgins is an award-winning author, editor, and oral historian at Virginia Tech. He is the Digital Scholarship Coordinator, Assistant Professor of History, and Associate Director of VT Center for Oral History. He teaches the Vietnam War, African American History, and Oral History Methods.

Author, Prisoners after War: Veterans in the Age of Mass Incarceration (UMassPress)

• Oral History Association Best Book Award, Winner 2025
• National Council on Public History Book Award, Honorable Mention 2026
• Albert L. Sturm Award for Research Excellence, Winner 2026
• Veterans Studies Association Biennial Best Book Award Finalist, 2026

• Open access edition available with a TOME grant

Co-editor, Service Denied: Marginalized Veterans in Modern American History, (UMass Press 2022).

Jason earned a Ph.D. in History and a Graduate Certificate in Public History from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He also earned a Master’s in English from Oklahoma State University and received the OSU Graduate Research Excellence Award and Rising Star Alumni Award. He is a proud first-generation college student from the University of Arkansas at Monticello, double-major in English and History, Magna Cum Laude, and UAM’s Rising Star Alumni Award.