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Photo: Marie Thomas
​"I'm an academic historian, published scholar, and former professor turned middle-grades author and missionary for history. Educated in the UK and in California, with a doctorate and scholarly publications but comfortable outside the academy, I have a unique perspective.

​For nearly a decade, I have run my own social enterprise,  writing The Snipesville Chronicles series (middle-grades/YA time-travel fiction that's also accessible social and cultural history) and presenting what I call Non-Boring History programs for kids and teens, teachers and families.

I reach people mostly in small audiences and through my books, modeling and engaging readers and audiences in historical thinking. It's easily the most important work of my professional life.

Whether you're interested in my novels, programs,or scholarly work, whether you're a reader, fellow academic, librarian, parent, fan, journalist, or interested member of the public, I invite you to spend time exploring my site, and get in touch."

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Annette Laing is a fine historian whose skills -- most uncommonly -- are finely tuned to every audience, whether children, educators, or the community at large.  She has a rare gift of bringing authentic stories to life for everyone." 

Jamil Zainaldin, PhD

President Emeritus
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Georgia Humanities

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Annette's Bio: 

Annette Laing is an academic and public historian (PhD, University of California, Riverside), the author of The Snipesville Chronicles series of middle-grades time-travel novels, a speaker, and the creator, presenter, and advocate of historical thinking and what she calls Non-Boring History, particularly for children and young teens. Her work has been featured by the Associated Press.

As a scholar of early American and the Atlantic World, Annette Laing is best known for her seminal essay on early American popular religious culture, "Heathens and Infidels? African Christianization and Anglicanism in the Early South Carolina Low Country."

Formerly a tenured professor at Georgia Southern University, Dr. Laing resigned in 2008 to turn full-time to her greatest passion, interpreting academic history and historical thinking for the broadest possible audience.

As Annette says, "When historians talk about reaching the public, often they're thinking of guys in bow ties. I'm more likely thinking of fourth graders and their teachers in a small town."

Born in Scotland and raised in England, Annette Laing has for many years made her home in the US, but she spends several weeks each year traveling and researching in the UK.