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Dr. Marie Totten is passionate about helping students discover the fascinating stories hidden in America’s political past. As a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Central Arkansas, she brings a decade of teaching experience from seven different institutions across the state, ranging from community colleges to four-year institutions, including the University of Arkansas. In her classroom, students quickly learn that history isn’t just about memorizing dates—it’s about understanding how real people made difficult choices that continue to shape our world today.

Dr. Totten earned her Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas with a focus on 20th century United States History and Arkansas History. Her research takes her into the messy, complicated world of Arkansas politics, where she examines how individual actors, political parties, and popular culture came together to create pivotal moments in the state’s history. She’s particularly drawn to the era of massive resistance and how one controversial figure, James “Justice Jim” Johnson, managed to push an entire state toward crisis.

Her current book project, The Voice of Defiance: Justice Jim and the Making of Massive Resistance in Arkansas, explores how Johnson helped bring the White Citizens Council to Arkansas and ultimately influenced Governor Orval Faubus’s decisions surrounding integration at Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957. It’s a story about power, politics, and the consequences of extremism that her students find surprisingly relevant to contemporary debates.

What students find most engaging about Dr. Totten’s teaching is her ability to connect past events to current issues. Her research spans 20th century Arkansas politics, American political parties, and the intersection between popular culture and politics. She helps students see how political messaging, media manipulation, and cultural symbols have always been tools for shaping public opinion—skills that prove invaluable for understanding today’s political landscape.

Dr. Totten’s work appears in academic journals and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, and her recent article in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly on the 1948 Dixiecrat revolt in Arkansas earned the Violet B. Gingles Award. She’s equally passionate about sharing history beyond the university, appearing on podcasts and speaking to community groups eager to understand their state’s rich past. Through her service as Vice President of the Arkansas Association of College History Teachers, Dr. Totten stays well connected with Arkansas historians from around the state. She believes strongly in the importance of collaboration with other scholars.

When she’s not in the classroom or buried in archival research, Dr. Totten enjoys spending time with her family, especially her two teenage sons, exploring Arkansas’s natural beauty and watching baseball. She believes that understanding our past—the good, the bad, and the complicated—is essential for creating a more just and informed future.