Jody E. Ginn, Ph.D.

About the presenter

Dr. Jody Edward Ginn is a former law enforcement investigator/administrator and U.S. Army veteran who has worked as a multi-media production consultant to filmmakers, museums, and educational institutions/non-profits, and as an adjunct professor of history at Austin Community College. Dr. Ginn has also served as an expert commentator for streaming television and online podcasts, and for national and international print media outlets. Dr. Ginn’s graduate studies and research interests focus primarily on 19th-20th century Texas, Borderlands Indians, and Texas and Mexico—with particular emphasis on the Jim Crow and The Mexican Revolution eras.

Dr. Ginn has built a wide-ranging resume of both academic and practical experience and has established himself as a reputable historical consultant among a diverse constituency. Notably, he consulted on Netflix’s 2019 blockbuster original film, “The Highwaymen,” starring Kevin Costner, Woody Harrelson, and Kathy Bates, written by John Fusco and directed by John Lee Hancock. More recently, he has been asked to consult on the upcoming “Young Guns 3,” (now in pre-production) by actor/director/co-screenwriter, Emilio Estevez. Thanks to early mentors such as Al Lowman, Robert M. Utley, Lonn Taylor, Emmett and Miriam McCoy, Clifton and Shirley Caldwell, Harry Noble, Sharon Crutchfield, and many more, Dr. Ginn has established a vast network of Texas history colleagues and contacts which spans the Lone Star State, and beyond.

In 2006, Dr. Ginn began his pursuit of graduate education in Texas history at Texas State University (TxS), where he focused on public history (including a cognate in documentary film from UT-Austin’s RTF program) and research on the participation of Tejanos in the Texas Revolution under Dr. Jesús F. de la Teja, among other topics and scholars.

Upon completion of his M.A. degree at TxS in 2008, Dr. Ginn was accepted to the doctoral program at the University of North Texas, where he studied under many of the leading Texas and Borderlands historians today, including, Drs. Randolph B. Campbell, Richard B. McCaslin, Antonio Navarro, F. Todd Smith, and Andrew Torget. Dr. Ginn’s comprehensive exam topics were Texas; the Mexican Revolution and Texas; Borderlands Indians; and Local History. He was hooded in December 2014. Before, during, and since his graduate studies, Dr. Ginn has had the privilege to collaborate with and learn from many noted Texas history scholars on various projects over the years, including Drs. William Seale, D.B. Briscoe, Andres Tijerina, Jerry Thompson, Carolina Castillo Crimm, Stephen L. Hardin, Harold Weiss, plus Mr. James L. Haley, Judge Ken Wise, J.P. Bryan, Jo Ann Stiles, David A. Furlow, Denton Florian, Galen Greaser, Gene Krane, Larry McNeill, Mary Margaret Dougherty Campbell, and Byron Price, just to name a few.