The Franklin College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest, largest and most academically diverse college at the University of Georgia. In many ways, it is at the heart of UGA, the nation’s first state-chartered institution of higher education.

The first classes were taught in 1801 in a forest clearing on what is now the University’s historic North Campus. In 1806, the first permanent brick building was constructed on campus and named Franklin College in honor of Benjamin Franklin. The building, which was later renamed Old College, is the oldest structure in Athens and houses the administrative offices of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences as well as classroom space.

Franklin College and University of Georgia were often used interchangeably to describe the fledgling institution until 1859, when the College of Law became the second college on a campus that now boasts 16 schools and colleges.

Today’s Franklin College comprises 30 departments in five divisions: Fine Arts, Social Sciences, Biological Sciences, Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and the Humanities. The top five most popular undergraduate majors at UGA—Biology, Psychology, English, Art, History—all are housed within Franklin College. In addition to educating more undergraduates than any college on campus, the Franklin College offers 76 graduate degrees and certificates in 42 fields of study.

Our faculty members are at the forefront of their disciplines, exploring research opportunities and creative endeavors that illuminate the human condition and create a foundation for improved well-being and quality of life. The knowledge they create informs their teaching as well as their outreach to the state, nation and world. Like the man for whom the college is named, the faculty, staff and students of the Franklin College are bound by a shared dedication to advancing the frontiers of knowledge through creative inquiry and expression.

UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

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Public Scholar Award, National Endowment for the Humanities

Specialty Crop Block Grant, United States Department of Agriculture

Arthur Molella Distinguished Fellowship, Lemelson Center for Innovation and Invention, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Distinguished Lecturer, Organization of American Historians

Biennial award given by the BHC to a “mid-career” scholar “who has made significant contributions to the teaching and writing of business history.” 2014

Harold F. Williamson Prize, Business History Conference

Two-time winner of annual departmental award given by history graduate students in recognition of excellence in graduate instruction. (2012, 2014)

Parks-Heggoy Graduate Teaching Award

list compiled by book review critic Michiko Kakutani, New York Times.  In  recognition of Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance, book co-authored with economist Nouriel Roubini. 2010

“Top 10 Books of the Year”

Elected Member, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts (2008).   Honor given “in recognition of scholarship, for support of cultural institutions, for manifest interest in bibliographical matters, or for distinction as community or national leaders in humanistic affairs.”

Inching toward Modernity: Industrial Standards and the Fate of the Metric System in the United States

Follow the Money: The Return of Finance in the Early Republic

The Peculiar Origins of American Taxation

The Life of P.T. Barnum, Written by Himself (Bedford Series in History and Culture)

Artificial Parts, Practical Lives: Modern Histories of Prosthetics

Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance

A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States

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Stephen Mihm is the author of A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States (Harvard University Press, 2007); and the co-author, with Nouriel Roubini, of Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance (Penguin Press, 2010), which was named as one of the "Top Ten Books of 2010" by the New York Times.  He is also the co-editor, with Katherine Ott and David Serlin, of Artificial Parts, Practical Lives: Modern Histories of Prosthetics (NYU, 2002); and the editor of The Life of P.T. Barnum (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2017).   He is also the author of a number of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and academic essays.

During the 2017-2018 academic year, Mihm was the Arthur Molella Distinguished Fellow at the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, Smithsonian Institution.  More recently, he was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award.  In previous years, Mihm has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, awards, and grants, including the biennial Harold F. Williamson Prize, given to a mid-career scholar for contributions to the teaching and writing of business history; a two-year, $188,000 grant from the National Science Foundation; and the History Department's Parks Heggoy Graduate Teaching Award in both 2012 and 2014.  He has also received a number of major fellowships from, among other institutions, the American Council of Learned Societies; the Library Company of Philadelphia; the United States Department of Agriculture; and the Harvard Business School, where he served as the Newcomen Postdoctoral Fellowship in Business History in 2003-2004.

Mihm is presently writing a history of standards and standardization in the United States for Harvard University Press.  In addition to his academic duties, Mihm is a weekly columnist for Bloomberg Opinion as well as a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Boston Globe, and many other newspapers and magazines.  He also appears regularly in historical documentaries, radio and television programs, and other print and broadcast media in the United States and abroad.

Mihm lives on a historic farm outside Athens with his wife and colleague, Akela Reason, as well as their three boys, three cats, and Patch, the family dog.  In his spare time, Mihm enjoys tending his orchard of heirloom apple trees, part of a larger project aimed at reviving long-lost fruit cultivars.

Cultural & Intellectual History

Financial Crises & Regulation

Capitalism and Economics

Cultural & Intellectual

U.S. 19th & 20th Century

Business History

Innovation & Technology History

English

University of Georgia Faculty Profile 

ResearchGate Citations

Google Scholar citations

Stephen Mihm: Donald Trump wants to conquer Congress. Other presidents tried and failed

What’s fueling America's gold bar conspiracy

Evangelicals see war as part of a prophecy

Recovering the Lost Aviators of World War II

US Government Has Been Dancing Around UFOs for 75 Years | pinion

A team of UGA researchers is creating a “Noah’s Ark” of forgotten Southern apples

The Great Convergence: Herbert Hoover, Standards, and Simplification

Private Standards and Public Power: Paul Gough Agnew and the Corporate Capture of Standards in the United States

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