Morris “Mo” Speller completed a PhD in History from Johns Hopkins University in 2020. Before joining the UWP faculty in 2022, he previously taught in the program as an Allen Grossman Teaching Fellow and as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. He has taught history courses at Johns Hopkins, Maryland Institute and College of Art (MICA), and at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). In Spring 2020, Dr. Speller received the Ditz Prize in Teaching from the History Department of Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Speller loves teaching, writing, and learning about Baltimore. In fall 2023, he received an Engaged Scholar Faculty Fellowship through the JHU Center for Social Concern, which has supported his collaborations with community partners including the Baltimore City Archives and the Peale Museum. His writing courses encourage students to think about how the past informs present-day life in Baltimore. Many of his writing courses incorporate digital and public humanities projects, which offer students opportunities to think about writing across multiple genres and for different audiences.
Dr. Speller’s primary research examines the history of mortgage discrimination, predatory lending, racial segregation, and housing policy in his hometown of St. Louis. His other research interests include the history of queer communities and “gayborhood” politics in Baltimore and the history of Baltimore neighborhoods displaced by urban renewal.
- Reintro to Writing: Lost Baltimore
- Reintro to Writing: Troubling the "Hopkins Bubble"
- Writing Baltimore
- Teaching Writing Workshop
- Speller, Morris. “Broker Power: Real Estate Brokers in the St. Louis Model Cities Program, 1966–1975.” Planning Perspectives 39, no. 1 (January 2, 2024): 59–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/02665433.2023.2298451.
- Speller, Mo. “A History of Urban Inequality and Street Lighting in Baltimore.” In Signal Station North Lighting Guidebook: Practical Tools, A Critical History, and Inspiration for Neighborhood Light Projects, by Neighborhood Design Center, 54–78. Baltimore, MD: Neighborhood Design Center, November 2021. https://signalstationnorth.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/SSN_Lighting_Guidebook.pdf.
- Speller, Morris. Review of Bulldozer: Demolition and Clearance of the Postwar Landscape by Francesca Russello Ammon. Enterprise and Society 21, no.1. (March 2020): 288-291. First published online March 14, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2019.4
- Community-engaged writing
- Writing with archives
- Public humanities
- Narrative
- Multi-modal composition
- Baltimore
- Urban history
- Housing and planning policy
- Urban inequality