Eric Gaither studies the intellectual and cultural history of the United States, the history of science, and is an oral history practitioner. He focuses on artifacts and narratives emanating from and/or referencing the U.S. South, particularly southeastern coastal states and the southwestern borderlands.

An avid collector of rare grammar manuals, which document language varieties spoken in the South during the mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Eric also researches the centrality of regional vernaculars and languages other than English in local history.

He explores archival and curatorial language practices that promote algorithmic bias; shape epistemological outcomes; and disrupt public and private access to content generated by and/or about black, indigenous, and historically and legally black-adjacent people(s).

Eric is a member of Phi Alpha Theta, history academic honor society, and is a Jacob K. Javits fellow-alum, in the discipline of history.