Mark Souther specializes in 20th-century U.S. history, focusing primarily on urban decline and revitalization, tourism, and public history. Professor Souther is the author of New Orleans on Parade: Tourism and the Transformation of the Crescent City (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006) and articles in the Journal of American History, Journal of Planning History, Journal of Urban History, Louisiana History, and Planning Perspectives. He is co-editor of American Tourism: Constructing a National Tradition (Chicago: Center for American Places; University of Chicago Press, 2012). His current book project, under advance contract at Temple University Press, focuses on perceptions of urban decline in postwar Cleveland.

Professor Souther is Director of the Center for Public History + Digital Humanities. In this capacity he directs the Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection and the Cleveland Historical mobile app project powered by Curatescape. He also co-directs Curatescape, a cloud-based mobile app framework built on Omeka, and currently licensed to dozens of institutions worldwide. He is a native of Gainesville, Georgia, and resides in Cleveland Heights, where he wrote two successful National Register historic district nominations.