Walter Buenger holds the Summerly Foundation Chair in Texas History and is the Chief Historian at the Texas State Historical Association. His research and teaching expertise centers on Texas and the Southwest from 1810 to 1970, with an emphasis on the interaction between history and memory in Texas.

Buenger received the Coral H. Tullis Award for the best book in Texas in 2001 for "The Path to a Modern South: Northeast Texas Between Reconstruction and the Great Depression." Prior to coming to UT, he led the history department at Texas A&M University.