Student Bios

The Graduate Center's History students are diverse group, studying topics ranging from early modern food preparation to masculinity in eighteenth century India. Read a bit about their scholarly work below. Current and past dissertation topics are also available online.

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Damien Pierre Amblard

Major Field: American History (Intellectual History focus) Minor Field: Transnational History (Europe-US) Degrees Conferred: Maitrise en Histoire, Université de Toulouse, France, 2005; Licence (BA), History and Geography, Université de Toulouse, France, 2003. Status in Program: First-year student Selected Publications:"Henry Ford Must Choose," Le "fascisme" américain et le fordisme. Paris: Berg International Editeurs, 2007. My current field of study is the history of the Antimasonic movement in early-nineteenth-century America, with a particular emphasis on the ideological aspects of the phenomenon. I also intend to discuss the importance of European ideas in the development of Antimasonry in the United States. I previously worked on the history of fascism, and especially on American fascism, while I was a student in France. I also was fortunate to teach for 3 years in México where I had a most rewarding and enriching experience.

Michael Brenes

Major Field: American History Minor Field: African American History Degrees Conferred: B.A., Hunter College, History and Special Honors Status in Program: First-Year Student (Level I) My research interests include the history of U.S. foreign relations, race and Cold War politics, decolonization, and human rights. I am particularly intrigued with how social movements and non-governmental organizations are influenced by global affairs, and how their efforts for racial, economic, and social justice have ramifications for international politics. My present research examines the Puerto Rican independence movement within the context of U.S. diplomacy during the early Cold War.

Rachel Burstein

Major Field: American History Minor Field: African American History Status in Program: First Year Student (Level I) At present, my research interests include the history of news media (particularly underground and minority-produced publications), labor relations in the mid to late twentieth century, and urban community development in the twentieth century.

J. Brian Freeman

Major Field: Latin American History Minor Field: American History Degrees Conferred: B.A. University of Wisconsin-Madison Status in Program: Second Year My research focuses on post-revolutionary Mexico, the period of the so-called "Mexican Miracle" during which complex interactions between industrialization, urbanization, and transnationalism reshaped modern Mexico in profound ways. In particular I examine the rise of mass-tourism and the tensions surrounding cosmopolitan influences in the context of these changes.

David J. Gary

Major Field: American History Minor Field: Middle Eastern History Degrees Conferred: B.A. History, Gettysburg College (2000) Status in Program:Third Year My primary interest is in the 18th century, with an emphasis on the late colonial era and the early republic. Topics that appeal to me include the American Enlightenment, book history, the culture of gentility, as well as political and diplomatic history. I am currently working on a project examining the role of gentility in the Society of the Cincinnati. My planned dissertation will examine the intellectual and cultural influences of Rufus King, an early republic U.S. Senator and American Minister to Great Britain (1796-1803). A large part of my research will involve examining his 5,000 volume library. I am also part of the team cataloging the Henry Knox Papers at the Gilder Lehrman Collection.

Thomas Harbison

Major Field: American History Minor Field: Modern European History Degrees Conferred: M.S. Southern Connecticut State University; B.A. Duke University. Status in Program: ABD Dissertation Title: The Politics of Public Education in Harlem, 1917-1954. My research interests include educational, African-American, and urban history. Outside of my dissertation work, I serve as a Fellow for Instructional Technology at the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute at Baruch College and as an Editorial Assistant at the Radical History Review.

Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff

Major Field: Modern Europe Minor Field: History of the Body Degrees Conferred:MPhil History (Graduate Center), MA Journalism/French Studies (New York University), BA International Affairs (George Washington University) Status in Program: ABD Dissertation Title: State Sponsored Youth Sports Training in France, 1958-1992 Lindsay is a fifth year PhD student from Carlisle, Mass., who received her undergraduate degree in international affairs from The George Washington University and a master's degree in Journalism and French Studies from New York University. Her dissertation, "State Sponsored Youth Sports Training in France, 1958-1992," which focuses upon soccer and basketball, is an interdisciplinary study that examines the histories of the Cold War, decolonization, the 1960s, the youth movement and popular culture, globalization, television and advertising, the emergence of a multi-million dollar/euro professional sports business, race, and gender. She is also a Communications Fellow at the Bernard L. Schwartz Communications Institute at Baruch College, a mentor for the Stanton/Heiskell Telecommunications Policy Center's Project Stretch program, and the Managing Editor of the GC Advocate. Upcoming conference presentations include "Dissecting the French Sports Crisis of the 1960s" at the annual NASSH conference in Lake Placid, NY May 2008.

Carl Lindskoog

Major Field: American History Minor Field: Latin American History Degrees Conferred: M. Phil., History (Graduate Center, CUNY), M.A., History (Northern Illinois University), B.A., History (University of Iowa) Status in Program:ABD Dissertation Title: Haitian Workers and the Labor Movement in New York and South Florida, 1971-2001 My research sits at the intersection of labor, immigration and urban history in late-twentieth century America. My dissertation narrates the development of the Haitian communities in New York and South Florida from a labor history perspective and, in the process, highlights the importance of place in the historical experience of this group of immigrant workers. I am currently teaching courses on contemporary America (1945-present) and U.S. labor history at Queens College.

Stan Mirvis

Major Field: Jewish History (early modern) Minor Field: Atlantic Studies (tentative) Degrees Conferred: MA, Modern Jewish History (Bernard Revel Graduate School); BA, Psychology (Yeshiva University), AA, Jewish Studies (Isaac Breuer College) Status in Program:First-Year Level I I am interested in studying the cultural and social history of Jewish settlement in the colonial Atlantic. My first year research has focused on early modern Hebrew travel literature specifically the travelogue of the Levantine emissary Hayyim Yosef David Azulai.

Brendan O'Malley

Major Field: American History Minor Field: Urban History Status in Program: Third-Year After graduating with a BA in History from Vassar College, I worked for a few years as a musician before finding my way into academic book publishing. I spent eight years in the industry at Routledge and Palgrave Macmillan, mostly acquiring and editing books in history. My preliminary dissertation research is focused on the emergence of New York City as the media capital of the United States during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

Benjamin Persky

Major Field: American History Minor Field: History of Sexuality Degrees Conferred: BA (2007) CUNY City College, Sociology and Women's Studies. Status in Program: First Year student I study gender and sexuality with a thematic concentration in historical epistemology and science studies, a geographic focus on the United States, and a methodological interest in queer and feminist theory. My previous research has included the genealogy of safe sex and pedagogic pornography, and the rhetoric of deviance in campaign texts regarding crystal methamphetamine use among contemporary gay men. I am currently investigating networking between prisoners and gay and lesbian activists during the 1970s.

Paul Polgar

Major Field: American History Minor Field: African American History Degrees Conferred: MA (2007) George Mason University, History; BS Boston University (2004), Print Journalism Status in Program: First Year student My research interests lie in the early American republic with a specific concentration in the politics of race, slavery and the accompanying antislavery and proslavery ideologies that developed during the early national era. My Masters thesis examined the first public debate over slavery and race at the federal level in 1790. My current research explores the politically partisan motives behind black disenfranchisement at the New York Constitutional Convention of 1821. I have also written on African American protest to the film The Birth of a Nation and I continue editorial work on the Public Opinion Project--a digital collection of public opinion pieces penned on the issues facing the First Federal Congress (1789-1791) and published in the nation's newspapers.

Tracy E. Robey

Major Field: Early Modern Europe Minor Field: Race and Slavery Degrees Conferred: B.A., 2004, Grand Valley State University Status in Program: Third-Year, Level II Dissertation Title:"The Black Medici: Sex, Assassination, Illegitimacy and Race in Sixteenth Century Florence" Raised in the aptly named town of Clio, Michigan, Tracy Robey specializes in Renaissance Italy and plans to write her dissertation on the life and times of Duke Alessandro de' Medici of Florence (r. 1530-7). Tracy's other scholarly interests include the history of prejudice and racism from ancient times to the present, "damnation of memory" punishments in Rome and Renaissance Italy, and early modern food preparation. Tracy is advised by Professor Margaret King.

Brian Smollett

Major Field: Jewish History Minor Field: Modern European History Degrees Conferred: M.A., The Jewish Theological Seminary of America (Interdisciplinary Jewish Studies); M.A., Binghamton University (Modern History); B.A., Binghamton University (Philosophy and Judaic Studies) Status in Program:First-Year My primary interests are the history of Jewish nationalism and the tension between Enlightenment thought and the particularism of nationalist and religious traditions. I have explored these themes through my recent research on the life and thought of Hans Kohn.

Amy Van Natter

Major Field: United States History Minor Field: African History Degrees Conferred: BA in Sociology, Wayne State University, May 1997; MA in History, Wayne State University, September 2002 Status in Program:Advanced to Candidacy October 2005 Dissertation Title: The Mary Carver Affair: United States Foreign Policy and the African Squadron, 1841-1845 https://wfs.gc.cuny.edu/AVanNatter/www/AmyVanNatter.htm

Ellen Zitani

Major Field: Modern European History (Italian focus) Minor Field: Global Queer History Degrees Conferred: M.A. Southern Connecticut State University (Women's Studies); B.A., Smith College (Women's Studies) Status in Program:Advanced to Candidacy Ellen Zitani is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History. She has passed her Italian, Spanish, Written and Oral exams. Her written exam was in the field of Modern European History. Her oral exam was in the fields of Modern European History, Modern Italian History, and Global Queer History. Ellen's dissertation will focus on the conceptions of same-sex desire and gender identity in turn-of-the-century Italy.

Ran Zwigenberg

Major Field: Modern East Asia/Japan Minor Field: Modern Europe Degrees Conferred: Hunter College CUNY (B.A) Status in Program:Second year My primary research is on the changing and contested place of Hiroshima, its memorial sites and the bomb's survivors in postwar Japanese society. I am particularly interested in studying these issues through a comparative framework which includes the experiences of Israelis and Germans in relation to the Shoa. Other interests and prior research include Japanese intellectual history, in particular Japanese Marxism and the Kyoto school, and the Japanese colonial empire, particularly Manchuria.