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Faculty

HistoryDepartment

history.vassar.edu

The department educates students to be active historians and encourages them to engage the library’s rich collection of primary sources. Students take courses in African, Asian, European, Latin American, and United States history, as well as a course in pre-1800 history and two seminars. Student work culminates in a senior thesis incorporating analytical, writing, and research skills and often involving field work in local archives, such as the FDR Library and Museum in Hyde Park, or summer research in the US or abroad. The department also offers a correlate sequence.

Nancy Bisaha Professor of History and Director of Medieval & Renaissance Studies

BA, Rutgers University; PhD, Cornell University

Interests
  • Medieval History
  • Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Robert K. Brigham Professor of History on the Shirley Ecker Boskey Chair

BA, The College at Brockport; MA, University of Rhode Island; PhD, University of Kentucky, Lexington

Interests
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Vietnam War

Mita Choudhury Professor of History

BA, Haverford College; MA, University of North Carolina; PhD, Northwestern University

Miriam Cohen Professor of History on the Evalyn Clark Chair

AB, University of Rochester; MA, PhD, University of Michigan

Interests
  • History of Twentieth Century US
  • History of Women in the Twentieth Century US
  • History of American Social Reform

Rebecca Edwards Professor of History on the Eloise Ellery Chair

BA, College of William and Mary; MA, PhD, University of Virginia

Interests
  • 19th-Century United States History
  • Women in the United States up to 1890
  • History of the American West

Maria Höhn Professor of History on the Marion Musser Lloyd '32 Chair

BA, Millersville University; PhD, University of Pennsylvania

James Merrell Professor of History on the Lucy Maynard Salmon Chair

BA, Oxford University; BA, Lawrence University; MA, PhD, Johns Hopkins University

Interests
  • Native American History
  • Early American History
  • Indian Experience in Colonial Times

Quincy T. Mills Associate Professor of History

BS, University of Illinois; MA, PhD, University of Chicago

Interests
  • Race and Segregation
  • Civil Rights and Black Power Movement
  • Consumer Culture

Lydia Murdoch Professor and Chair of History

AB, Vassar College; MA, PhD, Indiana University

Interests
  • Modern British and Imperial History
  • History of Childhood
  • Women and Gender
  • Urban History
  • History of Emotions
  • History of Medicine

Leslie Scott Offutt Associate Professor of History

BA, MA, University of California, Riverside, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles

Ronald D. Patkus Associate Director of the Libraries for Special Collections and Adjunct Associate Professor of History on the Frederick Weyerhaeuser Chair

BA, Boston College; MLS, Simmons College; MA, University of Connecticut; PhD, Boston College

Interests
  • History of the book
  • History of private and fine press printing
  • History of the Bible

Michaela Pohl Associate Professor of History

BA, Evergreen State College; MA, PhD, Indiana University

Ismail O. D. Rashid Professor of History

BA, University of Ghana; MA, Wilfrid Laurier University; PhD, McGill University

Joshua Schreier Professor of History

BA, University of Chicago; MA, PhD, New York University

Interests
  • North African History
  • Middle Eastern History
  • Jewish History
  • French History
  • Colonialism
  • Gender

Wayne Soon Assistant Professor of History

BA, Carleton College; MA, PhD, Princeton University

Interests
  • Modern Chinese History
  • East Asian History
  • History of Science, Medicine, and Technology
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