Mailing Address
Department of History
Columbia University
413 Fayerweather Hall
MC 2527
1180 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10027

Students begin research for the dissertation after they receive their M.Phil. degree, which is earned after successful completion of required course work, language exams, and an oral qualifying exam that covers three subjects in the student’s major field of study and one in their minor field. Students typically reach this stage during their third year of graduate study, although some do not complete these tasks until the fourth year.

More information may be found at the American Historical Association page for the department.

2016-17 Department of History Dissertation-in-Progress

Dissertator: Arena, Carolyn
Advisor: Brown, Christopher
Dissertation title: The Invisible Hands: Indian Labor, Slave Trading, and Mercantilism in the 17th century Caribbean.

Dissertator: Aumoithe, George
Advisor: Kessler-Harris, Alice
Dissertation title: Epidemic Preparedness in the Age of Chronic Illness: Public Health and Welfare Politics in the United States, 1920-1996.

Dissertator: Barzilay, Tzafrir
Advisor: Kosto, Adam
Dissertation title: Well Poisoning Accusations in Medieval Europe.

Dissertator. Batsha, Nishant
Advisor. Dirks, Nicholas
Dissertation title. Registered Numbers, Indentured Indians: The Violence of Bureaucracy in Fiji and Trinidad, 1838-1919.

Dissertator. Bautista Gonzalez, Manuel
Advisor. Weiman, David
Dissertation title. One City, Many Monies: Domestic and Foreign Currencies in New Orleans, Interregional and International Trade of the Antebellum South, 1822-1862.

Dissertator: Beckhart, Sarah
Advisor: Piccato, Pablo
Dissertation title. Defined by Drugs: The Cultural and Political Ramifications of Drug Consumption in Mexico, 1960-1986.

Dissertator: Bhattacharyya, Tania
Advisor. Ahmed, Manan
Dissertation title. Bombay, 1839-1932: Empire, Space and Belonging in an Indian Ocean Port City.

Dissertator: Brown, Tristan
Advisor: Zelin, Madeleine
Dissertation title: The Hard Road to Shu: The Circulation of Scholars, Soldiers, and Sufis in Northern Sichuan Township in Late Imperial China.

Dissertator: Buljina, Harun
Advisor: Mazower, Mark
Dissertation title. The Ends of Empire: Pluralism and the Nation State in the Late and Post-Ottoman Balkans (the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, 1903-43).

Dissertator: Chen, John
Advisor. Khalidi, Rashid
Dissertation title. Re-Orientation: The Chinese Azharites between Islamic World and Third World, 1931-55

Dissertator: Cho, Eunsung
Advisor: Armstrong, Charles
Dissertation title. The Thread of Juche: Negotiating Socialism and Nationalism through Science in North Korea.

Dissertator: Cook Runcie, Sarah
Advisor: Mann, Gregory
Dissertation title: Making Global Health in Cameroon, 1945-1970

Dissertator: Daly, Samuel
Advisor: Mann, Gregory
Dissertation title: Forging Nigerian Citizenship: Law and Bureaucracy in the Biafra War, 1967-1974.

Dissertator: Danziger Halperin, Anna
Advisor: Pedersen, Susan
Dissertation title: British and American Child Care Policy, 1945-1997.

Dissertator. Dunitz, Sarah
Advisor. Kessler-Harris, Alice
Dissertation title. Learning, Labour and Liberal Democracies: Schooling and the State in the United States and England, 1914-1945

Dissertator. Elmer, Hannah
Advisor. Kaye, Joel
Dissertation title. Sites of Life: Resuscitating and Baptizing Dead Infants in Central Europe, 1400-1600.

Dissertator: Ferguson, Susanna
Advisor: Khalidi, Rashid
Dissertation title: Tracing Tarbuya: Women, Education and Childrearing in Egypt and Lebanon, 1865-1939.

Dissertator. Freeman, Mary
Advisor. Fields, Barbara
Dissertation title. Letter Writing and Politics in the Campaign Against Slavery, 1830-1870.

Dissertator: Frith, Eric
Advisor: Piccato, Pablo
Dissertation title: Political Economy in Mexico, 1760-1857.

Dissertator. Gerien-Chen, James
Advisor: Gluck, Carol
Dissertation title. Between Empire and Nation: Taiwanese Settler-Migrants and the Making of Japanese Empire in South China.

Dissertator. Giordani, Angela
Advisor. Khalidi, Rashid
Dissertation title. Islamic Philosophy and the Humanist Imagination in Twentieth-Century Egypt.

Dissertator: Glasberg, Debra
Advisor: Carlebach, Elisheva
Dissertation title: Innovative Tradition: A Jewish Encyclopedia in Eighteenth Century Italy.

Dissertator. Golaszewski, Devon
Advisor. Mann, Gregory
Dissertation title. Reproductive Labors: Mande Reproductive Expertise and Biomedical Legibility in West Africa.

Dissertator. Gonzalez Le Saux, Marianne
Advisor. Milanich, Nara
Dissertation title. The Lawyer’s Rule: Legal Aid, The Legal Profession, and the Rule of Law in Chile, 1925-1989.

Dissertator: Gundacker, Jay
Advisor. Kosto, Adam
Dissertation title. Commercial Epistemology in the Latin Mediterranean, c. 1270-1475.

Dissertator: Guzmán, Romeo
Advisor: Piccato, Pablo
Dissertation title: Diaspora and Mexican Nationhood: The Rise of the Second Generation in Greater Mexico.

Dissertator. Halvorson, Charles
Advisor: Blackmar, Elizabeth
Dissertation title: Managed Protection: American Industry, State Regulation, and the Pricing of the Environment.

Dissertator. Hattori, Masako
Advisor: Stephanson, Anders
Dissertation title. Reconstructing America: The Rise of Positive Imagery of Postwar Educational Reform in the United States, 1898-1945.

Dissertator. Hein, Alana
Advisor. Moyn, Samuel
Dissertation title. Prophets of a New World: Utopia, Rupture, and Literary Practice among the Russian and German Enchanted Intelligentsias, 1900s-1920s.

Dissertator. Herschthal, Eric
Advisor: Brown, Christopher
Dissertation title. The Science of Antislavery: The Role of Science in the Early Abolitionist Movement, 1770-1830.

Dissertator: Ismail, Shehab
Advisor: Elshakry, Marwa
Dissertation title. Empire, Science, and Sanitation in Cairo, 1870-1930

Dissertator: John, Maria
Advisor: Ngai, Mae
Dissertation title: Indigenous Spaces in the City: Native Medical Clinics and The Politics of Indigenous Health in Sydney and Seattle, 1950-1980.

Dissertator. Jones, Colin
Advisor. Gluck, Carol
Dissertation title. Making Law in Manchuria.

Dissertator. Juravich, Nicholas
Advisor. Ngai, Mae
Dissertation title. An Education in Democracy: Paraprofessionals in Schools, Communities, and the Labor Movement, 1965-1980.

Dissertator. Kaplan, Abram
Advisor. Jones, Matthew
Dissertation title. The Janus Faces of Tradition: Newton, Leibniz, and the Philological Roots of Calculus.

Dissertator: Keilson, Ana
Advisor: Moyn, Samuel
Dissertation title: Organizing Expression: Dance and Politics in Germany, 1900-1935.

Dissertator: Kideckel, Michael
Advisor: Jacoby, Karl
Dissertation title: When Food Became Natural: Industrial Food Culture and the Marketing of Reform.

Dissertator. Koeth, Stephen
Advisor. Katznelson, Ira
Dissertation title. The Suburbanization of American Catholicism: Postwar Political Realignment and Religious Restructuring, 1945-1980.

Dissertator. Kressel, Daniel
Advisor: Piccato, Pablo
Dissertation title. The Age of Technocrats: The Argentinian Revolution, and the Opus Dei’s doctrine of development in Latin America’s Southern Cone, 1951-1978.

Dissertator. Kung, Chien Wen
Advisor. Armstrong, Charles
Dissertation title. An Alternative Asia: Nationalist China, the Filipino Chinese, and the Networks of Asian Anticommunism, 1946-1975.

Dissertator. Kuzuoglu, Ulug
Advisor. Zelin, Madeleine
Dissertation title. Engineering Minds: Psychology and Minority Script Reforms in China, 1910s-50s.

Dissertator: Lasdow, Kathryn
Advisor. Blackmar, Elizabeth
Dissertation title. Spirit of Improvement: Construction, Conflict, and Community in Early-National Port Cities.

Dissertator: Lee, Jessica
Advisor: Ngai, Mae
Dissertation title: To the Seventh Generation: State Use of Italian Immigrant Transnationalism, 1922-1948.

Dissertator: Luo, Weiwei
Advisor. Zelin, Madeleine
Dissertation title: The Buddhist World: China, 1600-1900.

Dissertator: Lyons, Benjamin
Advisor: Brown, Christopher
Dissertation title: John Jay and the Law of Nations: In Defense of American Independence, 1760-1795.

Dissertator. Marcus, David
Advisor: Blake, Casey
Dissertation title. Fugitive Democracy: The Search for the Political in American Political Thought and Criticism.

Dissertator: Meaney, Thomas
Advisor: Moyn, Samuel
Dissertation title: The American Hour: US Policy Intellectuals and Decolonization 1943-1975

Dissertator: Morris, Melissa
Advisor: Brown, Christopher
Dissertation title: Cultivating Colonies: Tobacco and the Upstart Empires, 1580-1630.

Dissertator: Murphey, Oliver
Advisor: Connelly, Matthew
Dissertation title: A bond that will permanently endure-the Eisenhower administration, the Bolivian revolution and Latin American leftist nationalism.

Dissertator: Neubauer, Jack
Advisor: Lean, Eugenia
Dissertation title: Adopted by the World: China and the Rise of Global Intimacy.

Dissertator: Newman Rachel
Advisor: Piccato, Pablo
Dissertation title: Mexican Students in the United States and the Making of Transnational Networks, 1900-1971.

Dissertator. Okan, Orcun
Advisor: Philliou, Christine
Dissertation title. Coping with Transitions: The Connected Construction of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, 1918-1928.

Dissertator: O’Mahony-Adams, Pandora
Advisor: Mann, Gregory
Dissertation title: The African Circle and the African Personality: Egypt and the Emergence of a Continental Politics, 1952–70.

Dissertator: O’Neil, Sean
Advisor: Smith, Pamela
Dissertation title. Technicians of the Sign: The Practice of Semiotics in Early Modern Europe.

Dissertator. Petrov, Victor
Advisor: Mazower, Mark
Dissertation title. Modernity in a National Key: Bulgarian Socialism at Home and Abroad.

Dissertator: Powers, Allison
Advisor: Ngai, Mae
Dissertation title: Improvement, Development, and the Politics of Economic Evidence in American Law, 1877-1948.

Dissertator. Resnikoff, Jason
Advisor. Blake, Casey
Dissertation title. Automatic America: Automation and the Meaning of Labor in the United States, 1945-75.

Dissertator: Rosenblithe, Bryan
Advisor: Brown, Christopher
Dissertation title: Where Tyranny Begins: British Imperial Expansion and the Origins of the American Revolution.

Dissertator: Rosenblum, Noah
Advisor: Moyn, Samuel
Dissertation title. The Tribe of the Eagle.

Dissertator: Roy, Aurelie
Advisor: Jacoby, Karl
Dissertation title: The Work of Our Loves: The Rise of Indigenous Rights Advocacy for Systematic American International Law Reform.

Dissertator: Rubin, Gil
Advisor: Mazower, Mark
Dissertation title: Retreat from Europe: The Transformation of Jewish Politics in World War II.

Dissertator: Sarwate, Rahul
Advisor. Rao, Anupama
Dissertation title. The Making of Maharashtra: An Intellectual and Cultural History, 1848-1960.

Dissertator: Schumer, Nathan
Advisor: Schwartz, Seth
Dissertation title: The Second Temple Past in Rabbinic Literature: Memory and the Formation of Rabbinic Identity.

Dissertator: Serby, Benjamin
Advisor: Blake, Casey
Dissertation title. The Politics of Gay Liberation: Ideology, Community and Personal Life, 1969-1975.

Dissertator: Shulevitz, Deborah
Advisor: Kaye, Joel
Dissertation title: Heresy, Usury, and Society in France and Italy, 1178-1311.

Dissertator. Siddique, Asheesh
Advisor. Brown, Christopher
Dissertation title. Daring To Ask: The Questionnaire and the Problem of Knowledge In The Late Eighteenth Century British Atlantic Enlightenment.

Dissertator: Skloot, Joseph
Advisor: Carlebach, Elisheva
Dissertation title: The Social Effects of Hebrew Print in the Sixteenth Century: Context and Conflict.

Dissertator: Steinmetz-Jenkins, Daniel
Advisor: Moyn, Samuel
Dissertation title. Raymond Aron: An Intellectual Biography.

Dissertator: Stockland, Pierre-Etienne
Advisor: Smith, Pamela
Dissertation title. The Insect Wars: Practical Entomology and Agricultural Improvement in Enlightenment France.

Dissertator. Swagler, Matthew
Advisor. Mann, Gregory
Dissertation title. African Youth Radicalism and the Global History of Revolt in 1968.

Dissertator: Tezcanli, Merve
Advisor: Philliou, Christine
Dissertation title: Subjecthood and Citizenship across Borders: Hadhramis Arabs and ‘Asiatic Ottomans’ of Dutch Indonesia.

Dissertator: Vendell, Dominic
Advisor: Dirks, Nicholas
Dissertation title. Insurgent Empires: Maratha Politics and the Origins of the British Conquest of India, 1755-1827.

Dissertator. Vuljevic, Suzana
Advisor: Mazower, Mark
Dissertation title. Cosmopolitanism, (Cultural) Diplomacy and Literature: The Curious Case of Union in the Post-Ottoman Balkans.

Dissertator. Wazer, Caroline
Advisor. Harris, William
Dissertation title. Salus patriae: Public health in the early Roman Empire.

Dissertator. Webre, Jude
Advisor. Blake, Casey
Dissertation title. Seeking the True Contrary: The Poetics and Politics of Democratic Modernism.

Dissertator: Yee, Ethan
Advisor: Senocak, Neslihan
Dissertation title. The Burden of Forgiveness: Franciscans’ Impact on Penitential Practices in the Thirteenth Century.

Dissertator: Zarate, Arthur
Advisor. Khalidi, Rashid
Dissertation title. Islamic Social Science: the theory and practice of Islamist activism in Egypt, 1945-1981.

Dissertator: Zuniga-Nieto, Carlos
Advisor: Piccato, Pablo
Dissertation title: Subsistence Economies: Household Honor and Labor in Yucatan, Mexico, 1870-1915.