David A. Gerber

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University at Buffalo
College of Arts and Sciences
History
Departmental Chair
Professional Headshot of David A. Gerber

Mailing Address

State University of New York at Buffalo
Department of History
Park Hall - Fifth Floor
Amherst, New York 14260-4130
United States

Contact Information

Phone: (716) 645-2181, ext. 539
Fax: (716) 835-3164
Mobile: (716) 480-3423
dagerber@Buffalo.edu

Qualifications

Ph.D., Princeton University, History, 1971.

Expertise and Research Interests

I am a social historian with interests in personal identity and personal relationships among nonelite populations. I work in American history, especially the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. During the course of the last three decades, I have done research on African Americans, European immigrants and ethnics, and veterans of military service who have sustained disabilities or chronic illnesses while in the service.

Other Expertise

I have been interested in historic preservation of the urban built environment, and have served on the Board of Directors of the Preservation Coalition of Erie County, New York, and testified in federal district court in a suit involving the redevelopment on Buffalo's harbor. These activities are motivated by a desire to oppose destructive economic development projects and to encourage both adaptive reuse of historic structures and the preservation of historic streetscapes and industrial landscapes as part of a larger strategy for urban redevelopment that creates jobs for city residents and sources of revenue for municipal governments.

Future Research

My next authored work will be a combination memoir and social history of the Chicago neighborhood in which I grew up, during the years in the 1950s and 1960s I lived there.

Industrial Relevance

I have given expert testimony in federal court regarding historic preservation issues.

Keywords

COS Keywords:

American History, History.

Additional Terms:

American History.

Languages

(Reading, Writing, Speaking)

English: (Fluent, Fluent, Fluent)
Spanish: (Functional, Basic, Basic)
French: (Basic, None, None)
German: (Basic, None, None)

Memberships

American Historical Association
Immigration and Ethnic History Society
Organization of American Historians

Honors and Awards

2007, UB Distinguished Professor, University at Buffalo
2004-2005, Fulbright Fellowship, Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, Institute for Polish Diaspora and Ethnic Studies, North American Immigration and Ethnic History
2001, Carleton Qualey Prize, Immigration and Ethnic History Society
1997, Owen Augsperger Award, Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, For contributions to local history
1990, Herbert Gutman Award, University of Illinois Press
1990, Chancellor's Award, State University of New York Chancellor, For teaching excellence
1987, Honorable Mention, Gustavus Myers Center for Human Rights
1980-1980, Fulbright Fellowship, Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, Flinders University of South Australia

Previous Positions

2004-2005, Fulbright Scholar, Jagiellonian University, Institute for Polish Diaspora and Ethnic Studies
1980, Visiting Scholar (Fulbright Program), Flinders University of South Australia, History
1970-1971, Instructor, Princeton University, Social Sciences, History

Funding Received

  • National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): Fellowship for Independent Research, $27,500, Sep 1, 1986 to Aug 31, 1987.
  • State University of New York: Summer Fellowship, $2,000, Jun 1, 1982 to Sep 1, 1982.
  • State University of New York: Summer Fellowship, $2,000, Jun 1, 1978 to Sep 1, 1978.
  • State University of New York: Summer Fellowship, $2,000, Jun 1, 1972 to Sep 1, 1972.
  • Council for the International Exchange of Scholars: Seniors Scholars Grant, $12,000, Jan 1, 1980 to Jul 1, 1980.
  • Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy: Grants-in-Aid (for research and publication), c$2,500, 1990 to 2003.
  • Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies: Post-doctoral Fellowship, $7,750, 1973 to 1974.
  • Ford Foundation: Ethnic Studies Fellowship, $3,000, 1970 to 1971.

Publications

  • David A. Gerber (2007) "Old Country/Alienation/ Alien Nation", www.Tikkun.org/magazine
  • David A. Gerber (2007) "Disabled Veterans: How Are They Different? What Difference Does It Make?", Disability History Newsletter, 3
  • with Bruce Elliott and Suzanne Sinke (2006) Letters across Borders: The Epistolary Practices of International Migrants, Palgrave, In Press
  • David A. Gerber (2006) "Thomas Spencer Niblock: A Dialogue of Failure and Respectability", Przeglad Polonijy, 31 (1), 2006
  • David A. Gerber (2006) Authors of Their Lives: The Personal Correspondence of Nineteenth Century British Immigrants to North America, New York University Press
  • (2006) "Internationalization and Transnationalization" In Reed Ueda (eds), Blackwell's Companion to American Immigration, Blackwell's (bookchapter)
  • David A. Gerber (2006) "A Network of Two: Personal Friendship and Scottish Identification in the Correspondence of Mary Ann Archbald and Margaret Wodrow" In Angela McCarthy (eds), A Global Clan: Scottish Identity and Networks since the Eighteenth Century, Edinburgh and London, I.B. Taurus (bookchapter)
  • David A. Gerber (2005) "Acts of Deceiving and Withholding in Immigrant Personal Correspondence: Personal Identity and Self-Presentation in Personal Correspondence", Journal of Social History, 39 (1), 8-23
  • with Alan Kraut (2005) American Immigration and Ethnicity: A Reader, Palgrave
  • David A. Gerber (Jul 2003) "Injury, Identity, and the State in the Experience of Disabled Veterans in Twentieth Century Western Nations", Journal of Social History, 36 (1), 143-159
  • David A. Gerber (Jun 2002) "Disabled Veterans and Public Welfare Policy in Twentieth Century Western Nations: Comparative and Transnational Perspectives", Journal of Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, 11 (1), 78-106
  • Paul Longmore (ed.), Lauri Umansky (ed.), David A. Gerber, "Blind and Enlightened: The Origins of the Civil Rights Politics of the Blinded V terans Association", The New Disability History: Perspectives from the United States, 313-338, 2001
  • David A. Gerber (2001) "Forming A Transnational Narrative: New Perspectives in Immigration History", The History Teacher, 35 (1), 61-78
  • David A. Gerber, editor, Disabled Veterans in History, 2000
  • David A. Gerber, "Theories and Lives: Transnationalism and Current Theory in Immigration History", IMIS-Beitrage, 15(1), 15-34, 2000
  • David A. Gerber (2000) "Epistolary Ethics: Personal Correspondence and the Culture of Immigration in the Nineteenth Century", Journal of American Ethnic History, 18 (1), 3-23
  • David A. Gerber (1999) "The Fate of the Righteous Style in Precinct Twenty: The McGovern Campaign of 1972 in A Buffalo Neighborhood", New York History, 80 (4), 455-477
  • David A. Gerber (1998) "Ethnic Identification and the Larger Project of Individual Identity: What We Can Learn from the Life of Mary Ann Archbald of Little Cumbrae Island, Scotland and Auriesville, New York, Immigants and Minorities, 17 (1), 1-22
  • William Fischer, David A. Gerber, Jorge Guitart, Maxine Seller, coeditors, Identity, Community and Pluralism in American Life: A Reader, 1997
  • David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder, editors, "In Search of Al Schmid: Blinded Veteran, War Hero, Everyman", The Body and Physical Difference: Discourses in the Humanities, 1997
  • David A. Gerber (1997) "The Immigrant Letter between Positivism and Populism: The Uses of Immigrant Personal Correspondence in Twentieth Century American Scholarship, Journal of American Ethnic History, 16 (1), 4-34
  • Roger Whitman, author, David A. Gerber and Scott Eberle, coeditors, The Rise and Fall of A Frontier Entrepreneur: Benjamin Rathbun "Master Builder and Architect", 1996
  • Rosemarie Garland Thomson, editor, "The 'Careers' of People Exhibited in Freak Shows: The Problem of Volition and Valorization", Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body, 38-54, 1996
  • David A. Gerber, The Making of An American Pluralism: Buffalo, New York, 1828-1860, 1989
  • David A. Gerber, editor, Anti-Semitism in American History, 1986
  • David A. Gerber, Black Ohio and the Color Line, 1976

Profile Details

Last Updated: 9/8/2007

COS Expertise ID #120106
Reference this profile directly: http://myprofile.cos.com/gerber064