The Faculty
Earlier known as U.S. "diplomatic history," the history of U.S. foreign relations has been revitalized in recent decades as more scholars have conducted research in foreign archives and many have turned attention to the influence of culture, religion, gender, and other previously neglected topics.
Students interested in the foreign relations of the United States have opportunities to work with David Foglesong (New Brunswick) and Jennifer Mittelstadt. Foglesong's research has focused on American-Russian relations, propaganda, missionaries, and U.S. military occupations of foreign countries. Mittelstadt has specialized in histories of gender, race and the state and is now working on a project about grassroots involvement in US foreign relations.
Graduate students who concentrate on U.S. foreign relations also may consult with many other professors with relevant interests, including: David Greenberg, Jochen Hellbeck, Toby Jones, and Suzy Kim.
In recent years graduate students at Rutgers have completed dissertations on topics such as U.S. exchange exhibitions in the Soviet bloc during the Cold War, U.S. strategy in the Mediterranean during the Second World War, American missionaries in Angola, and American and Soviet journalists during the Cold War. Graduates have gone on to teaching positions at Winona State University (Minnesota), the University of Vermont, California State University at Fullerton, and the University of Amsterdam.