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Northwestern Professors

History

Caitlin Fitz,  Assistant Professor
Email: c-fitz@northwestern.edu
Connection to Book: Teaching interests include: Early America, The United States Through 1865, The Age of Revolution in Europe and the Americas.

Leslie Harris, Professor
Email: leslie.harris@northwestern.edu
Connection to Book: Geographic fields of interest include American History Since 1900; American History, Before 1900. Principal research requests include Pre-Civil War African-American Labor and Social History; History and Historiography of U.S. Slavery; Urban History; Southern History; History of Women, Gender and Sexuality.

Legal Studies

Laura Beth Nielson, Professor & Director of Legal Studies
Email: l-nielsen@northwestern.edu
Connection to Book: Professor Nielsen’s research focuses on the law’s capacity for social change.  Her primary field is the sociology of law, with particular interests in legal consciousness (how ordinary people understand the law) and the relationship between law and inequalities of race, gender, and class.

Political Science

Benjamin I. Page, Gordon Scott Fulcher Professor of Decision Making
Email: b-page@northwestern.edu
Connection to Book: Department strengths include American Political Development; Public Opinion, Political Communication, and Political Participation; Law and Politics; Political Parties; and Comparative Historical Analysis.

Alvin Bernard Tillery, Jr., Associate Professor and Associate Chair (Also African American Studies)
Email: Alvin.Tillery@northwestern.edu
Connection to Book: "Alvin B. Tillery, Jr.'s research and teaching interests are in the fields of American politics and political theory. His research in American politics focuses on American political development, racial and ethnic politics and media and politics. His research in political theory focuses on American political thought and critical race theory."

Julia Lee Merseth, Assistant Professor
Email: jmerseth@northwestern.edu
Connection to Book: Julie Lee Merseth's interests are situated in the field of American politics with a dual and overlapping focus on race and immigration. Research interests include American politics; racial and ethnic politics; immigration and immigrant political incorporation; women and politics. Department strengths include Public Opinion, Political Communication, and Political Participation; Race, Ethnicity, and Politics; Feminist and Gender Studies.

 Chloe Thurston, Assistant Professor
Email: thurston@northwestern.edu
Connection to Book: Her research and teaching interests are in American political development, with a focus on social policy, organized interests and social movements, and historical analysis.

Jim Farr, Professor (Also Director of Chicago Field Studies)
Email: james-farr@northwestern.edu
Connection to Book: James Farr joined the department in 2007 and served as Chair from 2008 to 2013. He is currently the Director of the Chicago Field Studies Program, an internship-and-seminar experience for undergraduates investigating the modern workplace and civic engagement. Farr also teaches political theory and the history of early modern and contemporary political thought, as well as the history and philosophy of social science.