Benjamin S
- Research Program Mentor
PhD candidate at Yale University
Expertise
20th c. American History, 20th c. British Isles, Urban History, Labor History, Social History, History of Inequality, Oral History, Local History & Community Studies, Ethnography, Anthropology, History & Politics, African American Studies, History of Gender & Sexuality
Bio
I am a PhD candidate in American History focusing on the late-20th-century transformation of the American Rust Belt, though I study all areas of 20th-century American social and political history. My own research investigates how working class communities contended with the long-term effects of deindustrialization and how the major moments of the 80s and 90s--the War on Drugs, the HIV/AIDS crisis, austerity government, urban renewal projects, etc.--affected various working communities. I started thinking about deindustrialization as an undergrad at Harvard and wrote my Cambridge MPhil dissertation on a steelworker newspaper in Pittsburgh that was in print from 1979 to 1987. I'm originally from Buffalo, NY--a rust belt city! I love baking, drinking (too much) coffee and tea, running, and rowing. I've recently gotten into the New Wave/Glam Rock/Post-Punk music scene of the 70s and 80s, but I'm also a huge fan of folk (both older and current stuff), jazz, and R&B. I'm really excited to mentor for Polygence because I never had an opportunity to do original research work in high school and love the idea of helping provide that experience to current students in a supportive and exploratory environment. So looking forward to working with and getting to know you!Project ideas
Inside a Strike
Strikes happen all over the world, all the time, for tons of different reasons, but in many cases the only records of them appear in local newspapers and corporate records. Let's find a strike in your local area--be it a teachers union, healthcare workers, grocery store employees, whatever interests you--and write an oral history of it. Combining newspaper research with a handful of interviews of union members and community members, you'll produce a bottom-up portrait of labor organizing that also records an important piece of local history.