Rachel Reinhard
Education:
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley (2005)
M.A., University of California,
Berkeley (2000)
B.A., Barnard College, Columbia University (1996)
Course Offerings:
My teaching responsibilities are split between the social studies and history programs. With social studies, I am excited about training students in backward planning techniques, incorporating content area literary strategies into their lesson planning, and preparing teachers to work with diverse student populations. In addition to the US survey from Reconstruction to the present, I will be teaching many of the African American History courses in the department.
Spring 2006:
Civil Rights Movement – We will spend the semester exploring the question, “How
did black Americans reshape the struggle for civil rights in the second
half of the twentieth century?”
In this class, we will examine the struggle to expand political,
social, and economic opportunities for black Americans from Freedom Now
to Black Power. We will use primary and secondary sources and video and
sound recordings to draw distinctions between rural and urban movements,
mentoring between older and younger generations, leadership of both men
and women, debates over self defense and tactical nonviolence, importance
of the grassroots mobilization, and alliances built regionally and interracially
in order to create a more complicated narrative of the Civil Rights Movement.
Research Interests:
In general I am interested in African American history and the history of American dissent. My dissertation, “Politics of Change: The emergence of a black political voice in Mississippi” explores how the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party ushered black Mississippians into the political process in the years immediately preceding and following the passage of the Voting Rights Act. I am currently working on turning this document into a book manuscript.
Community Activities:
I was a schoolteacher before I entered academia. As a result, I have spent a lot of my outside time maintaining ties to K-12 education. From 2001-2005 I worked with the Teaching American History Grant in Oakland, CA. From 1998-2005, I volunteered with the Lafayette School Mentoring Project. I am hoping to re-involve myself with community youth programs in CNY.
Special Interests:
I love yoga and urban hikes.