Social Sciences Faculty Profiles

Social Sciences

Jay Corrin
Chairman, Division of Social Science; Professor of Social Science
BA (history), Michigan State University; MA (Asian history), University of Hawaii; PhD (Modern European & British history), Boston University
jckuch@bu.edu
Research interests: religion and politics, especially the influence of Catholicism on political thought and actions

Jean Dunlavy
Instructor of Social Science
BA (American language and literature and studio art), Wellesley College; MA (history), Smith College; PhD (history), Boston University
Research interests: history of American women; immigration and ethnicity in the United States

June Grasso
Associate Professor of Social Science
BA (Asian studies), Wellesley College; MA (Asian studies), PhD (modern China, Japan & international relations), Tufts University
jgrasso@bu.edu
Research interests: U.S.–China policy; modern Chinese history

Shelley Hawks
Assistant Professor of Social Science
BA (history), Dartmouth College; AM (regional studies-East Asia), Harvard University; PhD (cultural, political and social history of the 20th-century China; traditional China; visual art), Brown University
sdhawks@bu.edu
Research interests: Chinese history and culture

Stephanie D. Kermes
Assistant Professor of Social Science
MA (early modern & modern European history), Ludwig Maximilian, Germany; PhD (colonial & early national American history)
skermes@bu.edu

Michael Kort
Professor of Social Science
BA (history), Johns Hopkins University; MA (Russian history), PhD (Russian, economic & modern European history), New York University
mkckektk@bu.edu
Research interests: Soviet Union, cold war, history of freedom, the end of World War II in the Asian/Pacifc theater and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Susan Lee
Assistant Professor of Social Science
AB (American civilization), Brown University; MDiv (divinity), Harvard University; PhD (sociology), Boston University
susanlee@bu.edu
Research interests: gender and development, third-world women, family violence, sociology of women, Cambodia, widows

John Mackey
Assistant Professor of Social Science
BA (history), Dickinson College; MA (history), Boston College; PhD (history), Boston College
jmackey@bu.edu
Research interests: the relationship between Christian missionary movements, clothing, and the body in Britain and the British Empire in the nineteenth century; fashionable dress and childrearing in the nineteenth century

Kathleen Martin
Assistant Professor of Social Science
BA (sociology), Dickinson College; MA (sociology), Ohio State University; PhD (comparative history), Brandeis University
martinkc@bu.edu
Research interests: the social science of poverty, the relationship between religion and other social factors, and comparative study of European and East Asian culture

John McGrath
Associate Professor of Social Science
BA (economics), Harvard University; MA (writing & publishing), Emerson College; MA (modern European history), PhD (modern European history), Boston University
eldraque@bu.edu
Research interests: early modern Europe, colonial America, political theory

Edward Rafferty
Assistant Professor of Social Science
BA (history), Washington University in St. Louis; MA (history), Brown University; PhD (history), Brown University
edwardc@bu.edu
Research interests: history of social science; history of American liberalism; political history; American intellectual history

William Tilchin
Associate Professor of Social Science
BA (social science, French, secondary education), MA (history), Michigan State University; PhD (history), Brown University
wnt@bu.edu
Research interests: history of U.S. foreign relations, presidential leadership

Benjamin E. Varat
Assistant Professor of Social Science
BA (biology), Trinity College; MA (history), Boston University; PhD (modern international relations/modern French history), Boston University
bvarat@bu.edu

Thomas Whalen
Associate Professor of Social Science
BA (history), Bates College; MA (American history), PhD (American history), Boston College
tjw64@bu.edu
Research interests: modern American politics and culture, American foreign policy and the American presidency