Gerald Zahavi
PhD, Syracuse University
MA, European Cultural History, Syracuse University
BA, European Intellectual History, Cornell University
Additional Education
Certificate in Documentary Film Production, Maine Media Workshops, Rockport, Maine, 2005.
Certificate in Digital Video Editing, Maine Media Workshops, Rockport, Maine, 2007.
About
I'm a professor of History and Director of the Documentary Studies Program at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where I have been since 1985. My doctorate was completed with a specialization in modern U.S. economic, social, and labor history.
Research Interests
My academic research interests focus on such topics as: welfare capitalism (a book, The Open Hand of Capital: Welfare Capitalism Modern America, is under contract with Ivan Dee Press); the history of General Electric (projects include an oral history of the corporation and the GE Research Laboratory, as well as a documentary on the history of GE); labor and political radicalism in modern America (two books and a documentary film are currently underway on this); Cold War science and politics (several documentary projects focusing on atomic weapons and testing are in the works); and oral/aural history.
I am also very involved in Public History of all sorts – from digital history and website design and creation to filmmaking and radio production.
Publications
Book
Workers, Managers, and Welfare Capitalism: The Shoemakers and Tanners of Endicott Johnson, 1890-1950. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1988. [261 pp].