About Me

I am a historian of modern Europe. My work focuses on urban history and collective memory, with a particular emphasis on Prague.  I am fascinated by the diverse history of this city at the heart of Europe, which has been home to Czechs, Germans, Jews, Roma, and several immigrant groups.  I have also published on the history of motherhood, social medicine and public health, the relationship between Catholicism and nationalism, and the 1989 revolutions of East-Central Europe.

I earned my Ph.D. in 1998 at Columbia University, where I studied with István Deák. Since then, I have taught at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, NJ, where I teach courses on modern Europe, urban history, Women's and Gender Studies, and Holocaust and Genocide studies.

My recent book, Prague: The Heart of Europe (Oxford University Press, 2025), offers a sweeping history of the city from the ninth century to the present day. I am also the author of Prague Panoramas: National Memory and Sacred Space in the Twentieth Century (Univ. of Pittsburgh, 2009) and co-editor of 1989: The End of the 20th Century (W.W. Norton, 2009). I have published scholarly articles and book chapters on motherhood and nationalism, the social history of medicine, and religious history.

My current research project examines the international responses to the 1942 Lidice Massacre, perpetrated by the Nazis in a small village in occupied Czechoslovakia.

For more information about me or The College of New Jersey, please visit: www.tcnj.edu and my TCNJ faculty profile.