Jonathan Hansen

Jonathan Hansen

Senior Lecturer on Social Studies
Faculty Associate, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
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I am a Senior Lecturer on Social Studies and Faculty Associate, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. An intellectual historian, I am the author of Young Castro: The Making of a Revolutionary (2019, Simon & Schuster), Guantánamo: An American History (2011, Hill and Wang), and The Lost Promise of Patriotism: Debating American Identity, 1890-1920 (2003, Chicago), along with articles, op-eds, and book reviews on U.S. imperialism, nationalism, cosmopolitanism, and race and ethnicity. 

In recent years, I have taught SS10, a junior tutorial on "Justice and Reconciliation after Mass Violence," a freshman seminar on PTSD in American history, and (with Professor Robert Mnookin) seminars at Harvard Law School on reconciliation with Cuba and intractable conflicts. Born in Philadelphia and educated at Haverford College and Boston University, I spend an increasing amount of time in Rwanda, which I first visited over a decade ago in the company of my wife, Anne, a physician at Boston Children's Hospital, who works with Partners In Health. 

I am currently working on a biography of Rwandan president Paul Kagame, for which I am studying Ikinyarwanda. 
 

2023-24 Courses
Social Studies 10a: Introduction to Social Studies (Fall)
Social Studies 10b: Introduction to Social Studies (Spring)
Social Studies 98nd: Justice and Reconciliation After Mass Violence (Fall)

Contact Information

William James Hall 320
p: 617-495-9263