Jonathan Hansen

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 first-year 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 much of my time outside the classroom 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 specializes in global health. 

I am currently writing a book on Rwandan president Paul Kagame.