Professional historian specializing in community history

[Christina Ziegler-McPhers]

Headline: Professional historian specializing in community history
Name: Christina Ziegler-McPherson
Email Address: chris@maczieg.com
Current Location: Hoboken, NJ/USA

Preferred Job Category: Curator

Personal Statement:
I am a public historian with a Ph.D. in U.S. history seeking to do local, community research for museums and other cultural institutions and organizations. I can research and write the scripts for exhibits; write and edit educational and promotional materials; conduct oral histories; write grant applications, and provide other research assistance. My academic areas of expertise are immigration, social welfare policy, and public history.

Education:
University of California - Santa Barbara
Ph.D. in History, September 1995-March 2000
Dissertation "'Americanization: The California Plan': The Commission of Immigration and Housing of California and Public Policy, 1913-1923."
Awarded five graduate fellowships for a total of $13,000 to do research and to write dissertation.
Held five research assistantships and two teaching assistantships, May 1996-December 1998.
Masters of Arts in History, September 1995-August 1997
Bachelor of Arts in History of Public Policy, September 1987-March 1994

University of Virginia Law School
Audited Law 3670, Immigration Law, taught by Dr. David A. Martin, Warner-Booker Distinguished Professor of International Law, Winter 2004.

Professional Experience:
2005-present, Public Historian - Hoboken, NJ
Wrote the book, “Americanization in the States: Immigrant Social Welfare Policy, Citizenship, and National Identity in the United States, 1908-1929” (University Press of Florida, July 2009).
Won a grant from the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College (CUNY), on behalf of the Hoboken Historical Museum to do oral histories to document the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the development of the Puerto Rican community in Hoboken, NJ, between 1945-1975, October 2009-April 2010.
Did research for an excavation of a pre-Civil War African American burial ground in Newburgh, NY by Landmark Archeology; wrote the history of the cemetery and of the African American community of Newburgh between 1800-1860, April 2009-June 2009.
Did research for the Migration Policy Institute about state labor departments’ “best practices” in serving immigrant clients, September 2008-November 2008.
Did research and wrote the script for the exhibit, “Heaven, Hell, or Hoboken, A City Transformed by World War I,” for the Hoboken Historical Museum, which ran September 2008-January 2009; organized accompanying lecture series and spoke about the role of coercion in U.S. mobilization for war.

2000-2005 American Institutes for Research
Contractor- Assessment (2005) - Washington, D.C.
Research Associate - Education and Human Development (2001-2004) - Palo Alto, CA
Administrative Associate - Education and Human Development (2000-2001) - Palo Alto, CA
Worked on teams of 4-12 on multi-year state and federal contracts in the areas of education policy and large-scale assessment.
Content expert in U.S. history and political science.
Wrote, edited mid-project and final reports, and test questions for national and state-level assessments.
Wrote successful proposals in response to Requests for Proposal worth a total of $8.6 million.
Interacted with state and federal government clients.
Designed and tested data collection instruments such as surveys, interview protocols, and assessments.
Collected and analyzed qualitative data.
Organized and helped lead training sessions.

1999-2000 Palo Alto Weekly - Palo Alto, CA
Assistant to the Editor of 70,000-circulation biweekly community newspaper
Assisted with the general production of the newspaper.

Fall 1998 Professional Historical Research/IT Group - San Francisco, CA
Public Historian
Did research at the San Francisco Presidio as part of the environmental clean up required for the conversion of the Army base to a national park.

Spring-Summer 1998 Isla Vista Recreation and Park District - Isla Vista, CA, Public Historian
Wrote the history of a park and recreation district in Santa Barbara County.

Applicable Skills:
Proficient with most Microsoft Office programs, very skilled at Internet database searching and public records research. As a former journalist I take deadlines very seriously.

Other:
I live in the New York City metro area and am very familiar with all the major libraries and archives in the region.