David A. Gerber

Distinguished Professor Emeritus
​
Ph.D., Princeton University (1971), American History (Major Field)
B.A., Northwestern University (1966), Phi Beta Kappa; High Honors
Fields of Study within American History

American History, Transnational Developments,
Social and Personal Identities; Immigration and Ethnicity;
Disability and Disabled Veterans of Military Conflict;
Church-State Jurisprudence.

Biography

PictureDavid A. Gerber
David A. Gerber taught American History at the University at Buffalo (SUNY) from 1971 to his retirement in 2012. He was founding Director of the Center for Disability Studies at UB, and served in that capacity from 2009 through 2012. His interests in History have been grown over the course of years to encompass manifestations of personal and social identity in a wide variety of groups and individuals including during the course of his career: African Americans; American Jews; American Catholics; European immigrants, and people with disabilities. In that connection, his last major monograph developed analysis of the cycle of personal correspondence between immigrants and family and friends in the countries they left in Europe as a means for examining both long distance relationships and identities challenged by new circumstances of immigration and resettlement.

Another major direction of Gerber's work as an historian has been analysis of the pluralistic structuring of American society to afford a variety of groups differential access to distribution of goods and power. His latest, collaborative research examines simultaneously both church-state jurisprudence and disability in connection with this understanding of pluralism.

Gerber continues to teach in the fall semester in the University at Buffalo Honors Program. His seminar, based on the reading and analysis of Supreme Court decisions, is centered in alternate semesters on the Religion Clauses and the Freedom of Speech clauses of the First Amendment. His concern in his teaching is preparing students for active engagement in democratic citizenship.

Recent Book Project

Disability Rights and Religious Liberty in Education
​The Story behind Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District

Bruce J. Dierenfield and David A. Gerber
University of Illinois Press, July 2020,
to be included in Disability Histories Series, edited by Michael Rembis and Susan Burch.

The book examines an important case at the crossroads of disability rights and church-state separation.

​In 1988, Sandi and Larry Zobrest sued a suburban Tucson, Arizona, school district that had denied their hearing-impaired son a taxpayer-funded interpreter in his Roman Catholic high school. The Catalina Foothills School District argued that providing a public resource for a private, religious school created an unlawful crossover between church and state. The Zobrests, however, claimed that the district had infringed on both their First Amendment right to freedom of religion and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). 

Bruce J. Dierenfield and David A. Gerber use the Zobrests’ story to examine the complex history and jurisprudence of disability accommodation and educational mainstreaming. They look at the family's effort to acquire educational resources for their son starting in early childhood and the choices the Zobrests made to prepare him for life in the hearing world rather than the deaf community. Dierenfield and Gerber also analyze the thorny church-state issues and legal controversies that informed the case, its journey to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the impact of the high court's ruling on the course of disability accommodation and religious liberty.

Learn more about the book.

University of Illinois Press: Order here.

Gallery of Authored and Edited or Co-Edited Books

See details on each book, here.

Awards

  • Annual Senior Scholar Award, Society for Disability Studies, 2015.
  • University at Buffalo Distinguished Professor, 2007.
  • Rita Moroney Annual Prize for Postal History, United States Postal Service, for Authors of Their Lives: The Personal Correspondence of Nineteenth Century British Immigrants to North America, 2008.
  • Fulbright International Teaching Fellowship, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, 2004.
  • Carleton Qualey Annual Essay Prize, Immigration and Ethnic History Society, 2000. 
  • Owen Augspurger Award For Contributions To Local History, Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, 1997.
  • SUNY Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, 1991
  • Herbert Gutman Prize for the best book in American Social History, for The Making of an American Pluralism, Buffalo, New York, 1828-1860, 1990.
  • Honorable Mention Award, Gustavus Myers Center for Human Rights, for Anti-Semitism in American History, 1987.
  • National Endowment for the Humanities, Fellowship for Independent Research, 1985-1986
  • Fulbright International Research Fellowship, The Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, 1980.

Contact

David A. Gerber, PhD

​Email: dagerber@buffalo.edu
University at Buffalo
546 Park Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260
133 Woodward Ave,
Buffalo, NY 14212
Copyright 2022