David A. Gerber
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Distinguished Professor Emeritus
PhD, Princeton University (1971), American History (Major Field) BA, 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
David 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.
Download CV pdf here.
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.
Download CV pdf here.
Book Project (2020)
Disability Rights and Religious Liberty in Education
The Story behind Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District
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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. Listen to co-authors discuss their book: The Baldy Center Podcast Episode 6.
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Gallery of Authored and Edited or Co-Edited Books
Learn more about each book, here.
Book Chapters 2023-2024
- With Carolyn Korsmeyer, “When Memory Fades and Resources Run Dry: Neglect and Loss in An American Rust Belt City,” in Lisa Giombini and Zoltan Somhegyi, editors, Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Architectural Restoration (Routledge: New York and London, 2024).
- “Rest in Peace, Charles Byrne: The Last Testament and Enduring Legacy of the Eighteenth Century ‘Irish Giant,’” in Anatola Santana, Michael Chemers, and Rosemarie Garland Thomson, editors, Freak Inheritance: Eugenics and Extraordinary Bodies in Performance (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024).
- “Music and Affective Signaling in An Immigrant Letter from 1844,” in Martyn Lyons, editor, The Common Writer (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2023).
- “Confronting A Source of Contemporary Student Disengagement,” in Proceedings of the H-Net Teaching Conference, I (2023), 35-42, https://doi.org/10.33823/phtc.v1i1.173 .
Awards (selected)
- Choice Outstanding Academic Titles. 2021, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Category, for, with Bruce Dierenfield, Disability Rights and Religious Liberty in Education: The Story Behind Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District, 2020.
- 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.
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