Tamar Carroll

Dr. Carroll’s research bridges the fields of U.S. political and women’s and gender history, with a focus on the post-1945 period. Her book, Mobilizing New York: AIDS, Antipoverty, and Feminist Activism, examines the history and legacy of three path-breaking social movements in New York City from the 1950s through the 1990s. She conducted more than fifty oral history interviews while researching this book, which also draws on organizational and personal archives, newspapers, films, posters, and photographs to bring these stories of activism to life.

Researching Mobilizing New York led Dr. Carroll to co-curate “‘Whose Streets?: Our Streets!’: New York City, 1980-2000,” an exhibit and companion website featuring the work of thirty-eight independent photojournalists who captured ordinary New Yorkers as they rallied, rioted, marched, and demonstrated. These powerful images document historic moments of violent confrontation such as the Tompkins Square Park and Crown Heights Riots and as well as organized protests involving non-violent civil disobedience and creative street theater. Collectively, these photographs, which have never before been exhibited together, chronicle New York’s history from 1980-2000.

With her RIT colleagues Christine Kray and Hinda Mandell, Dr. Carroll co-edited  “Nasty Women and Bad Hombres: Gender and Race in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.” She is currently at work on a new research project on the history of Kodak and the Rochester community in the 20th century.

Dr. Carroll is a faculty affiliate in the Museum Studies, Digital Humanities and Social Sciences, and Women’s and Gender Studies programs at RIT, where she teaches courses including American Women’s and Gender History; The History of Families in the U.S., U.S. History Since 1945; Ethics in the Digital Era; Oral History Theory and Methods; and Museum Studies Research Methods.

Dr. Carroll trains undergraduate students to conduct oral history and archival research for digital and public history projects, including TransRochester Speaks, winner of the 2016 Joan Nestle Prize for best undergraduate work from the American Historical Association’s Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender History, and Monroe County Family Farms, which received a New York State Humanities Council Director's grant.

Dr. Carroll earned her B.A. in History and Journalism at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History at the University of Michigan. Her dissertation co-chairs were Gina Morantz-Sanchez and Matthew Lassiter. Before joining the faculty at RIT in 2011, Carroll was Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in U.S. History at Cornell University and a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.