Tamar Carroll Headshot

Tamar Carroll

Department Chair

Department of History
College of Liberal Arts

Office Location

Tamar Carroll

Department Chair

Department of History
College of Liberal Arts

Education

BA, University of Massachusetts; MA, Ph.D., University of Michigan

Bio

Research Interests: U.S. History; Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies; Oral History; and Public and Digital History

Bio:
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.


Areas of Expertise

Select Scholarship

Journal Paper
Tamar, Carroll,. "Social Protest Photography and Public History: "Whose Streets? Our Streets!": New York City, 1980-2000." The Journal of The History of the Behavioral Sciences 57. 1 (2021): 34-59. Print.
Tamar, Carroll,. "Rochester's Rainbow Dialogues: Activating Archives." Radical History Review. 140 (2021): 197-206. Print.
Carroll, Tamar. "Intersectionality and Identity Politics: Cross-Identity Coalitions for Progressive Social Change." Signs 42. 3 (2017): 600-607. Print.
Carroll, Tamar W. and Lily Geismer. "Integrating Gender and Political History into Courses on Post-1945 U.S. History." Perspectives on History 50. 3 (2012): 28-30. Print.
Published Review
Carroll, Tamar. "Review of Queer Newark Oral History Project." Rev. of Queer Newark Oral History Project, by Stewart, Timothy. Journal of Oral History Sep. 2020: 308-309. Print.
Carroll, Tamar. "Revisiting Second Wave Feminism: New Chronologies, Geographies, & Appraisals." Rev. of Janet Allured. Remapping Second-Wave Feminism. Shelah Gilbert Leader & Patricia Rush Hyatt. American Women on the Move. Barbara Molony & Jennifer Nelson, eds., Women's Activism and "Second Wave" Feminism. Jocelyn Olcott, International Women's Year., ed. Jean Quataert. Journal of Women’s History Sep. 2019: 136-146. Print.
Carroll, Tamar. "Book Review." Rev. of Polarized Families, Polarized Parties: Contesting Values and Economics in American Politics, ed. Benjamin Irvin. Journal of American History Sep. 2019: 488-489. Print.
Carroll, Tamar. "Book Review." Rev. of Clio’s Foot Soldiers: Twentieth-Century U.S. Social Movements and Collective Memory, ed. Bruce Dinges. Journal of Arizona History Mar. 2019: 121-123. Print.
Carroll, Tamar. Rev. of Abortion After Roe, ed. April Haynes. CLGBTH Newsletter Dec. 2018: 16-18. Print.
Carroll, Tamar. "Review." Rev. of Fighting Jim Crow in the Country of Kings: The Congress of Racial Equality in Brooklyn, by Brian Purnell. Law and History Review May 2014: 444-447. Print.
Carroll, Tamar W. "Film Review Essay." Rev. of Jim Hubbard and Sarah Schulman, United in Anger: A History of ACT UP, David France, How to Survive a Plague, and Jeffrey Schwartz, Vito: The Life of Gay Rights Activist Vito Russo, ed. Stephanie Gilmore. Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Newsletter Dec. 2012: 16-18. Print.
Carroll, Tamar W. "Love and (Gender) Trouble in Interwar African American Marriages." Rev. of Stormy Weather: Middle-Class African American Marriages Between the Two World Wars, by Anastasia Carol Curwood. H-Law, H-Net Aug. 2011: 1-3. Web.
Shows/Exhibits/Installations
Carroll, Tamar, et al. Selections from “Whose Streets? Our Streets!:” New York City, 1980-2000. By 3 Sep. 2019. Lane Hall Gallery, Department of Women's Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Exhibit.
Multiple, . "Whose Streets? Our Streets!": New York City, 1980-2000. By Tamar Carroll and Josh Meltzer. Nov. 2018. William Harris Gallery, RIT, Rochester. Exhibit.
Carroll, Tamar. "Whose Streets? Our Streets!": New York City, 1980-2000. By Tamar Carroll, et al. Jan. 2017. Bronx Documentary Center, New York, NY. Exhibit.
Invited Keynote/Presentation
Carroll, Tamar. "Feminist Genealogies: Coalitions for Social Change." From Protest to Politics: Women’s Movements and Strengthening Democracies. University of Buffalo. Buffalo, NY. 12 Apr. 2019. Conference Presentation.
Carroll, Tamar. "Bloom Where You're Planted: A Humanist at a Tech School." U-M History in the Public Service: A Vision for the Humanities PhD in the 21st Century. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, MI. 22 Nov. 2019. Conference Presentation.
Carroll, Tamar, Lisa Hermsen, and Rebecca Scales. "Making Interdisciplinarity Work: Developing an Undergraduate Digital Humanities Program at a Technical Institute." Mellon Fellows Digital Humanities Luncheon. University of Rochester. Rochester, NY. 23 Sep. 2016. Address.
Carroll, Tamar. "Transforming the Movement: Working Class Feminism in the 1970s." Gender Workshop. University of Georgia. Athens, GA. 10 Apr. 2014. Lecture.
Carroll, Tamar. "Turn Anger, Fear, Grief into Action": ACT UP New York." Robert Marcus Memorial Lecture. Department of History, SUNY Brockport. Brockport, NY. 6 Mar. 2014. Lecture.
Carroll, Tamar. "The Legacy and Lessons of Working Class Feminism." A Revolutionary Moment: Women's Liberation in the Late 1960s and Early 1970s. Boston University. Boston, MA. 28 Mar. 2014. Conference Presentation.
Carroll, Tamar. "Encountering Community: Health Activism in New York City, 1960-present." Annual Meeting. Organization of American Historians. Atlanta, GA. 13 Apr. 2014. Conference Presentation.
Carroll, Tamar. "Women in the War on Poverty." Biennial Conference. Urban History Association. Philadelphia, PA. 10 Oct. 2014. Conference Presentation.
Carroll, Tamar. "Is New York a Liberal City?" Researching New York Conference. SUNY Albany. Albany, NY. 21 Nov. 2014. Conference Presentation.
Carroll, Tamar W. "Working Class Feminism in the 1970s and 1980s." Women's History Month Speaker. Nazareth College. Rochester, NY. 7 Mar. 2012. Lecture.
Full Length Book
Tamar, Carroll, Christine Kray, and Hindal Mandell. Nasty Women and Bad Hombres: Gender and Race in the 2016 US Presidential Election. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2018. Print.
Tamar, Carroll,. Mobilizing New York: AIDS, Antipoverty, and Feminist Activism. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2015. Print.
Invited Article/Publication
Carroll, Tamar. "Richard Cloward." American National Biography Online. (2014). Web.

Currently Teaching

DHSS-103
3 Credits
The course will examine various contemporary and global issues of digital citizenship and new ethical challenges raised by digital technology. The course will raise questions regarding how digital technology has changed citizenship practices: Who has access to full citizenship, and why? What responsibilities are entailed in digital citizenship? Themes may include the nature and value of digital technology; the relations between digital technologies and knowledge-making/meaning-making; the value of information privacy; the role of digital media in society and human interactions; issues arising from the life-cycle of new digital tools and data repositories; and questions broadly related to questions of accessibility, representation, and sustainability as applied to digital technologies. Topics may also include research ethics, piracy and file sharing, hacktivism, copyright and fair use, end-user license agreements, alternative news media, and participatory culture. Students will take up both broad ethical issues and specific professional codes and policy in diverse domains.
HIST-190
3 Credits
This course surveys women’s history in the United States from the colonial period to present. The course moves chronologically and thematically, focusing on the diversity of women’s experiences across race, class, and geography as well as the construction of dominant gender norms. Topics include Native American, African American, and Euro-American women in colonial America; the Industrial Revolution and the ideology of domesticity, Women in the American West; women’s paid and unpaid work; sexuality and reproduction; women’s activism; and women’s experiences of immigration and family life.
HIST-324
3 Credits
Oral history collects memories and personal commentaries of historical significance through recorded interviews. There are few opportunities for historical research that are more satisfying or more challenging than oral history. In this class, we will learn about oral history methods, techniques, and ethics. We will read, listen to, and watch some of the finest examples of the genre. Then we will go out and add to the world's understanding of its past by conducting oral histories of our own. For their final project in this course, students will work in teams to produce a podcast based on their own interview(s).
MUSE-599
1 - 12 Credits
A program of study executed by an individual student with assistance and guidance by an instructor, outside a classroom setting. Guidelines for designing and gaining approval for an independent study are provided in College of Liberal Arts Policy I.D.
WGST-290
3 Credits
This course surveys women’s history in the United States from the colonial period to present. The course moves chronologically and thematically, focusing on the diversity of women’s experiences across race, class, and geography as well as the construction of dominant gender norms. Topics include Native American, African American, and Euro-American women in colonial America; the Industrial Revolution and the ideology of domesticity, Women in the American West; women’s paid and unpaid work; sexuality and reproduction; women’s activism; and women’s experiences of immigration and family life.

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