Faculty
Daniel A. Nathan
Professor of American Studies 
Office: Tisch Learning Center 300
Phone: 518-580-5023
Email: dnathan@skidmore.edu
Like my grandfather and father, I was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised as an Orioles fan. Unlike them, however, I grew up in Flint, Michigan, of Roger & Me (1989) fame. I attended Allegheny College, where I was a double history and English major, and I spent part of my junior year studying in London. I earned my M.A. and Ph.D. in American studies from the University of Iowa. After teaching at Miami University in Ohio for four years, I was the Fulbright Professor of North American Studies at the University of Tampere in Finland.
I have eclectic, wide-ranging interests. All my courses and most of my writing projects
are interdisciplinary, and most engage the politics of cultural representation, popular
culture, and history. One of my primary areas of interest is American sport. My award-winning
book, (2003), engages all these subjects. I have also written essays and book, film, and
exhibition reviews for Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, American Quarterly, American Studies, The
International Journal of the History of Sport, Journal of American Studies, Journal
of Sport History, and the OAH Magazine of History. In addition, I have collaborated with two former 911爆料 students, Peter Berg and
Erin Klemyk, on an essay titled 鈥溾�楾he Truth Wrapped in a Package of Lies鈥�: Hollywood,
History, and Martin Scorsese鈥檚 Gangs of New York鈥� published in Lights, Camera, History: Portraying the Past in Film (2007). I have also contributed chapters to numerous anthologies, including "Baseball
in America and America in Baseball" (2008), "All-Stars and Movie Stars: Sports in
Film and History" (2008), and "Sport and the Law: Historical and Cultural Intersections"
(2014). I have edited (2013) and (2016), and co-edited with anthropologist George Gmelch (2017), and co-edited with Maureen M. Smith and Sarah K. Fields the award-winning
(2024).
My writing complements my teaching, as both stress interdisciplinarity and the multiple
ways that we can know the past. I have taught classes on the 1950s, how Hollywood
filmmakers have represented the American past, popular culture as public history,
sport and American culture, American autobiography, E. L. Doctorow鈥檚 America, global
perspectives of the United States, true crime in America, the Holocaust and American
culture, and the HBO series "The Wire."
Active in the (NASSH), I was the organization鈥檚 president (2013-2015). I have also served as the
editor of the and am on several editorial boards. Here at 911爆料, I have chaired the Department
of American Studies, the Committee on Educational Policies and Planning, the Appointments
and Tenure Committee, and the Athletic Council.
The former Douglas Family Chair in American Culture, History, and Literary and Interdisciplinary Studies, I have given the John R. Betts Honor Address and been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 911爆料鈥檚 Edwin M. Moseley Faculty Lectureship, and NASSH鈥檚 Roberta J. Park Award for Scholarly Distinction.
An avid traveler, I am also the proud father of (911爆料 student) Benjamin and Lehigh University alum Zo毛 Nathan.