Uta Poiger

Uta G. Poiger is a Professor of History at Northeastern University’s College of Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH). She previously served as Dean of CSSH from 2012 to 2023, leading initiatives in Experiential Liberal Arts and Humanics. Her research focuses on 20th-century German culture, transnational perspectives, race, and gender. She co-leads the Mellon-funded Reckonings initiative and contributed to Northeastern’s NUpath general education curriculum. Poiger holds a PhD from Brown University and taught at the University of Washington before joining Northeastern in 2011.

Education: PhD in History (Brown University, 1995), MA in History (University of Massachusetts Amherst). Early studies at Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Germany.

Research interests include Cold War politics, Americanization, globalization, and comparative history. She has published widely on topics like German cultural transformations, modernity, and transnational femininity. Her leadership roles include chairing the History Department at Northeastern and co-chairing Northeastern’s Presidential Council on Diversity and Inclusion (2013–2024).

Awards include the Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professorship, a Harvard University Visiting Scholar appointment, and the American Historical Association’s James Harvey Robinson Award for her work on Documents in German History.

She has spearheaded interdisciplinary projects such as the Modern Girl Around the World research group and collaborated on curriculum development integrating experiential learning. Her work emphasizes resilience, sustainability, and digital humanities in social sciences education.