Faculty biography - Brian Bockelman
Brian Bockelman is Assistant Professor of History at Ripon College, where he teaches Latin American history and culture, historical methods, and interdisciplinary courses such as “Soccer in World History: Between Nationalism and Globalization” and “Crying for Argentina: History, Politics, Culture.” A specialist in Argentine intellectual and cultural history, his research focuses on the interplay between urban expansion, aesthetic modernism, and bohemian culture in early twentieth-century Buenos Aires. But he would rather think of himself as a lifelong beneficiary and practitioner of the liberal arts—just your typical Earlham or Macalester or Grinnell student with a little more experience but no less enthusiasm for new subjects, disciplines, and (of course!) off-campus semesters.
Professor Bockelman hails originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, where he was instructed from an early age to question Chicago’s right to call itself the “windy” city—a subtle sign that the lakeside metropolis held an outsized symbolic importance for Midwesterners, even those living over eight hours away by car. Now back in the region after a more than fifteen year absence, he is delighted to work at the Newberry and have the opportunity to examine the many-sided wilderness of the modern city with students from various colleges and academic backgrounds. What better way to get to know Chicagoland, whose towering presence hangs over all of our campuses and communities?
Before joining the Ripon faculty in 2008, Professor Bockelman earned his A.B. at Dartmouth College and his A.M. and Ph.D. at Brown University, and he taught in the History and Literature program at Harvard University and the Department of History at Dickinson College. In the meantime, he had the good fortune to live in big cities on both sides of the Atlantic, including Querétaro (Mexico), Edinburgh, Kraków, Boston, Buenos Aires, Berlin, and Paris. He is excited to add Chicago to that list, and he looks forward to exploring the city’s many diverse neighborhoods and wild places, while never forgetting the small college towns that have made all of these urban adventures possible.