The purpose of VSP is to enable local campus or community H-PAD supporters to schedule, without honoraria, presentations by professional historians, independent scholars, and activists in topic areas that are politically, historically, and intellectually important in the current context. We suggest that virtual speakers might be booked, for example, for regular class meetings in courses, during regular meeting slots of community groupings, or for specially arranged events.

The current Virtual Speakers List is below; more speakers will be added over time. If you are interested in arranging a presentation, please consult the list, and directly contact a speaker of interest using the email address provided. Also please let us know at this email address that you are making a contact. Our Speakers Listings provide basic information on each speaker, a link to additional information, a general sense of topics each speaker is available to address, and an email address for the speaker.

Please contact speakers of interest and correspond with them directly to arrange presentation engagements, and to explore presentation topics (even if your topics of interest are not exactly listed).

Our perspective is that the key to the Virtual Speakers Program is that Zoom-style technology allows us to effectively program speakers in a wide variety of venues, over great distances, for little cost, travel, and logistical work compared to in-person forums and speaking engagements. We hope you will give this try.

Again, the Speakers List is below; for more information, please write us at speakers@historiansforpeace.org.

Alexander Aviña, alexander.avina@asu.edu, is available to speak on immigration, US–Latin America relations.

He is an associate professor of history at Arizona State University. He researches social movements and state violence in 20th century Mexico, and his current research project explores the links between the political economy of narcotics, drug wars, and state violence in 1960s and 70s Mexico. He is the author of Specters of Revolution: Peasant Guerrillas in the Cold War Mexican Countryside (Oxford U. Press). (See: https://newsroom.asu.edu/expert/alexander-aviña; https://alexanderavina.com)

Medea Benjamin, medea@codepink.org, is available to speak on resisting US militarism and interventions.

She is a co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and of the human rights group Global Exchange. She has been an advocate for social justice for more than 40 years. Described as “one of America’s most committed—and most effective—fighters for human rights” by New York Newsday, and “one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement” by the Los Angeles Times, she was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the millions of women who do the essential work of peace worldwide. She is the author of nine books, including Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control and Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection, and her articles appear regularly in outlets such as the Huffington Post, CommonDreams, Alternet, The Other Words, and TeleSUR. (See https://www.codepink.org/medea_benjamin)

Phyllis Bennis, pbennis@ips-dc.org, is available to speak on Palestine-Israel US policy in the Middle East Including Yemen war, Syria, Gulf monarchies, Arab Spring, US-Iran conflict, US-UN relations.

She is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, where she directs the New Internationalism Project, and is a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. She writes and speaks in a wide range of U.S. and international media, and her most recent books include Understanding ISIS & the New Global War on Terror and Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer. (See https://ips-dc.org/ips-authors/phyllis-bennis)

Leslie Cagan, lesliecagan@igc.org, is available to speak on why working on climate change is important now; the power of public protest including mass mobilizations; challenges to organizing in a pandemic; setting organizing priorities as a new administration sets in.

Coordinator of The Peoples Climate Movement, NY; former national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice. “When Brooklyn for Peace named community organizer Leslie Cagan one of three Pathfinder for Peace award winners in late 2017, it was both in recognition of, and in gratitude for, Cagan’s more than 50 years of social justice activism. Whether pushing for action on climate change, peace, LGBTQ equality, feminism, reproductive choice, or fighting racism, Cagan’s voice, presence, and expertise have long been visible.” (See https://portside.org/2018-05-31/leslie-cagans-half-century-activism)

Horace Campbell, hgcampbe@syr.edu, is available to speak on issues of peace and reconstruction in the 21st century, including reparations and reparative claims; US militarism; US wars against liberation movements (especially in Africa); the lies of the Cold War.

Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University, he is a noted international peace and justice scholar and is a US rapporteur for the International Commission of Inquiry against Police Violence, which is compiling a comprehensive report on police killings and maimings in the United States. (See https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/psc/Campbell,_Horace_G_/)

Aviva Chomsky, avi.chomsky@salemstate.edu, is available to speak on social and economic issues in Latin America and the Caribbean and on immigration in the U.S.

She is a Professor of History at Salem State University. “My recent work has been in three main areas: the Cuban revolution, northern Colombia’s coal industry, and immigration and undocumentedness in the United States. Thematically, I incorporate the issues of colonialism, economic development, migration, race, labor, environment, and global inequality.” (See https://directory.salemstate.edu/profile/avi.chomsky)

Oliver Fein, ofein@med.cornell.edu, is available to speak on healthcare.

He is an M.D. at Cornell Medical School. “Dr. Oliver Fein is a general internist with interest and experience in health policy. . . . Dr. Fein’s work has focused on health system delivery reform on both the national and local levels. . . . [His] work has focused on health system delivery reform on both the national and local levels. . . . He is currently Co-Director of the David Rogers Health Policy Colloquium at the New York- Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center . . .” (See: https://weillcornell.org/otfein)

Bill Fletcher Jr, billfletcherjr@gmail.com, is available to address U.S. foreign policy, electoral politics, labor and workers’ movements, and right-wing populism.

He is a syndicated columnist and a regular media commentator. “Bill Fletcher Jr has been an activist since his teen years. Upon graduating from college he went to work as a welder in a shipyard, thereby entering the labor movement. . . . Fletcher is the former president of TransAfrica Forum; a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies; an editorial board member of BlackCommentator.com; and in the leadership of several other projects.” (See: http://billfletcherjr.com/)

Joshua Freeman, jfreeman@gc.cuny.edu, is available to address contemporary and recent labor relations in the U.S.

He is a Distingished Professor in the CUNY Graduate Center. “Freeman was born in 1949 in New York City to working class parents. . . . Freeman’s research focuses on labor history and the sociology of working-class people. He writes from a ‘new labor history‘ theoretical perspective. . . . Two of Freeman’s books have drawn notice from the academic community . . . In Transit: The Transport Workers Union in New York City, 1933-1966 [and] Working-Class New York: Life and Labor Since World War II . . . Freeman is popular commentator on labor history on radio and television. (See: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/Page-Elements/Academics-Research-Centers-Initiatives/Doctoral-Programs/History/Faculty-Bios/Joshua-B-Freeman)

Marlene Fried, mgfss@hampshire.edu, is available to speak on abortion and reproductive justice.

She is a Professor of Philosophy and faculty director of the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program at Hampshire College. “Her scholarship and teaching is focused primarily on abortion rights and access, reproductive and sexual rights and health, and legal theory. . . . She is also a long-time reproductive rights activist and was the founding president and served for 21 years on the board of the National Network of Abortion Funds” (See https://www.hampshire.edu/faculty/marlene-fried)

Irene Gendzier, gendzier@bu.edu, is available to speak on US relations in the Middle East).

She is a Professor Emerita at Boston University, where she was a long time member of the faculty, serving in the Departments of Political Science and History, as well as being a member of the African Studies Center. “Among Professor Gendzier’s many publications are . . . Dying to Forget: Oil, Power, Palestine, & the Foundations of U.S. Policy in the Middle East ( 2015); Crimes of War, co-editor with Richard Falk and Robert J. Lifton (2006); Notes From the Minefield: United States Intervention in Lebanon and the Middle East, 1945-1958 (2006).” (See https://www.bu.edu/polisci/people/faculty-emeriti/gendzier/)

Dan Georgakas, georgakas@hotmail.com, is available to speak on the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and models for non-authoritarian radical organizing.

Dan Georgakas is an American anarchist poet and historian who specializes in oral history and the American labor movement, best known for the publication Detroit: I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution, which documents African-American radical groups in Detroit during the 1960s and 1970s. (http://dangeorgakas.ag-sites.net/index.htm)

Steven Hahn, steven.hahn@nyu.edu, is available to address political violence in American history, slavery and racism, the Confederacy and its legacies, American empire, the illiberal tradition in American history, the invention of the liberal tradition.

Professor of History at New York University, he is a specialist on the international history of slavery, emancipation, and race, on the construction of American empire, and on the social and political history of the “long nineteenth century” in the U.S. He has written for The Nation and other periodicals. He is author of The Roots of Southern Populism (winner of the Frederick Jackson Turner Award), A Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration (winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Bancroft Prize), and A Nation without Borders: The United States and Its World in an Age of Civil Wars, 1830-1910. (See https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/steven-hahn.html)

Rashid Khalidi, rik2101@columbia.edu, is available to speak on US Middle East Policy.

He is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. “[His research covers primarily the history of the modern Middle East. He focuses on the countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean, with an eye to the emergence of various national identities and the role played by external powers in their development. He also researches the impact of the press on forming new senses of community, the role of education in the construction of political identity, and the way narratives have developed over the past centuries in the region.” (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashid_Khalidi; https://history.columbia.edu/person/khalidi-rashid/)

Michael Klare, mklare@armscontrol.org, is available to speak on climate change and on arms control.

He is a Five College professor emeritus of peace and world security studies, and director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies. “Michael Klare is currently the secretary for the Arms Control Association board of directors and a senior visiting fellow working on emerging technologies—such as lethal autonomous weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles—and how arms control strategies can mitigate their adverse impacts. He is a regular contributor for The Nation magazine.” (See: https://www.armscontrol.org/about/Michael_Klare, https://www.hampshire.edu/faculty/michael-klare)

Peter Kuznick, pkuznick@aol.com, is available to speak on nuclear weapons policy and contention.

He is a Professor of History, American University. “In 1995, he founded American University’s Nuclear Studies Institute. . . . [He] is author of Beyond the Laboratory: Scientists As Political Activists in 1930s, co-author with Akira Kimura of Rethinking the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Japanese and American Perspectives . . . [and several other works. . . . He and [filmmaker] Oliver Stone co-authored the 10 part Showtime documentary film series and book both titled The Untold History of the United States.” (See https://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/kuznick.cfm)

Zachary Lockman, zl1@nyu.edu, is available to talk about issues related to Israel/Palestine, US policy in the Middle East, repression/human rights in Egypt, efforts to suppress BDS advocacy and advocacy of Palestinian rights.

He is a Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, and History. “The main focus of my research and teaching has been the socioeconomic, cultural and political history of the modern Middle East. . . .” (See https://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/faculty/zachary-lockman.html)

Stephen Miles, stephen@winwithoutwar.org, is available to speak on US foreign policy, war powers and use of force, Pentagon/defense spending, endless wars.

Executive Director of Win Without War. “He previously worked for the global campaigning organization Avaaz, as well as on multiple federal, state, and local electoral campaigns, and as the Executive Director of the American Hellenic Council.” (See https://winwithoutwar.org/about/who-we-are/, https://www.thenation.com/authors/stephen-miles/)

Wilbur Miller, wilbur.miller@stonybrook.edu, is available to speak on U.S. social history, police and criminality, Civil War and Reconstruction.

He is a Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. “I became interested in the history of policing when I was an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, during the Free Speech Movement. Observing police behavior then, which seemed quite rough . . . That got me started on a dissertation at Columbia that became my first book, Cops and Bobbies . . . Since then I’ve edited a five-volume encyclopedia, The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America (2012); and currently I’m working on an overview of the history of private policing in the United States.” (See: https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/history/people/emeriti/miller.php)

Molly Nolan, mn4@nyu.edu, is available to speak on trans-Atlantic relations

Mary [Molly] Nolan was Professor of History at New York University from 1980 to 2018 and is now Professor Emeritus. She works on twentieth-century European-American relations, on German History, and most recently on social and economic human rights in the age of neoliberalism. She is the author of The Transatlantic Century: Europe and America, 1890-2010 and Visions of Modernity: American Business and the Modernization of Germany, which won the Beer Prize for European International History. (See: https://womenalsoknowhistory.com/individual-scholar-page/?pdb=1807; https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/mary-nolan.html)

Trita Parsi, media@quincyinst.org, is available to speak on issues of Iran, the Middle East, and the U.S.

He is Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “Trita Parsi is an award-winning author and the 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. He is an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign politics, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. He has authored three books on US foreign policy in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Iran and Israel. . . . Parsi’s latest book—Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy (Yale University Press, 2017)—reveals the behind the scenes story to the historic nuclear deal with Iran. (See https://quincyinst.org/author/tparsi/)

Kimberly K. Phillips-Fein, kpf2@nyu.edu, is available to speak on the fiscal crisis of states and cities or on the history of conservatism and Its lessons.

She is a Professor of History at New York University. A historian of twentieth-century American politics, she teaches courses in American political, business, and labor history She is author of Invisible Hands: The Businessmen’s Crusade Against the New Deal (W.W. Norton, 2009) and Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics (Metropolitan Books, 2017).

Margaret Power, marmacpower1@gmail.com, is available to speak on right-wing women, the recent history of Chile and Puerto Rico, and the Right in general.

She is a Professor of History at Illinois Tech. She “focuses on Latin America, women, and gender. Her earlier work explored why a large number of Chilean women opposed the socialist government of Salvador Allende (1970–73) and supported the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990). . .” She recently co-authored a book on Norvelt, a New Deal community in southwest Pennsylvania named for Eleanor Roosevelt. She is currently writing a book titled Solidarity across the Americas: The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party vs. U.S. Colonialism.” She is co-chair of Historians for Peace and Democracy. (See https://www.iit.edu/directory/people/margaret-power)

Susan Rogers, rgrsssn@gmail.com, is available to speak on healthcare and racial inequities.

President of Physicians for a National Health Program, Dr. Rogers “is recently retired from Stroger Hospital of Cook County but continues as a volunteer attending hospitalist and internist there. While at Stroger Hospital, she was co-director of medical student programs for the Department of Medicine and received numerous teaching awards from medical students and residents. . . . She is a national board member of Physicians for a National Health Program and a past co-president of Health Care for All Illinois. A recent focus has been Covid and racial inequities . . . Rogers is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.” (See: web: https://pnhp.org/about/speakers-bureau/susan-rogers/; https://medicareforallexplained.podbean.com/e/covid-and-racial-inequities)

Ellen Schrecker, ellen.schrecker@gmail.com, is available to speak on civil liberties.

She is a Professor of History at Yeshiva University (retired). She has been studying higher education and political repression for over thirty years. The author of Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America, Schrecker is widely recognized as one of the leading experts on that grim period in our nation’s history. Among her other publications are No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities, The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents, and The Lost Soul of Higher Education: Academic Freedom, Corporatization, and the Assault on the University, as well as many popular and scholarly articles and an edited collection of essays, Cold War Triumphalism: Exposing the Misuse of History after the Fall of Communism. She is currently working on a book about the political experiences of American professors during the 1960s and early 1970s.” (See: https://www.oah.org/lectures/lecturers/view/1380/ellen-schrecker/)

Alan Singer, Alan.J.Singer@hofstra.edu, is available to speak on the crisis of democracy, the current crisis in the U.S and in education.

He is a Professor of Teaching, Learning and Technology at Hofstra University. “Alan Singer is a social studies educator and historian . . . Dr. Singer is a graduate of the City College of New York and has a Ph.D. in American history from Rutgers University. He taught at a number of secondary schools in New York City . . . He was a co-director of the New York State Great Irish Famine Curriculum Guide and the editor of the “New York and Slavery: Complicity and Resistance” curriculum guide. . . He is the author of . . . New York and Slavery: Time to Teach the Truth. He was a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and is currently with the Daily Kos. (See https://www.hofstra.edu/faculty/fac_profiles.cfm?id=1412, https://www.huffpost.com/author/catajs-603)

Daniel A. Sjursen, dannysjursen@hotmail.com, is available to speak on U.S. foreign and military policy post-9/11, reframing patriotism and dissent, antiwar veteran experience, American Empire, race/class/social justice links to U.S. militarism.

He is a U.S. Army major (retired); senior fellow at the Center for International Policy (CIP), director of the Eisenhower Media Network (EMN), and contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He describes himself as “just another exasperating, insufferable, self-centered Leo with a minor Messiah complex, born on August 5, 1983 . . .” He was recently selected as the 2019 Lannan Foundation cultural freedom fellow. He is the author of a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, Ghostriders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge.” (See https://skepticalvet.com/)

Andor Skotnes, skotna@sage.edu, is available to speak on race, class, and intersectonality in social struggle; the workers and freedom movements in recent U.S. history; sixties movements.

He is a Professor of History at Russell Sage College (retired). Skotnes sees himself primarily as a historian of social movements in their complexity and interrelationships. In his work he attempts to combine general structural analysis with a concern for lived human experience as revealed in personal testimony and oral history. His recent book is A New Deal for ALL? Race and Class Struggles in Depression-Era Baltimore. (See: https://www.sage.edu/profile/andor-skotnes-ph-d/)