Andrew Kless

Education

• PhD: History, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 2020
• MA: History, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 2016
• MA: History, Maxwell School of Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 2010
• BA: History and Political Science, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 2008

Biography

I offer several courses in contemporary Europe, Asia, and Africa. I enjoy working with students as we explore the complexities of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Xi Jinping’s China, or (until recently) Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. In December 2019, with an AU International Faculty Development Fellowship, I traveled to Namibia and Botswana to develop a course on the history of Southern Africa. It will be offered in Spring 2021 as HIST 300: Southern Africa between Mandela and Mugabe.

My own research centers on the building of a German occupation in Poland during the First World War amidst the disintegration of the German, Russian, and Austro-Hungarian Empires. It has been substantially supported by the German government with two research fellowships by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and a doctoral fellowship by the German Historical Institute (Washington, DC). My dissertation was recently named winner of the Peter Lang 2020 Young Scholars Competition in the History category for German Studies in America. I will be publishing a book with Peter Lang (Oxford, UK) in early 2021.

Travel and service inform my teaching and desire to help students think globally. I have been to 37 countries on five continents and lived abroad for more than three years nonconsecutively in Germany, France, and Poland. As a former Captain in the US Army Reserve, I deployed to northern Afghanistan in 2013-2014, serving as a NATO liaison officer within the German Bundeswehr Headquarters and as an Afghan Army and Police Engineer Advisor. In part for establishing a trade school for Afghan police, I was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.

Please contact me if you have another interest in history or global studies not listed in the course catalog. I’m happy to supervise an independent study or senior thesis project. I love discussing all things global, from what’s happening in news to studying abroad. Feel free to reach out.

Courses Taught

• HIST 107: The World in the 20th Century
• GLBS 101: Intro to Global Studies
• HIST 300: Ukraine: Between Putin and Trump
• HIST 300: Southern Africa between Mandela and Mugabe
• HIST 360: Historian's Craft (Team Taught)
• HIST 300: Empire: 1415-Present
• HIST 300: Putin's Russia
• HIST 300: Crisis Europe: Refugees, Neo-Nazis, and Political Disintegration
• HIST 321: The History of Fascism
• HIST 300: Modern China