đź“„ Curriculum Vitae đź“„

Education

May 2019

Ph.D. in American History — University of Massachusetts, Amherst

  • Dissertation: “A Generational Divide: The Reconstruction of American Party Politics, 1865-1912”

  • Dissertation Adviser: Jennifer Fronc, Ph.D.

    • Committee Members: Barbara Krauthamer, Ph.D.; Christian Appy, Ph.D.; Michael Hannahan, Ph.D.

  • Qualifying Fields: The Civil War and Reconstruction, the Early Republic, Modern China

May 2008

M.A. in History — University of Massachusetts, Amherst

  • Qualifying Fields: The Civil War and Reconstruction, Nineteenth Century African American History, Modern South Africa

May 2006

B.A. in History (Magna Cum Laude) — Utica University (formerly Utica College)

Publications

Journal Articles

  • Fobare, Chris. “A Full Measure of Citizenship: Black Grassroots Activism in Reconstruction and Gilded Age Oneida County, New York.” New York History, 104, no. 2 (Winter 2023-2024): 276-295.

  • Fobare, Christopher J. “Abolitionists, Soldiers and Citizens: Changing Perceptions of Blackness in the White Mind, 1830-1890,” The History Project, Volume IV: Workers and Working Class Culture in the Mohawk Valley. Utica: The Utica University Center for Historical Research, 2005.

Book Reviews

  • Review of Arrington, Benjamin T. The Last Lincoln Republican: The Presidential Election of 1880. The Historian, 84, no. 2 (2023): 313-314.

  • Review of Bordewhich, Fergus M. Congress at War: How Republican Reformers Fought the Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, and Remade America. H-CivWar, H-Net Reviews. May 2022. https://networks.h-net.org/node/4113/reviews/10233686/fobare-bordewich-congress-war-how-republican-reformers-fought-civil

  • Review of Postel, Charles. Equality: An American Dilemma, 1866-1896. H-Slavery, H-Net Reviews. June 2020. https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=54745   

  • Review of Huffard Jr., R. Scott. Engines of Redemption: Railroads and the Reconstruction of Capitalism in the New South. H-CivWar, H-Net Reviews. May 2020. http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54756.

  • Review of White, Ronald C. American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant, H-Slavery, H-Net Reviews. June 2017. https://networks.h-net.org/node/11465/reviews/185112/fobare-white-american-ulysses-life-ulysses-s-grant.

  • Review of McKinney, Gordon B. Henry W. Blair’s Campaign to Reform America: From the Civil War to the U.S. Senate. The Historian 76, no. 4 (Winter 2014): 823-824.

  • Review of Calhoun, Charles W. Minority Victory: Gilded Age Politics and the Front Porch Campaign of 1888. The Historian 73, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 128-129. 

  • Review of Slap, Andrew L. The Doom of Reconstruction: The Liberal Republicans in the Civil War Era. H-CivWar, H-Net Reviews. October 2009. https://networks.h-net.org/node/4113/reviews/4970/fobare-slap-doom-reconstruction-liberal-republicans-civil-war-era. 

Conference Presentations

  • “Republicans’ Free Labor Ideology and Its Discontents, 1873-1884,” The 8th Annual American Political History Institute Conference, Boston University, March 2016

  • “A Failed Equality: Central New York and the Politics of Free Labor, 1830-1877,” The 36th Annual Conference on New York State History, Niagara University, June 2015

  • “Brothers in Law Wars: Roscoe Conkling, Horatio Seymour, and the Reformation of National Partisan Politics, 1865-1872,” The 34th Annual Conference on New York State History, Fenimore Art Museum, June 2013

  • “A Republican Nation: Republican Party Politics in America, 1868-1901,” The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Graduate History Conference, March 2009

Research Interests 

  • Primary: The political history of the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and the Progressive Era; state-building and public policy; nationalism; political corruption and political violence; third party movements

    Secondary: Late nineteenth and early twentieth century African American history; Civil War memorialization

Teaching Experience

January 2024-Present

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Adjunct Teaching Professor

Courses taught:

History 2314: American History, 1877-1920.

September 2020 - Present

Springfield College

Adjunct Instructor

Courses taught:

  • History 105: The Foundations of American History

  • History 106: The Civil War to the Present

  • History 335: Modern China

September 2019 - Present

Worcester State University

Adjunct Instructor

Courses taught:

  • History 111: The U.S. to 1877

  • History 112: U.S. History 1865 to the Present

  • History 250: The History of New England

  • History 352: The Civil War and Reconstruction

June 2008 - May 2017

Utica University

Visiting Assistant Professor of African American History, August 2016-May 2017      

Adjunct Professor of History, June 2014-July 2016

Visiting Assistant Professor of American and African American History, August 2012-May 2014

Adjunct Lecturer of History, June 2008-May 2012

Courses taught:

  • History 125: America and the World

  • History 127: The U.S. 1877-Present (both on campus and online)

  • History 135: The African American Experience 

  • History 305: The Civil War and Reconstruction

  • History 306: The American West

  • History 311: The History of New York State

  • History 456: Guided Historical Research 

  • Liberal Studies 691: Research I

  • Liberal Studies 692: Research II

September 2006 - May 2019

The University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Graduate Teaching Assistant 

  • History 115: Modern China 

  • History 121: Modern Latin America 

  • History 150: U.S. History to 1876

  • History 151: U.S. History since 1876

  • History 170: Indigenous Peoples of North America 

  • History 297N: Freedom and Slavery in Antebellum America

  • History 363: The Civil War Era  

  • History 379: American Westward Expansion

Public History Experience

Emily Dickinson Museum, June 2019-Present

Tour Guide

  • I design and deliver interpretive tours at the Emily Dickinson Museum.

  • Archival research I conducted served as the basis for “Emily Dickinson’s Amherst College,” a webinar exploring how Black and Irish laborers at Amherst College carved out a basic subsistence by laboring for the Dickinsons and other prominent families in Amherst.

  • As part of the Town of Amherst’s 2022 Juneteenth commemoration, I delivered a presentation examining the lived experience of Black laborers at the Dickinson Homestead.

  • Following a multi-year restoration project (2020-2022), I participated in a working group charged with
developing interpretative materials for the Homestead’s Northwest Chamber.

Honors and Awards 

Nominee for the Adjunct Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award, Worcester State University, April 2024

Summer Dissertation Writing Fellowship, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of History, May 2016

The Simon and Satenig Ermonian Graduate Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of History, May 2008

Gamma Xi Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, Utica University, November 2004

Additional Professional Service

The Gardner Institute, “High-Impact Online Teaching and Learning Practices for History Faculty,” June 2021.

  • Completed a twenty-hour course on developing high-impact assignments and teaching practices for the college history classroom.

Quality Matters Introduction to Teaching Training Workshop, University of Maryland Online, July 2020

  • Completed a twenty-hour workshop in best practices for online pedagogy

Historical Analyst, “Your Hometown: Mechanic’s Hall,” Spectrum Cable News, March 6, 2016

  • Provided historical analysis on the relationship Mechanic’s Hall played within the broader context of the abolitionist movement

The Utica University Social Awareness Cadre, June 2014-June 2016

  • Helped to adapt the AAC&U Intercultural Knowledge and Competence Value and Global Learning Rubrics to Utica University for the purpose of assessing social awareness.

Master Instructor, The Utica University Center for Historical Research’s Teacher Training Institute, March 2014, March 2015

  • Provided additional training to social studies teachers on how to locate primary source materials related to the Civil War and Reconstruction and incorporate them into a classroom setting  

Historical Analyst, “Utica Remembers Role in Abolitionist Movement,” WAMC: Northeast Public Radio, March 31, 2014

  • Provided analysis for the impact that history plays in shaping community identity.

Historical Analyst, “Challenges for Democracy: The Future of Voting in America,” The Mean More Market, © 2008

  • Provided analysis for the role that “spin” plays in American politics.

Co-Chair of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Graduate History Association, 2007-2008

  • Planned and organized the annual University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Graduate History Association Conference

Guest Lectures

  • “Fields of Death, Fields of Memory: The Civil War and the Politics of Commemoration,” Keynote Address for the Sixty-Sixth Annual Induction Ceremony of the Gamma Xi Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, Utica University, May 2015

  • “A Failed Equality: Central New York and the Politics of Free Labor, 1830-1877,” Utica University Department of History Brown Bag Talks Series, Utica University, February 2014

  • “The Gettysburg Address at 150,” The Utica University Center for Historical Research, Utica University, November 2013

  • “Reconstruction and the Reformation of National Partisan Politics,” Utica University Department of Government and Politics, Utica University, September 2013 

Membership in Professional Organizations 

  • The Organization of American Historians 

  • The Society of Civil War Historians