Rate My Professor Jennifer Dorsey

Jennifer H. Dorsey is a Professor of History at Siena College, a position she has held since 2019, following her tenure as Associate Professor from 2008 to 2019. Her earlier career includes Assistant Professor at Arizona State University’s West Campus (2004–2008), NHPRC Post-Doctoral Fellow in Historical and Documentary Editing at the University of North Carolina’s Race and Slavery Petitions Project (2003–2004), and Visiting Assistant Professor at DeSales University (2002–2003). Dorsey holds a Ph.D. in American History from Georgetown University, an M.A. in American History from Boston College, and a B.A. in History from Emory University. As a community-engaged historian, she specializes in the history of colonial and Revolutionary America, integrating local history resources from New York State’s museums, libraries, state parks, and non-profit educational institutions into her teaching and research. She serves as Director of the McCormick Center for the Study of the American Revolution and Director of the Public History Certificate program, where she develops research projects and internships that connect students with historic sites like Saratoga National Historical Park.

Dorsey’s prolific scholarship encompasses several key publications, including Utopian Imaginings: Saving the Future in the Present (State University of New York Press, 2024), New York’s Burned-Over District: A Documentary History (Cornell University Press, 2023), Companion to American Religious History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2021), Hirelings: African American Workers and Free Labor in Early Maryland (Cornell University Press, 2011), and The Early Republic: People and Perspectives (ABC-CLIO, 2008). Notable articles include “The Delinquency of George Holcomb: Civil Disobedience in the Upper Hudson River Valley, 1812” (The Hudson River Valley Review, 2017), “Conscription, Charity, and Citizenship in the Early Republic: The Shaker Campaign for Alternative Service” (Church History, vol. 85, 2016), and “‘A Documentary History of African-American Freedom: An Introduction to the Race, Slavery and Free Blacks Microfilm Collection’” (Slavery and Abolition, vol. 30, 2009). Her work has earned her prestigious recognitions such as the Matthew T. Conlin Award for Service-University (2025), Japan Residency Fellowship from the Organization of American Historians and JAAS (2023), multiple finalist nods for the Jerome P. Walton Excellence in Teaching Award (2017, 2018), the Martha Washington Woman of History Award (2016), and Siena College History Club’s Teacher of the Year (2010, 2016). Dorsey has delivered impactful public lectures at conferences including the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic and the New York State History Association, and led NEH workshops on New York State history topics like the Shakers and Hudson Valley industrialization, significantly influencing public history education and scholarship.