Dr. John O'Keefe, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Ph.D., The George Washington University, 2012; Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics, University of Chicago, 2000.
Office: Mack Social Sciences, MSS 201
Phone: (775) 784-6484
Email: jokeefe@unr.edu
John O'Keefe is a historian with a focus on U.S. history, eighteenth-century Atlantic World revolutions, migration, and the development of citizenship and legal rights. His dissertation examined how migrants in the United States coming from other parts of the Atlantic World influenced the development of rights associated with citizenship during the period after U.S. Independence.
John received his doctorate in American Studies from George Washington University, where he specialized in early American history, nineteenth-century U.S. history, and the history of sexuality. He also holds a B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Chicago. He worked as assistant curator on the 2011 exhibition, "HIV and AIDS 30 Years Ago," at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NMAH), which explored the cultural, social, political, public health, and scientific impact of HIV and AIDS in the United States in the years since its discovery. Additionally, he has also written biographies of U.S. secretaries of state and articles on U.S. diplomatic history for the web site of the Office of the Historian of the U.S. Department of State.