Associate Professor

Office: Herter
Telephone:
Fax: (413) 545-6137
E-mail: jfronc@history.umass.edu

Degree: Ph.D., Columbia University (2005); M.A., New School for Social Research (1999)
Fields of interest: Progressive Era U.S., Urban, Immigration, Women and Gender

Research Interests and Professional Activities
Jennifer Fronc specializes in early twentieth century U.S. history, with a focus on social activism in the urban environment.  The University of Chicago Press published her first book, New York Undercover: Private Surveillance in the Progressive Era, in December 2009.  It examines social activists’ use of private investigators to uncover and solve society’s problems.  Her articles and reviews have appeared in the Journal of Urban History and the Journal of the History of Sexuality.  She is currently working on a history of the local film censorship movement of the 1910s and 1920s.