Marwa Amer

View graduate student office hours

20th-century social movements and activism, with a interest in race, gender, and class.  I am also interested in public history, the politics of memory, especially as it relates to the Black Freedom Struggle. My dissertation will focus on white resistance to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

I was born and raised in Queens, New York City. I earned my Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Women's Studies from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

I became interested in archives as an undergraduate student at Brooklyn College after visiting the Lesbian Herstory Archives, a community archive dedicated to documenting lesbian life. I began working at the Lesbian Herstory Archives as an archivist, processing collections, staffing the archive, giving tours, and assisting researchers and visitors. It was at the Lesbian Herstory archives I developed an interest in blending history and activism.

After I completed my undergraduate degree, I continued to work blending my interested in history and activism. I was the Director of Generation Q (GQ), a drop-in center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender teens. At GQ I created programming for LGBTQ youth, that including teaching them about history of social movements. I was interested in working with young people to think about how historical actors made social change possible and how young people could make social change possible today.

I also worked as the Project Manager of the Shirley Chisholm Project, an archive and oral history project dedicated to Chisholm's 1972 Presidential Campaign and Brooklyn politics. As the Project Manage, I worked on a number of different tasks, including designing the website and planning the annual Shirley Chisholm Day celebration celebrating her legacy.