Wendy A. Pojmann

I am a self-described nomad of sorts and have lived in many parts of the US and abroad. I attended high school in Iowa and then earned my B.A. in History at Loyola University of Chicago. My life-long love for Europe resulted in me spending my junior year at Loyola’s Rome Center and then to working toward a Ph.D. in modern European history at Boston College.  I had never even visited the Capital District before coming to interview at Siena and now it is the place I have lived the longest. I continue to love to travel. I also study and perform classical ballet, ride motorcycles, and am learning to play the drums. 

My Siena Experience

My Teaching Philosophy

I am a scholar and educator who believes in guiding students through the learning process so that they can develop skills and knowledge that will be useful to them throughout their professional and personal lives. Students must take responsibility for their own learning but I act as a model for academic rigor, professionalism, and mutual respect. My classroom is a welcoming space where all ideas can be expressed and my office door is open so we can continue conversations that begin in class.

What I Love About Siena

Siena students and faculty inspire me each day. My students are full of energy and ideas. They challenge me to keep learning as I seek to impart my knowledge and skills to them. I enjoy our discussions inside and outside the classroom and know I am fortunate to have the chance to foster lasting intellectual connections with them. My Siena colleagues also enrich my life through our professional and personal relationships. I count several faculty members among my closest friends.

My Favorite Courses to Teach

I teach a number of different courses in the History Department and find rewards in each. From the required Shaping of the Contemporary World to my upper-level specialized travel course on modern Italy, I have the opportunity to emphasize important historical moments and develop interesting assignments. I enjoy working with advanced history majors in the pro-seminar and capstone courses, in which one-on-one mentoring allows me to deepen our intellectual exchanges. I recently joined the First-Year Seminar, which has been a wonderful way to get to know new students and help them adjust to the demands of college work while teaching in my specialty of gender and sexuality.

My Professional Experience

Articles & Book Reviews

• Barista Cool: Espresso Fashion Transformed
  Zone Moda, vol. 10
  2020
• To the Future in the Distance: Women and Gender in Political History
  Ricerche di Storia Politica
  October, 2017
• For Mothers, Peace and Family: International (Non)-Cooperation among Italian Catholic and Communist Women's Organisations during the Early Cold War
  Gender & History
  2011
• Muslim Women's Organizing in France and Italy: Political Culture, Activism, and Performativity in the Public Sphere
  Feminist Formations
  2010
• Join Us in Rebuilding Italy: Women's Associations 1946-1963
  Journal of Womens History
  2008
• Organizing Women Migrants: The Filipino and Cape Verdean Women's Associations in Rome
  Migration Letters
  2007
• Emancipation or Liberation?: Women's Associations and the Italian Movement
  Historian [East Lansing]
  2005
• Oral History, Identity, and the Italian Women's Movement in the Future of the Contemporary Past
  Journal of International Womens Studies
  2005

Awards & Distinctions

• Finalist for the Raymond Kennedy Excellence in Scholarship Award
  Category: Research
  Siena College, 2016

Books & Book Chapters

• Contemporary Italian Diversity in Critical and Fictional Narratives
  Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
  2021
• Espresso: The Art & Soul of Italy
  
  2021
• Doing History: An Introduction to the Historian's Craft, with Workbook Activities
  Oxford Universtiy Press
  2015
• Italian Women and International Cold War Politics, 1944-1968
  Fordham University Press
  2013
• Intimacy and Italian Migration: Gender and Domestic Lives in a Mobile World
  Fordham University Press
  2011
• Politique et administration du genre en migration. Mondes atlantiques, XIXe-XXe siècles
  Éditions Publibooks
  2011
• Donne immigrate e femminismo in Italia
  Aracne Editrice
  2010
• Resisting the Tide: Cultures of Opposition in the Berlusconi Years
  Continuum
  2009
• Migration and Activism in Europe since 1945
  Palgrave Macmillan
  2008
• Migration and Activism in Europe since 1945
  Palgrave Macmillan
  2008
• Immigrant Women and Feminism in Italy
  Ashgate
  2006

Presentations

• Barista Cool: Espresso Fashion Transformed
  2019
  ZoneModa Be Cool Conference, Rimini, Italy
• Coffee Crossroads: Stories from the Intersections of Culture & Research
  2019
  University of Florida Coffee Research Symposium, Gainesville, Florida
• Espresso and Modernity
  2019
  Special lecture for Italian Studies, International Studies, History, Modern Languages and the Italian Club Emmanuel College, Boston, Massachusetts
• Espresso in Popular Culture
  April, 2017
  American Popular Culture Association Conference, San Diego, California
• The Birth of Espresso and Italian Modernity
  2017
  New York State Association of European Historians Annual Conference, Brooklyn, United States of America
• Espresso: Making Italy Modern
  2016
  New York State Association of European Historians Annual Conference, Albany, New York
• Teaching Historiography to Undergraduates
  2014
  Phi Alpha Theta Convention, Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Comparative Reflections on the History Major Capstone Experience: A Roundtable
  2013
  American Historical Association, New Orleans, Louisiana
• From Information Literacy in the Core Curriculum to Information Fluency in the Major: What does a Successful Program Look Like?
  2011
  Council of Independent Colleges Meeting, San Antonio, United States of America
• Peace, Women's Rights and Cold War Politics: The Unione Donne Italiane and the Women's International Democratic Federation, 1945-1963
  2011
  Women of the World: Women's International Activism in National Contexts from 1945 until Now, University of Paris, France
• Cold War Housewives?: Italian and International Women's Organizations, 1947-1949
  2010
  Council for European Studies Conference, Montreal, Canada
• Peace or Women's Rights? Italian and International Communist Women's Movements, 1945-1963
  2009
  National and International Women's Organizations during the Cold War at the American Historical Association Conference, New York, New York
• The Limits of Multicultural Exchange: Crossing Feminist Boundaries in the Mediterranean
  2009
  Changing Face of the Mediterranean: Migrant Women's Creativity and Constraints, Rome, Italy
• Catholic and Communist Italian Women's Associations and International Organizing during the Cold War, 1953-1963
  2008
  Southwestern Social Science Association conference, Las Vegas, Nevada
• Muslim Women's Organizing in Italy and France: Secular Islam and Performativity in the Public Sphere
  2007
  Eighth Mediterranean Social and Political Research Meeting, Florence & Montecatini Terme, Montecatini Terme, Italy
• We're right here!' The invisibility of migrant women in European women's movements
  2006
  Gender, History and Migration Conference, Center for 20th Century Social History Paris, University of Paris I (Sorbonne), Paris, France
• Women's Associations in Italy, 1946-1963
  2006
  New York State Association of European Historians Annual Conference, Oneonta, New York