Hannah Gurman
Clinical Associate Professor
hrg2@nyu.edu
(212) 992-7745
B.A., English, University of Delaware, 2000
M.A., English & Comparative Literature, Columbia University, 2003
M.Phil., English & Comparative Literature, Columbia University, 2005
Ph.D., English & Comparative Literature, Columbia University, 2008
Hannah Gurman's interests lie in American Studies, U.S. history, intellectual history, literature, and literary criticism, with a focus on American politics and political culture. Her past research and teaching have centered around the politics and culture of U.S. foreign relations, national security, and empire. Her most recent publication is Whistleblowing Nation: The History of National Security Disclosures and the Cult of State Secrecy (co-edited with Kaeten Mistry, Columbia University Press, 2020), which was part of a collaborative research project funded by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council. She is also the author of The Dissent Papers: The Voices of Diplomats in the Cold War and Beyond (Columbia University Press, 2012) and editor of Hearts and Minds: A People's History of Counterinsurgency (The New Press, 2013). While still teaching and writing on these subjects, she is also embarking on new projects that focus more on the history and legacy of ideological and social realignments in American politics, with a particular interest in intellectual and cultural shifts around capitalism, race, and gender over the last century. She is currently starting a project, tentatively entitled Capitalism and the Culture Wars, that explores the long but largely overlooked history of "economic" ideas in America's culture wars. Photo Credit: Nisa Danitz
Grants & Fellowships
2023
Hannah Gurman receives the faculty fellowship from NYU's Center for the Humanities for 2023-2024.
2018
Hannah Gurman received a two-year grant from the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council in 2018 to research the history of US national-security whistleblowing.
Edited Volumes
2020
Hannah Gurman, with Kaeten Mistry, co-edited Whistleblowing Nation: Disclosing US National Security and the Challenge of Dissent (Columbia University Press, 2020).
Books
2012
Hannah Gurman's Hearts and Minds: A People's History of Counterinsurgency was published by New Press.
2012
Hannah Gurman's The Dissent Papers: The Voices of Diplomats in the Cold War and Beyond was published by Columbia University Press.
Teaching and Research Interests
history and culture of US foreign relations; the cold war; history and theory of international conflict; twentieth-century American literature and film; political rhetoric
Recent News
Professor Hannah Gurman’s current project is Blowing the Whistle: The Hidden History of Whistleblowing and the Rise of the US National Security State.
PUBLICATIONS
"The Aristocrats: Can an Intellectual Star of the Anti-liberal Right Shepherd the Faux Populist GOP?" The Baffler (no. 70), September 11, 2023
"At the National Conservatism Conference, Thatcher's Ghost Was Haunting the Proceedings," Jacobin, May 31, 2023
Along with with Kaeten Mistry, Gurman authored the op-ed “Want a free press? Then protect—and celebrate—whistleblowers . . .” which appeared The Washington Post on January 29, 2018.
MEDIA
Gurman's work on the Dissent Channel was cited in the January 31, 2017 New Yorker article "White House to State Department Dissenters: Quit;" as well as in The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and U.S. News and World Report.
CONFERENCES AND TALKS
On January 17-18, 2019, NYU London will host a two-day conference, "Exposing Secrets: The Past, Present, and Future of U.S. National Security Whistleblowing and Government Secrecy," organized by Kaeten Mistry and Hannah Gurman. The keynote plenary on "Whistleblowing and the Press" will include Edward Snowden (via video), Ewan MacAskill, and John Kiriakou. The second keynote session features whistleblower advocacy groups, including the Government Accountability Project (US), Whistleblowing International Network, and Protect (UK).
On October 18, 2018, NYU Gallatin hosted a symposium, “Debating U.S. National Security Whistleblowing: Secrets, the State, and Democracy, organized by Hannah Gurman and Kaeten Mistry. Featuring whistleblowers, advocates, and historians, participants included Thomas Drake, John Kiriakou, Brian Fleming, Barry Pollack, Sam Lebovic, Chase Madar, Jeremy Varon, and Julia Rose Kraut.
From January 18-19, 2018, Hannah Gurman hosted a research workshop at Gallatin on the history of US national-security whistleblowing.
Courses
2023 Spring
First-Year Research Seminar: The Cold War: What Was It and Why Does It Matter?
Collective Memory of Atrocity and Injustice
2022 Spring
First-Year Research Seminar: The Cold War: What Was It and Why Does It Matter?
2022 Fall
Tropes of Race, Class, and Gender in U.S. Politics
2021 Spring
First-Year Research Seminar: The Cold War: What Was It and Why Does It Matter?
2021 Fall
Collective Memory of Atrocity and Injustice
2019 Spring
