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Peter Siskind
Assistant Professor / Chair, Historical and Political Studies
238 Easton Hall 1 (215) 572-2110
About Me
Dr. Siskind specializes in American political, urban/suburban, and environmental history. He came to Arcadia in 2004 and was awarded tenure in 2010. He also serves as Executive Director of the Urban History Association.
In the Arcadia classroom, Siskind teaches a variety of courses on U.S. history and the United States’ relationship with the world including: America in the 1960s; America as Empire; F.D.R. to Obama: U.S. Politics and Reform; The Vietnam Wars; Philadelphia Then & Now; Urban & Suburban America; The U.S. & Vietnam: Then & Now, which includes a one-week travel component to Ho Chi Minh City. In addition, from 2001 through 2012 he taught one course each year at the University of Pennsylvania on contemporary campaigns and elections with former Pennsylvania governor and Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell.
Dr. Siskind has also been active in administrative work at Arcadia. Prior to becoming Chair of the Department of Historical & Political Studies in 2012, he served as interim Dean of Undergraduate Studies for the 2011-2012 academic year and for three years was the University’s first Director of University Seminars. Siskind served as President of Arcadia’s first Faculty Senate from 2014 to 2016. In addition, he served as Chair both of the General Education Steering Committee that created Arcadia’s Undergraduate Curriculum in 2007 and of the Faculty Governance Task Force that created the University’s new Faculty Senate governance system in 2014.
Professional History
Education History
University of Pennsylvania 2002
Ph.D., History
Dartmouth College 1990
A.B., Religion
Research Summary
Dr. Siskind’s scholarship examines the contours of modern American liberalism – its evolution and internal tensions, its potential and limitations. Much of his writing has focused on the politics of land use and development in the cities, suburbs, and recreational vacationlands on the post-World War II Northeast Corridor from the metropolitan areas of Boston to Washington, D.C. He is also exploring a potential book-length work on the life of Nelson Rockefeller. His more prominent publications include: “Shades of Black and Green: The Making of Racial and Environmental Liberalism in Nelson Rockefeller’s New York” (Journal of Urban History, 2008); “Suburban Growth and Its Discontents: The Logic and Limits of Reform on the Northeast Corridor,” in The New Suburban History (University of Chicago Press, 2006).