Brian Puaca

Department of History

Professor
Faculty Senate President

McMurran Hall 317
(757) 594-7225
bpuaca@cnu.edu

Education

Ph D in History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
MA in Modern European History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
BA in History and Germanic Studies, Indiana University

Teaching

20th Century Germany; Modern France; European Film; Postwar Europe

Research

Modern Germany; History of Education; Democratization; Memory; Comics

Biography

Brian M. Puaca is an historian whose research focuses on modern German history. His book, Learning Democracy: Education Reform in West Germany, 1945-1965, received the New Scholar's Award from the American Educational Research Association (Division F). He has published articles and chapters on school reform, textbooks, democratization, and memory. He is currently working on a new project examining the history of education in East Germany following World War II.

He teaches courses on German, French, and Cold War history as well as European film. Additionally, he teaches a new course on the history of comic books and American society.

Selected Accomplishments

Class of 2013 Faculty Development Award, CNU. (2018)
New Scholar's Book Award, American Educational Research Association. (2011)
DAAD Cornell University Summer Seminar, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). (2008)
Fulbright German Studies Seminar, Fulbright Commission. (2007)
Claude A. Eggertsen Prize, History of Education Society. (2006)

Broadcast Media
(2023). “Getting Schooled on Censorship, Banning Books, and 'Divisive Concepts'” Past is Prologue Podcast.
Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
(2023). "Memory and Commemoration of War" in the Oxford Handbook on World War II. Oxford University Press.
Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
(2017). The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword?: Student Newspapers and Democracy in Postwar West Germany. Berghahn Books. Pages, 137-157.
Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
(2015). Mastering the Past?: Teaching Nazism and the Holocaust in West German History Textbooks, 1945-1970. Springer. Pages, 357-373.
Journal Article, Academic Journal
(2011). Teaching Trauma: The Second World War in West German History Textbooks. New German Critique; Duke University Press. Issue, 112. Pages, 135-153.
Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
(2009). ‘The Appeal to the German Mind’: Educational Reconstruction in the American Zone of Occupation, 1944-1949. Palgrave. Pages, 105-128.
Monograph
(2009). Learning Democracy: Education Reform in West Germany, 1945-1965. Berghahn Books. Pages, 221.
Journal Article, Academic Journal
(2008). Navigating the Waves of Change: Political Education and Democratic School Reform in Postwar West Berlin. History of Education Quarterly. Volume, 48. Issue, 2. Pages, 244-264.
Journal Article, Academic Journal
(2005). ‘We learned what democracy really meant’: The Berlin Student Parliament and School Reform in the 1950s. History of Education Quarterly. Volume, 45. Issue, 4. Pages, 615-624.
Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
(2005). ‘Missionaries of Goodwill.’ Deutsche Austauschlehrer und –schüler und die Lehren der amerikanische Demokratie in den frühen 1950er Jahren. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht. Pages, 305-331.