Assistant Professor
Department of History
St. John Hall, Room 244-M
Queens Campus
8000 Utopia Parkway
Queens, NY 11439
Phone: (718) 990-5230
Fax: (718) 990-2644
vapnekl@stjohns.edu
Educational Background
Ph.D., History Department, Columbia University, 2000
M.Phil., History Department, Columbia University, 2004
M.A., History Department, Columbia University, 1992
B.A., Barnard College, magna cum laude, with Honors in History,
1990
Profile
Lara Vapnek specializes in the history of gender, labor, and social
movements in the late 19th and early 20th century United
States. Her forthcoming book,
Breadwinners: Working Women and Economic Independence,
1865-1920 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009) examines
wage-earning women’s campaigns to assert new, independent
identities as workers and as citizens. Vapnek’s new project,
a history infant feeding from the 1850s through the 1920s, will
illuminate the links between gender, class, public health, and
human rights. Prior to her appointment at St. John's in 2006,
Vapnek taught at Barnard College, Columbia University, and Rutgers
University.