B.A. Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Florida
B.S. Journalism, University of Florida
Ph.D. Communications, University of Pennsylvania; Certificate in Africana Studies

• BIS 167 People’s History of the United States
• BIS 256 Introduction to African American Studies
• BIS 336 History of Mass Incarceration
• BISAES 305 Power, Dissent and American Culture

Teaching, to me, is an act of mentorship. I view the classroom as a space where students can ask questions, pose challenges, experiment with ideas, and discuss key concerns about the world in a supportive environment. I see my role as a teacher in helping students think critically and creatively—about both course materials and society at large. The classroom is not a bubble separate from the rest of the world but rather a laboratory in which to understand it. I try to minimize the gap between what we study and the “real world” by animating the ways complex ideas and histories continue to structure our daily experiences and practices. My classes utilize a variety of mechanisms, from small group discussions and student-led presentations to a range of participatory activities, to work through core concepts. Learning is a collaborative process, done through individual and collective work, and my classes try to strike that balance. I hope that by participating in their own learning students will take intellectual risks and will engage new concepts thoughtfully and articulate taken-for-granted concepts differently.

I am an interdisciplinary historian of activism, Black Power, and the carceral state in modern U.S. history. I research, write, and teach about how freedom and violence have shaped the United States in people’s everyday lives. I have a particular interest in the diverse ways in which imprisonment has shaped social movements, racism, and American politics since World War II. I am a firm believer in public scholarship and digital humanities, and I write often for public audiences.

Select Publications

• Berger, Dan. Prison: Incarceration and the Making of America. New York: Basic Books.
  Expected publication: March 2027
• Berger, Dan. Stayed on Freedom: The Long History of Black Power in One Family’s Journey.
  New York: Basic Books, 2023.
• Berger, Dan and Emily K. Hobson, eds., Remaking Radicalism: A Grassroots Documentary
  Reader of the Neoliberal United States, 1973-2001. Athens: University of
  Georgia Press (Since 1970 series), 2020.
• Berger, Dan and Toussaint Losier, Rethinking the Prison Movement. New York: Routledge
  (Routledge American Social and Political Movements of the 20th Century series), 2018.
• Berger, Dan. Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era. Chapel Hill:
  University of North Carolina Press (Justice, Power and Politics series), 2014.

Affiliations

• American Prison Newspaper Project, advisory board member
• Justice, Power, and Politics book series at UNC Press, editorial board member
• UW Bothell Labor Colloquium, core member and former co-director
• UW Center for Human Rights, faculty associate
• UW Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, faculty associate
• UW Seattle Department of History, adjunct affiliate faculty

Honors and Awards

• 2025: Outstanding Community Engaged Scholar Award, UW Bothell
• 2023: Shortlisted for MAAH Stone Book Prize and recognized as Literary Lion, King County Library System Foundation, for Stayed on Freedom
• 2021-22: Society of Scholars, UW Simpson Center for the Humanities
• 2020-21: Faculty Labor Research Grant, UW Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, 2020-2021
• 2019: Scholars-in-Residence, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NY Public Library
• 2017: Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship, UW Simpson Center for the Humanities
• 2016: Distinguished Lecturer, Organization for American Historians
• 2015: James A. Rawley Prize, Organization of American Historians, for Captive Nation