{"id":385,"date":"2017-09-27T20:49:03","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T20:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-history\/facultystaff\/jessicapearsonpatel\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T20:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T20:32:11","slug":"jessicapearsonpatel","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/history\/facultystaff\/jessicapearsonpatel\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Pearson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jess Pearson joined the Macalester faculty in 2016 and is currently Associate Professor of European History, with a focus on Europe in the wider world. After growing up in Minnesota, Professor Pearson earned a BA in History and French from Kalamazoo College in 2006 and a PhD in History and French Studies from New York University in 2013. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Pearson\u2019s research explores the history of European decolonization from a global vantage point. The Colonial Politics of Global Health: France and the United Nations in Postwar Africa<\/em><\/a> (Harvard University Press, 2018), for example,  uses global public health as a lens to explore the clash between internationalism and imperialism in French-occupied Africa in the 1940s and 1950s. Click here<\/a> to hear an interview about the book on the New Books Network. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building on interests in the history of international organizations and the end of empire, Professor Pearson has also co-edited a volume on The United Nations and Decolonization<\/em><\/a>, published by Routledge in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, Professor Pearson is working on a book project entitled \u201cTraveling to the End of Empire,\u201d which explores how people moved through the decolonizing world in search of relaxation, discovery, and independence\u2014both personal and political. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Pearson\u2019s work is based on archival research conducted in Aix-en-Provence, Dakar, London, Nantes, New York, Paris, Rabat, and Washington D.C. In the era of Covid-19, Professor Pearson voyaged the globe as an armchair time traveler, spending research time perusing guidebooks, in-flight magazines, maps, and tourism brochures at home in St. Paul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Macalester, Professor Pearson offers several core courses on the history of modern Europe in global perspective. Professor Pearson also teaches classes on empire and decolonization, public health, and travel and tourism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to joining the history department at Macalester, Professor Pearson was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities at Tulane University and Assistant Professor of European Studies at the University of Oklahoma\u2019s College of International Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Pearson\u2019s office hours for Spring 2026 are Thursdays from 1:45-2:45pm and 4:45-5:45pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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