Kelly Ricciardi Colvin (she/her/hers)

Kelly is an Assistant Professor of History in the College of Liberal Arts.

Historical Interests: Modern Europe, modern France, women/gender/sexuality, race and empire, social/cultural

Classes: Kelly is pretty new here!  She teaches classes in modern Europe, the graduate research and methods seminar, and next semester she will be teaching a women/gender in modern Europe class.  In the past, she has taught courses on human rights, antifeminism, fashion, food, and empire, all of which hopes to bring to UMass Boston! 

Kelly is originally from New Jersey, but went to college at Bowdoin College in Maine, and aside from short stints in France and Washington, DC, has pretty much stayed in New England ever since!  She did her graduate work at Brown University, where she taught for several years.  Following that, Kelly taught at the University of Maryland and Worcester Polytechnic Institute before happily coming to UMass Boston this September! 

There are many things Kelly loves about being an educator and a historian, but what she really enjoys is connecting with students. Their enthusiasm for learning gives her hope for the future. In general, she also loves learning new history, which she sees constantly while working with students on their own projects.

Although she is usually pretty busy with young kids, Kelly loves to take any chance she can to be outside–running, hiking, biking. She also loves to travel, although, of course, not lately.  Kelly is a self-identified puzzle fanatic, The New York Times crossword puzzles are her absolute favorite, especially the Saturday (harder and shorter than Sunday).  She even dragged her partner to a screening of Wordplay, an old documentary about a crossword puzzle contest! She loved it, and her partner…enjoyed the snacks.  

Favorite Historical Story:  Kelly has “always loved the odd fact that the famous Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, notorious for despising the power of noble women and promoting a vision of femininity that confines women to the private sphere with no formal education, actually had his own education funded by a noble woman who he had a relationship with and called ‘Maman’!  You can’t make it up…”

Advice for Students:  “First, I would say to seek out mentors, people who have ‘been there’ and can help guide you, not just in graduate school but beyond!  Second, and more important, is to remember that being in graduate school is just one piece of who you are.  Try to prioritize your hobbies, your relationships, and all the other things that make you you.  Doing so will not only keep you sane, but, in my opinion, it will also make you a better historian!”

Nick Juravich (he/him/his)

Nick is an Assistant Professor of History and Labor Studies and the Associate Director of the Labor Resource Center

Historical Interests: Urban history, women’s/gender history, the history of education, and the history of social movements (particularly the Black freedom struggle in the United States)

Classes: At the undergraduate level, Nick teaches Touring the City: An Introduction to Public History (182), Labor and Working-Class History in the US (210L), US History Since 1877 (266), Work & Education (275L), and Working-Class Boston (390L). At the grad level, he teaches primarily in our public history program, offering courses including Introduction to Public History and Public Memory (620), Oral History (688), and Thesis/Capstone Prep (690)

Nick grew up in Amherst, MA. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago. He then went to the UK to pursue a Masters of Philosophy in Economic and Social History at Oxford. From there, he and his partner moved to Brooklyn, where he worked in the public schools doing health and fitness education for several years before starting his PhD at Columbia. Throughout his studies, he has focused on the history of wherever he has been based, most often on labor movements and protest campaigns. After he received his PhD from Columbia, he started a two-year Public History post-doc in the Center for Women’s History at the New York Historical Society where he gained an extensive hands on education about Public History in all its forms from historians, museum educators and curators. Following that, he came to UMass Boston last year.

One of Nick’s favorite things he has done in his brief time at UMass Boston has been teaching the Labor and Working-Class History Survey. This broad course brings together students from across the university and utilizes the resources of the school, incorporating archival work and guest speakers for the board of our Labor Resource Center. Nick sees it as “the best of UMB in miniature.” Nick lives with his partner and their two children, born Christmas and Christmas eve. He has been a distance runner all his life and loves running the Neponset River in Dorchester, often with a neon yellow double jogging stroller.

Favorite Historical Story (at the moment): “I’ve always known Frank Murphy as the New Deal governor of Michigan who was swept into office in FDR’s 1936 landslide and promptly called out the National Guard to keep the peace and hold off GM’s goons during the Flint Sit-Down Strikes (a truly remarkable moment, given the National Guard’s long history as a strikebreaking force). Just this fall I realized that FDR appointed the same Frank Murphy to the Supreme Court in 1940, where he promptly issued a famous, stinging dissent in the Korematsu case (in which the court shamefully upheld Japanese incarceration during WWII). I don’t know a whole lot else about Frank Murphy, but in two incredibly consequential moments of US history, he did the right thing.”

Advice for students: “It’s a tough time for teaching, learning, and researching. Be kind to yourself and one another, be creative about finding sources and ways to engage them, and make time for yourself away from screens whenever possible. If you’re finding yourselves completely overwhelmed and exhausted by working remotely (feeling like it’s twice the work for half the product), I can assure you that many professors, including yours truly, are in exactly the same boat. Let us know how we can help. Normally I’d say “swing by my office and say hello sometime!” but in lieu of that, I’m always glad to hear from students! Find me at .”