People
John Perry
Assistant Professor of Instruction
Contact Information and CV
Office: SOC 215
Email: jperry10@usf.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Education
Ph.D., University of Kentucky, 2021
Teaching
My classes focus on the history of the United States, the history of the United States in the world, the history of the United States in the Middle East, and Cold War history. I offer several courses on these subjects, including, “U.S. history II,” “War and Society: the Cold War in the Third World,” and “U.S. Foreign Relations.” I have also taught “United States in the Middle East, 1945 – Present” “America’s Secret Wars,” “U.S. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” “War and Society: World War I and II,” “U.S. History to 1877,” “History of Western Civilization I,” and History of Western Civilization II.” Furthermore, I have instructed political science courses, including, “U.S. National Government,” “U.S. State and Local Government,” and the sociology course, “Contemporary Social Problems.” In my classes, I emphasize local, non-state actors from the Developing World and minority populations within the United States. I focus on historical critical thought and developing students’ ability to craft academic arguments. I often utilize cross-disciplinary models. In my classes, issues and developments are examined not only historically but also through lenses from the fields of political science, sociology, anthropology, and/or international relations.
Research
My research investigates the U.S. government’s relationship with non-state actors of the Middle East. In my dissertation, “Statelessness and Contested Sovereignty in the Middle East: the United States, Palestinian Refugees, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Syrian Ethnic Minorities, 1945 – 1958,” I explored how local, non-state groups of the region transformed the early Cold War in the Middle East. I argued that the actions of actors such as Palestinian refugees, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Syria’s Armenian and Kurd populations often defined, and redefined, the strategies, policies, alliances, aims, and objectives of the U.S. government and the regional governments of the Middle East. Far from helpless victims, I argued that these groups were primary agents of change during the early Cold War. Moreover, such actors demonstrate the significance of decolonization to the Cold War, and the Cold War to decolonization. The groups of my study were minority nationalists. Their struggle to decolonize their countries continued even after independence from the British and French empires was achieved. This fight unfolded within the context of the early Cold War. However, the Cold War was not necessarily what motivated these groups. They challenged the nation-state system and the international order that protected it because they were denied sovereignty over their homelands. In so doing, they also transformed the Cold War. I conducted research in Lebanon, at the American University of Beirut, and in Israel, at the Moshe Dayan Center of Tel Aviv University. In both countries, I investigated Arabic newspapers, journals, periodicals, and newsletters. I also investigated archives from the National Archives Records Administration, the Truman Library, the Eisenhower Library, and the Central Intelligence Agency Records Search Tool. I am currently revising my dissertation for publication as a monograph. It is tentatively titled From Empire to Nation-State: Minority Nationalism, the United States, and the early Cold War in the Middle East.