Jonathan Sherry, PhD

Bio:

 

I grew up in Kentucky and studied history and music at Eastern Kentucky University after quitting pilot school for lack of funds. At EKU, I had the pleasure of working with the excellent scholars and mentors Jennifer Spock, the late Bruce MacLaren, and the late Robert "Bob" Topmiller. 

 

After graduating in 2009, I sold my car to buy a plane ticket to Europe in order to take a research internship position in Austria at the Jewish Museum of Vienna. That summer, I worked on an exhibition on the Austrian composer, Hans Eisler, and his exile in civil war Spain and later the United States and East Germany. In Spain, Eisler composed fight songs such as ¡No Pasarán! and El Quinto Regimiento to inspire the war-weary antifascist militias of Republican Spain.

 

I began graduate study in 2009 at the University of Pittsburgh, focusing on Spanish and Soviet history and working under William Chase, Jonathan Harris, and others. I took an MA (2011) and PhD (2017), studying Spanish, German, and Russian language along the way and doing extensive archival research abroad in various countries.
 

Much of my research has been conducted in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, near Vegueta, the neighborhood in which Juan Negrín was born. Negrín was Prime Minister of Republican Spain during the Spanish Civil War. In 2013, his archive was transferred from the Negrín family apartment in Paris to the Fundación Juan Negrín in Las Palmas, where I spent two years researching in the collection.

I continued research in Barcelona in 2015 as Fulbright Researcher, where I worked with the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona's research team, Grupo de Estudios sobre República y Democracia. In 2016, I took a position as Visiting Researcher at the London School of Economics Cañada Blanche Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies, working with Paul Preston for the 2016-2017 AY.
 

After defending my dissertation in 2017, I taught European and Spanish History as Visiting Assistant Professor of History at the University of Miami. For the 2018-2019 Academic Year, I taught Russian and European History as Assistant Teaching Professor at Penn State University - Erie. I now teach courses on Europe, Spain, Russia, and the history of communism at Averett University. 

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I usually spend whatever free time I have backpacking in the nearest mountain range or on long-distance thru-hikes. I have thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail northbound from Georgia to Maine, the Continental Divide Trail northbound from Mexico to Montana, the Camino del Norte (Spain), the Camino Primitivo (Spain), and the GR-11 through the Pyrenees (Spain, Andorra, France). I also compete in endurance races, most recently a triathlon on the Black Sea in Romania near Constanza. In addition to history, I also write creative non-fiction. I still play guitar, piano, and banjo, and I write and record my own music.

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At Averett University, I organize and run a yearly film series. I have also launched a podcast, History Today at Averett, which showcases student research and oral histories of the Danville area. 

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If you want to know more, please reach out to me using the contact button.