Dr. Thomas A. Chambers, professor of history at Niagara University, has been elected a fellow of the New York Academy of History.
Membership in the academy is by invitation only and is limited to those with a demonstrated record of accomplishment in New York history as authors, archivists, public historians, teachers, librarians, administrators, and others. Dr. Chambers joins a distinguished group of 200 in the academy.
“Your involvement in this enterprise will make a difference for the future of New York city and state history,” wrote NYAH President Kenneth T. Jackson, the Jacques Barzun Professor of History at Columbia University.
Founded in 2007, the NYAH’s purpose is to be the voice of those engaged in the practice of New York history, to encourage its study, advocate for its strength, and represent the interests of those who work in classrooms, archives, and historical societies.
Dr. Chambers has been a faculty member at Niagara University since 2003, and has also served for periods as NU’s associate vice president for academic affairs, history department chair, and director of its master’s program in interdisciplinary studies. He has published two books on New York state history, Memories of War: Visiting Battlegrounds and Bonefield in the Early American Republic and Drinking the Waters: Creating an American Leisure Class at Nineteenth-Century Mineral Springs, hosted the Conference on New York State History twice at Niagara University, and published numerous articles and reviews on the state’s history. Dr. Chambers was awarded three National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks in American History and Culture grants.
The Saratoga County, N.Y., native earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Middlebury College, and a master’s degree and doctorate from the College of William and Mary. He currently serves as president of the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area, an affiliate of the National Park Service that is developing heritage tourism in the Niagara region, and has served on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Path Through History Task Force and the State Historian’s War of 1812 Bicentennial working group.
To learn more about Niagara University’s history programs, please visit www.niagara.edu/history.