Stephen Vider 

• Field: History and Literature
• Charges: BGLTS and Writing
• Phone: 3-5854
• Room: C-11
  Address: 579 Cabot Mail Center
• Email: svider@fas.harvard.edu 

My name is Stephen and I'm very excited to start my second year as a BGLTS tutor and sophomore adviser at Cabot along with my fiancé David and our cat Aviva! I'm in my third year in Harvard's History of American Civilization doctoral program (it's sort of blend of Social Studies and History and Literature). My academic interests are pretty broad--sexuality, ethnicity, gender, food history, popular fiction, Yiddish theater and literature, television, film, sometimes all at the same time. This year, in addition to teaching, I'l be starting to plan my dissertation, tentatively a comparative study of African-American, Jewish, and gay self-mockery from 1910-1979. 

I grew up in Long Beach, New York, on the south shore of Long Island. As an undergraduate at Yale, I was a double major in English and Psychology, and wrote my senior thesis about crowd psychology. Before coming to graduate school, I worked for three and a half years in New York as a writer and editor for a web magazine about Jewish literature and culture, and wrote occasional book reviews for the Village Voice and Newsday. When I'm not teaching or straining my eyes in the library, you'll most likely find me in the dining hall avoiding my work or reading in the Briggs common room. I love long conversations about publishing, journalism, queer politics, and movies. So please stop by to say hello, wave to me on the Yard, or email if you want to get a meal sometime!