David Perry

David Perry is the Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies in the History Department. He received his PhD from the U in 2006, was a professor at Dominican University in the Chicago area from 2007-2017, but returned to Minnesota to help convince undergraduates that studying history is good for them (it is! Both professionally and holistically). He's an active essayist, with over 500 published pieces in dozens of media outlets including The New York Times, The Atlantic, CNN, MSNBC, and The Nation. He was named a contributing columnist to the Minnesota Star Tribune in 2025. He's the author of four books, including The Public Scholar: A Practical Handbook (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2026).