Hello! My name is Daniel Gorman Jr. (Dan to friends), and I am a historian and history teacher. I specialize in nineteenth- and twentieth-century U.S. history, focusing on American religions, culture, and politics. This professional website provides links to my publications and other projects.

Currently I am a history Ph.D. candidate at the University of Rochester. I received an M.A. in history from Rochester in 2017 and held an Andrew W. Mellon Digital Humanities Fellowship there from 2019–21. Previously I received an M.A. in history from Villanova University in 2016, and a B.A. in history and religion from the University of Rochester in 2014. I am a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a 2013 alumnus of the Beinecke Scholarship.

Current Projects and Interests

• Ph.D. Dissertation: “Phantom Luminaries: Spiritualism and Paranormal Investigators in the Age of Disruption.” Advisor: Joan Shelley Rubin, Rochester Dept. of History. This dissertation focuses on the expulsion of a Spiritualist, Frederick Willis, from Harvard Divinity School in 1857, the ensuing public debate between Spiritualists and skeptics, and the connections between Spiritualism and broader religious currents of the nineteenth century.

• Assorted digital humanities projects.

• Project-based learning for history classrooms.

• The 1893 Columbian Exposition and the beginnings of modern U.S. tourism.

• Philadelphia Jewish history.

• The legacy of U.S. anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan.

The views, opinions and material expressed here are those of the author and have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Rochester.

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