Impact Stories

“BHI's Postdoctoral Fellowship in Business History offered me an incredible opportunity to learn and grow as a business historian. I arrived at HBS with research and teaching experience in the history of US business, but my time at HBS has broadened and deepened my knowledge of business history as a field.”

BHI's Postdoctoral Fellowship in Business History offered me an incredible opportunity to learn and grow as a business historian. I arrived at HBS with research and teaching experience in the history of US business, but my time at HBS has broadened and deepened my knowledge of business history as a field. Working with faculty on MBA and doctoral courses offered me a more global understanding of international business history, and I became more proficient in the methods and debates that define the field.

In addition, the interdisciplinary conversations fostered at Harvard Business School enabled me to see issues that I have studied as a historian in new ways. Often, these conversations led me to ask new questions in my research. I particularly benefited from hearing how MBA students understood and responded to business challenges that arose in the historical cases assigned in Professor Geoffrey Jones’s course, Entrepreneurship and Global Capitalism. The students, who had arrived at HBS with diverse industry experiences, often raised questions and posed creative solutions that I had not considered. Hearing their perspectives and strategies for managerial decision-making has enhanced my own ability to analyze the decisions of business leaders in my historical research.

My research has benefited enormously from the resources available at Harvard Business School. The materials available across the Harvard libraries system, and especially at Baker Library, have offered me the opportunity to develop my current book project and to establish a longer-term research agenda.

Moreover, I have benefited greatly from the opportunity to work with and learn from leading scholars in the field of business history. The faculty at HBS have generously offered mentorship and supported my work. In addition, I have developed broader and more international professional networks at conferences and seminars hosted by the Business History Initiative, which will enable me to continue to grow as a scholar in the field.