L.C. Santangelo, Marist ‘06

L.C. Majored in History and Political Science and is presently the West Point Writing Program’s Assistant Director of Programming.

What has your career path been to this point?

Currently, I’m the Assistant Director for Curricular Development, Assessment, & Innovation at the West Point Writing Program. For half a decade, I was a Lecturer in Princeton University’s Writing Program, teaching classes on gender, New York City, and voting. In 2019-2020, I was the NEH Fellow at the New-York Historical Society. In 2019, I published Suffrage and the City: New York Women Battle for the Ballot with Oxford University Press. I earned my doctorate at CUNY’s Graduate Center in 2014.

Can you share an experience/memory from your time at HRVI that stands out as meaningful?

Working closely with Drs. Lynn Eckert and Martin Shaffer to develop their summer course for HRVI’s Teaching American History Summer Teachers’ Institute —it was an early moment in my career wherein faculty treated me as an equal researcher/thinker.

How has your experience at HRVI helped you advance your education and/or professional pursuits since graduating from Marist?

In three distinct ways: 1) it provided an opportunity to conduct primary source research 2) it allowed me to network and meet other historians and scholars (some of whom I am still in contact with) 3) as intern coordinator, I had the chance to help peers sharpen their writing and thinking—my first introduction to writing pedagogy

As HRVI celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2022, do you have any advice for future HRVI interns based on your time at HRVI and your experience in your professional field?

Use your research time as an opportunity to uncover lived experiences we might not always get to read about in textbooks. Be creative in your approach to the archives and expect dead ends as part of the process. Seek out feedback and be generous with one another.