Rate My Professor Ely Janis

Dr. Ely Janis is Professor of History and Political Science at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA). He earned his B.A. in History from the University of Oregon in 1999, M.A. from Boston College in 2002, and Ph.D. from Boston College in 2008. His research and teaching focus on American immigration and ethnicity, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, transatlantic history, and American social reform. Janis situates the United States in a transnational context, highlighting how ideas, people, and materials from outside its borders have shaped the nation from the colonial period to the present. His scholarship emphasizes post-Civil War United States history, immigration, and ethnicity. He is the author of two books: A Greater Ireland: The Land League and Transatlantic Nationalism in Gilded Age America (University of Wisconsin Press, 2015), which examines transatlantic nationalism during the Gilded Age, and Quinn: The Life of a Building on River Street, co-authored with Nicholas Whitman (Porches Inn at MassMoCA, 2023), a local history project tracing North Adams' transition from a mill town to a center for tourism and art. Previously, he served as Book Review Editor for the Journal of American Ethnic History.

Janis maintains the collaborative website and mobile app historicnorthadams.com and leads initiatives such as the North Adams History Harvest. He serves on the boards of the North Adams Public Library and the North Adams Historical Society. His recent presentations include “Picturing Parnell: American Illustrated Newspapers and Charles Stewart Parnell’s 1880 American Tour” at the American Conference for Irish Studies Annual Meeting (Savannah, GA, February 2025), “Building an Irish Village: Ireland, Irish America, and the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair” at the Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting (St. Louis, MO, April 2015), and “‘Heart and Soul for Henry George’: Irish Americans, the 1886 New York Mayoral Race and the Decline of Irish American Radicalism” at the American Conference for Irish Studies (Chicago, IL, April 2013). At MCLA, he teaches courses including U.S. History since 1877, American Immigration & Ethnicity, Gilded Age Gotham, and U.S. History in Global Context. He has led travel courses, such as the Civil Rights Travel Course in March 2024, and participated in panels on U.S. immigration policy.