AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our talented and eclectic membership, AHA Today features a regular AHA Member Spotlight series.

Paige Glotzer is a PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and has been a member since 2012.

Twitter handle: @apaigeoutofhist

Alma mater/s: BA, New York University, 2009; MA, Johns Hopkins University, 2012; PhD, Johns Hopkins University, expected 2016

Fields of interest:

19th-century US, 20th-century US, urban history, metropolitan history, history of capitalism, real estate, social history, cultural history, transnational history

When did you first develop an interest in history?

My grandfather was a life-long history buff who encouraged me to ask questions and pursue answers by reading books. He gave me my first copy of Robert Caro’s The Power Broker when I was seven years old. He truly believed I’d be able to read it.

What projects are you currently working on?

I am finishing a dissertation about the history of suburban development in the United States between 1890 and 1960. In it I look at how a Baltimore developer and its networks used transnational capital to experiment with and disseminate ideas about housing segregation that ultimately became federal policy.

Have your interests changed since graduation?  If so, how?

Over time I’ve become more interested in the relationship between institutions, policy, and capitalism. My archives led me there. As I researched my dissertation I began to realize how big a role certain institutions played in making housing discrimination profitable.

Is there an article, book, movie, blog etc. that you could recommend to fellow AHA members?

I was going to recommend Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History by Michel-Rolph Trouillot, but I realized it was recently mentioned in another Member Spotlight. Then I shrugged and decided it’s such an important book to me that it’s worth highlighting again. It makes a compelling case for historians to be aware of the consequences of constructing historical narratives.

What do you value most about the history profession?

I value being surrounded by people who like to ask questions about how things work and why.

Why have you continued to be a member of the AHA?

At first I primarily used the AHA to find grants, fellowships, and job listings. While that’s still the case, it has also come to serve as my information hub for history-related events, issues, and advocacy work. Recently, it has allowed me to network with people outside my field.

Other than history what are you passionate about?

I love getting to know a new place by walking around. For the past 10 years my friends and I have turned this passion into an annual ridiculously long walk we call “Superwalk.” We’ll plan a route and walk between 20 and 40 miles in a day. We’ve done them in four states and Canada.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.