Ilyssa Forman

PhD Student

North America


I am a first-year PhD student studying people who lived on the fringes of 19th and 20th century U.S. society—sex workers, (im)migrants, queer and trans people, and racialized and criminalized “others.” 

Research Interests

  • Urban policing
  • Sex work
  • Political radicalism
  • Queer and trans histories
  • The carceral state
  • Working-class cultures
  • Abolitionism

Awards and Fellowships (Selected)

  • Forris Jewett Moore Fellowship in History, Amherst College (2025)
  • Henry P. Field Fellowship in History, Amherst College (2025)
  • Frederick L. Cheyette Prize, Amherst College History Department (2022)
  • Asa J. Davis Prize for Academic Distinction in the History of Africa and the Black Diaspora, Amherst College History Department (2022)
  • Gregory S. Call Undergraduate Research Award, Amherst College (2019)

Presentations

  • "Black-Jewish Solidarity." Presented at Amherst College's 3-Minute Thesis Competition. May 5, 2022. Amherst, MA.

  • "Fertile Grounds for Solidarity: Black and Jewish Radical Relationships in Interwar New York City." Presented at the Amherst College History Department Symposium: History and Race in the U.S. and Beyond. April 29, 2022. Amherst, MA.

Education

  • B.A. in History, Amherst College (2022)