PhD Student
North America
Jane Clarke is a PhD student in North American history at the University of California, Berkeley. Jane specializes in US foreign relations, empire, and popular culture, with a specific focus on the early twentieth-century United States. Broadly, her work questions how Americans (at the popular level) concieved of their role in the world in the decades preceeding the Cold War. Her previous work has examined children's literature and popular serials like Tarzan for their construction of imperial identity. Jane holds an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge scholar, and a BA from Northwestern University.
Research Interests
- US in the World/US Foreign Relations
- American empire
- National identity
- Cultural and intellectual history
Education
MPhil, American History, University of Cambridge, 2026
BA, American Studies and History, Northwestern University, 2024
Awards and Fellowships (Selected)
Gates Cambridge Scholar, Gates Cambridge Trust, 2025-2026
Sara Norton Research Grant, Cambridge History Faculty, 2025
Carl Smith Prize for Oustanding Essay in American Studies, Northwestern University, 2024
Fletcher Undergraduate Research Award, Northwestern University, 2024
Leopold Research Fellow, Chabraja Center for Historical Studies, 2022-2024
Jay Rosen American Studies Scholarship, Nothwestern University, 2022
