Donna Alvah loves talking about “big ideas”--ideas like war and peace, social justice and where humankind is headed.

“My students have so many thoughtful insights into these concerns, and I learn so much from them,” the assistant professor of history says. “I enjoy getting to be around intellectual people who are doing fascinating work--faculty, as well as students and staff.  I'm privileged to be able to immerse myself in studying history, and to share this endeavor with others who care about the past and how it shapes the present and could influence the future.”

Alvah says it's rewarding to watch students develop intellectually as they study here at St. Lawrence, to see their minds expand as they learn new things and figure out how the world works.  She’s especially gratified to hear from students who have graduated, “and to learn about the interesting, adventurous and important things they've been doing.”

Alvah’s research interests have an international dimension. She is interested in Americans' relationships with the rest of the world, U.S. foreign relations, the ethics of U.S. foreign policy, and cultural and social aspects of foreign relations.  

In 2007, New York University Press published her book Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946-1965.  She recently completed an essay on American military families in the post-Cold War era, and is working on essays on American military families in the Philippines before World War II, and on the U.S. military in Okinawa.

She says that at this stage in her career, academia doesn't allow for much free time, but there’s a family she loves being with and a long list of books to read, movies to watch and places to visit that keeps her very busy.