Rachel Speyer Besancon
Rachel Speyer Besancon
Ph.D. Candidate
Contact
Stokes Hall South 356
Email: speyerbe@bc.edu
Education
- B.A., Wellesley College, 2019
Courses
Europe in the World II
America in the World II
Europe in the World I
Research Interests
Modern Germany
Postwar history
Film studies
Public history
Advisors
Department
Biography
Rachel is a PhD candidate at Boston College researching 20th-century German film. She is particularly interested in West German cinema of the 1960s and 70s, the German New Wave, and German cultural production in the face of increasing Americanization in the postwar period. Her work emphasizes the importance of public engagement in historical conversations and making history accessible to those outside academia.
Before coming to Boston College, Rachel graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Political Science and Astronomy from Wellesley College in 2019. Her undergraduate thesis focused on the American occupation of West Germany after the war, depictions of Germans in American popular media, and contradictory denazification policies. She then spent two years working at the Natick Historical Society, focusing on local history and familiarizing herself with museum and archives management.