Amanda C. Demmer

Amanda Demmer, Asociate Professor

_{Department of History

404 Major Williams Hall, 220 Stanger St.

Blacksburg, VA 24061

540-231-5331 | demmer@vt.edu}

Amanda C. Demmer is an associate professor of American history at Virginia Tech. She researches and teaches about war and diplomacy. In studying issues of pressing contemporary relevance like postwar reconciliation, refugee politics, and the emergence of new states, her work provides a means to better understand both the past and present. Her first book, After Saigon’s Fall: Refugees and U.S.-Vietnamese Relations, 1975-2000, was published in 2021with Cambridge University Press. In addition to authoring a variety of articles and chapters, her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, Forbes, CBS News, Apple News Today, and other outlets. She currently has two new book projects in development, America and the World: The Politics of Recognition and Normalization in U.S. History and Ginetta Sagan: Life and Legacy of a Human Rights Icon.

Principal Areas of Research Focus

War and Society
U.S. Foreign Relations
Migration Studies
Human Rights

Education

Ph.D., University of New Hampshire
M.A., University of New Hampshire
B.A., State University of New York at Fredonia

Professional Roles

Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
Society for Military History
American Historical Association
Organization of American Historians

Awards and Honors

2019 Betty M. Unterberger Dissertation Prize, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Honorable Mention
2017 Fellow, Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin, Summer Seminar in Statecraft and History
Gerald R. Ford Scholar Award in Honor of Robert M. Teeter, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library

Publications

Books

After Saigon's Fall: Refugees and US-Vietnamese Relations, 1975–2000 (Cambridge University Press, 2021)

Journal Articles

“Trick or Constitutional Treaty?: The Jay Treaty and the Quarrel Over the Diplomatic Separation of Powers” Journal of the Early Republic, 35.4 (Winter 2015): 579-598

Book Chapters

“Forging Consensus on Vietnamese Reeducation Camp Detainees: The Families of Vietnamese Political Prisoners Association and U.S.-Vietnam Normalization,” in Andy Johns and Mitch Lerner (eds.) The Cold War at Home and Abroad: Domestic Politics and U.S. Foreign Policy since 1945 (University of Kentucky Press, 2018)

Reference Essays

“U.S.-SRV Relations,” in The Oxford Reference Encyclopedia (ORE) in American History (Oxford University Press Online, September 2019)

Featured Books