Education
Teachers College, Columbia University | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Ph.D., History and Education, 2021
Dissertation title: “Shortchanged: Racism, School Finance and Educational Inequality in North Carolina, 1964-1997”
École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France, Master’s Degree, American History, 2015
Master’s Thesis: “The Effects of Desegregation on Extracurricular Activities in Public High Schools, Durham, NC, 1969-1974,” Université La Sorbonne, High honors.
Agrégation– Major: English studies; Concentration: American History, July 2014
Bachelor of Arts, English | June 2012 | University of Lyon III, France [while at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon]
CPGE (prépa A/L) Henri IV, Paris | 2009-2011
Professional Experience
Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Paris Saclay (since 2022)
Assistant Professor of U.S. History and Society
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (2021-2022)
Instructor of undergraduate and graduate classes
Université Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris 1 (2020-2021)
Adjunct faculty, English for the Social Sciences
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (2019-2020)
Instructor of undergraduate and graduate classes
Center for Educational Equity (2018)
Research Assistant
Columbia Law School and Teachers College, Columbia University (2016-2018)
Program Administrator, School Law Institute
Harlem Education History Project (2015-2018)
Editorial assistant and research assistant
Teachers College, Columbia University (2016)
Course Assistant
Duke University
Instructor for two courses of intermediate French (2012-2013)
Honors and Awards
2022
C. Vann Woodward Dissertation Prize, Southern Historical Association
2021
Louis Pelzer Memorial Award, Organization of American Historians
Provost Doctoral Dissertation Grant, Teachers College, Columbia University
2019-2020
Education Policy Dissertation Fellowship, Teachers College, Columbia University
Dissertation Research Fellowship, University of North Carolina
Dissertation Research Grant, AFEA (French Association of American Studies)
Henry May Fund Award, S-USIH (Society for U. S. Intellectual History)
Sharon Gay Pierson Endowed Scholarship, Teachers College, Columbia University
2018
Littleton-Griswold Grant for Research, American Historical Association
Archie K. Davis Fellowship, North Caroliniana Society
Dean’s Grant for Student Research, Teachers College, Columbia University
Provost’s Grant for Professional Development, Teachers College, Columbia University
Marshall T. Meyer Travel Grant, Rubenstein Library, Duke University
Travel Grant for International Research, Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris III
2016-2017
International Peace Scholarship Award for Women in Graduate Studies, P.E.O.
2015-2016
Fulbright Scholarship, U.S. Department of State, Commission Franco-Américaine
Department Doctoral Fellowship, Teachers College, Columbia University
Volunteering and Memberships
Apprentiss’âge, Paris
Founder a volunteer organization for weekly classes in public nursing homes (EHPAD) in the city of Paris
People’s Education Initiative, Rikers Island 2016-2018
Instructor of weekly classes for detained women on Rikers Island
Fundraising events organizer
Global Classroom, One To World 2015-2018
Workshop facilitator for students in K-12 public schools in New York City
History of Education Society, Graduate Student Committee
Invited Talks
« Héritages et politiques discriminatoires dans le financement des écoles urbaines de Caroline du Nord, 1964-1997 », colloque Crises urbaines nord-américaines, 6ème rencontre du réseau EUNA (Études Urbaines Nord-Américaines), 9 décembre 2021.
“Educational Inequality in the United States,” Invited Lecture, Université Populaire de Marseille, November 2020.
“Contesting Inequality: School Finance Litigation in North Carolina, 1971-1997,” History and Education Colloquium, Teachers College, Columbia University, December 2018.
“Performance Ideology and the Rise of Standards-Based Reform in the United States,” research colloquium, Université de Perpignan, France, June 2018.
“Writing Race, Gender, and Education: Digital Book and Video Projects,” Organization of American Historians, Sacramento, CA, April 2018.
“School Funding Inequities and the History of School Finance Litigation in North Carolina, 1970s-1990s,” Teachers College Academic Festival, April 2018.
“Writing History and Race on the Web,” Brown University Libraries, Providence, RI, November 2016.
“Metropolitan Fragmentation,” invited lecture, Course: The History of Urban Education, Teachers College, Columbia University. Fall 2017.
Selected Conferences
Cyna, Esther. “Valuing White Lives and White Property: County Governance and School Finance in Halifax County (1968-1994),” Organization of American Historians (OAH), April 2021.
Cyna, Esther. “The Role of School District Annexations in Shaping the Landscape of Rural Educational Inequality,” History of Education Society Annual Meeting, November 5, 2020.
Cyna, Esther. “Whiteness as Property: Racism and School Finance in North Carolina, 1968-1997,” Association Française d’Études Américaines, annual meeting, Lille, May 2020. [May 2021]
“Convenient School Districts”: Reframing the History of Educational Inequity through the Lens of Disenfranchisement, 1901-1994,” HOTCUS (Historians of the Twentieth Century U.S.) Postgraduate and Early Career Conference 2020.
“Equal Educational Opportunities: Struggles to Define the Right to Education in North Carolina (1987-1997),” Society for U.S. Intellectual History Annual Meeting, The New School, New York, NY, November 2019.
“Racism and School Finance in Rural Halifax County, North Carolina, 1969-1995,” History of Education Society Annual Meeting, Columbus, OH, November 2019.
“Leandro v. State of North Carolina: Urban, Suburban and Rural Districts in School Finance Litigation,” History of Education Society, Albuquerque, NM, 2018.
“Obscuring Racial Segregation: The Rise of Standards-Based Reform in North Carolina, 1970-1997,” International Standing Conference on the History of Education, Berlin, Germany, 2018.
“Digital Humanities in the Classroom,” American Historical Association, Washington, D.C., January 2018.
“School Finance Litigation and the Individualization of Need: Leandro v. State, 1997, 2004, North Carolina,” History of Education Society, Little Rock, AK, 2017.
“Beyond Busing, Beyond the Curriculum: The History of Extracurricular Activities in High School Desegregation The Example of Durham, NC,” History of Education Society, Providence, Rhode Island, 2016.
Esther Cyna 