Biography

Dr. Pamela Swett received her bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College in 1992 and her PhD in Modern German and European History from Brown University in 1999. At the conclusion of her graduate studies, she moved to Canada to begin her career as assistant professor of history at McMaster University. She served as Chair of McMaster’s History department from 2011 until 2017. From 2016 until her appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities in 2019, she was Humanities’ associate dean of graduate studies and research. She joined URI on July 26, 2026.

As a researcher, Dr. Swett is the author or editor of six books, as well as journal articles and book chapters that examine political culture, commerce, and violence in Germany between 1918 and 1945. Her research has been awarded grants and prizes from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, the Thyssen Foundation, the German Historical Institute, the American Historical Association and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. She serves on the Advisory Board for the journal German History and is co-editor of the German Historical Institute’s online collection German History in Documents and Images (GHDI).

Pamela Swett grew up in Massachusetts and lives in Newport with her husband, Matt, and their aged cat, George. Their two older boys live in Washington, DC, and New York City. Their youngest son is a student at Grinnell College.