Jennifer Lemak

Dr. Jennifer Lemak is an adjunct professor in the Public History program and the chief curator of history at the New York State Museum. Prior to this appointment, she served there as senior historian/curator of social history. Major exhibition and publication projects include Votes for Women: Celebrating New York’s Suffrage Centennial (2017) and An Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War (2012). Lemak is the author of Southern Life, Northern City: The History of Albany’s Rapp Road (SUNY Press, 2008) and several articles on the Great Migration to Upstate New York. Her current projects include a reinterpretation of the NYS Museum’s permanent exhibitions and collections.   

Lemak serves the history field as a member of the New York State Preservation Board, the New York State Suffrage Centennial Commission, and as co-editor of the New York History journal. She earned her MA in Public History and PhD in American History, both from the University at Albany. She is also a fellow of the New York Academy of Historians.