Matthew Rohn

Matthew Rohn is a fifth year PhD candidate studying the history of African American migration and U.S. empire in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. His dissertation "Gone to the Territories: African American Migration to the Indian Territory and Insular Territories, 1871-1920," supervised by Dr. Quito Swan, examines African American migration to the Philippines, Hawaiʻi, and the Indian Territory around the turn of the twentieth century, the networks of veterans, townsite companies, and government officials who promoted migration campaigns, and how these frontiers with different degrees of legal incorporation into the United States offered migrants conflicting opportunities for resistance to, collaborated with, and sometimes escape from U.S. imperial ambitions. His research has been supported by grants from the Mellon Foundation.

In fall 2026 Matthew will teach a Dean's Seminar U.S. Foreign Policy and Black Internationalism at GW and has regularly served as a teaching assistant for U.S. Diplomatic History and World History. He is also currently an Archives Fellow at the U.S. Senate, ensuring that senators' papers are well preserved for future historians.

Matthew received his BA in government and history from Franklin & Marshall College and his MA in history from Brandeis University. His MA thesis, "Outside the Constitution but Under the Flag" examined Black Americans' proposals for migration campaigns to the newly annexed U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War. Prior to his time at GW, Matthew worked in affordable housing development and as the head coach of debate at St. Joseph's University, Brandeis University, and at Georgetown University where he coached the team to their first ever national title in 2019.