Faculty

Dr. Suzanne del Gizzo is a Professor of English at Chestnut Hill College, Chair of CHC’s Center for Integrated Humanities, and editor of The Hemingway Review.  At Chestnut Hill, she teaches a variety of courses in American literature, gender studies, film, and writing.  She has published more than thirty articles in scholarly journals and has co-edited three books, Ernest Hemingway in Context (Cambridge UP, 2013) with Debra A. Moddelmog, Ernest Hemingway’s The Garden of Eden:  25 Years of Criticism (Kent State UP, 2012) with Frederic J. Svoboda, and most recently, The New Hemingway Studies with Kirk Curnutt for Cambridge University Press (2020). 

Dr. Contosta has taught American history at Chestnut Hill College for many years. He received his Ph.D. from Miami University of Ohio.  He is the author of more than 20 books. These publications include several regional topics, such as "Suburb in the City: Chestnut Hill Philadelphia" and "Metropolitan Paradise: Philadelphia's Wissahickon Valley," which has recently been adapted as a documentary film. Other books by Dr. Contosta focus on national and international themes: "Rebel Giants: The Revolutionary Lives of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin" and "America's Needless Wars." At present, he is writing a book about the US Presidency entitled "American Monarchy." 

Dr. Contosta leads walking tours of sites in the local area and frequently gives talks to community groups.  He received the Chestnut Hill Community Association Award in 2005.  He has also lectured at Nanjing University in China and at Pyeongtaek University in South Korea. Dr. Contosta is a recipient of the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Earlier he was a Fulbright Scholar to France and a Visiting Research Professor at Cambridge University in England.

At the college, he teaches courses focusing on American history including the American History Survey I&II, the Civil War and American Life, the American Presidency, Pennsylvania Experience, Progressive America, America and the Two World Wars, the 1960s and Its Legacies, the Environmental History of the United States, and the required Research Methods seminar taken by all majors.

Dr. Coons is a modern European historian who specializes in social and political history and has a special interest and concentration in Women's History.  She received her MA and Ph.D. degrees from New York University.  Prior to coming to Chestnut Hill College, she taught at SUNY-Oswego and the American College in Athens, Greece.   She has lived abroad in Greece, England, and France and along with her husband (also an historian) has been a guest lecturer aboard cruise ships internationally.   

Her areas of scholarly expertise are Modern Europe, France, social and women's history, and the history of travel and tourism.  She served as an historical consultant for two documentaries relating to the history of ocean liners: "Rescue at Sea" - PBS Documentary: "The American Experience" series, and "Super liners" - CBS News/Discovery Channel Documentary (in which she also appeared). 

Her research interests largely focus on women's growth and development.  She has published two books “Orphans of the Sweated Trades”: Women Homeworkers in the Parisian Garment Trades (1860-1915) and “Tourist Third Cabin”: Steamship Travel in the Interwar Years (co-authored with Alexander Varias).  She has authored several articles relating to 19th-century French women homeworkers in the Parisian garment industry, women activists in the peace movement in France (19th-20th centuries), young ballet dancers (les petits rats) of the Paris Opéra Ballet of the late 19th century,  and most recently women seafarers (20th century).  Her work on “les petits rats” was cited in a January 2021 piece for CNN Style.  Dr. Coons is a frequent contributor to the journal of the Steamship Historical Society of America.  She is a member of the SS United States Conservancy, an organization working tirelessly to keep alive one of America's national treasures, the Big U, as the flagship SS United States that won the great symbol of maritime excellence, the Blue Riband, is called by her loyal fans and maritime enthusiasts.

As Department Chair, Dr. Coons coordinated a series of international “Legacy Conferences” held at the college relating to John F. Kennedy (2003), World War II (2005), 1968 (2008), the American Civil War (2011), World War I (2014), and the Russian Revolution (2017).  She teaches a variety of classes including: Western Civilization I & II, Medieval Europe and the Surrounding World, History of Great Britain: Tudors to the Present, French Revolution, France and the Modern World, Survey of Women's History, Women in Modern European Society, Europe in the Age of World War, Twentieth Century Europe, Culture and Society in Modern Europe, Genocide in the Modern World, Women in Global Society, Revolution, War and Peace: Women's Activism in the Modern World,  Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, and the Capstone Seminar in History.