About

Brian Sarnacki is a Ph.D. student specializing in the Nineteenth Century and Digital History. He primarily focuses on late 19th century American social, urban, and class histories, though he enjoys many other topics including interdisciplinary research and comparative world history.

His Master’s thesis, A Small City’s Big Scandal: Municipal Corruption, Progressive Reform, and the Grand Rapids, Michigan Water Scandal, 1900-1906, examines the evolving notions of Progressivism and corruption during a turn-of-the-century political scandal in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He also created a digital project, The Corrupt Network, which spatialized the Water Scandal and visualized some of the networks of Grand Rapids.