Christopher Capozzola is Senior Associate Dean for Open Learning. He oversees open education offerings including OpenCourseWare, MITx, and MicroMasters, as well as the Digital Credentials Consortium, MIT Digital Learning Lab, Digital Learning in Residential Education, and MIT Video Productions.

As part of his work with MIT instructors, he participates in the MITx Faculty Advisory Committee, the OCW Faculty Advisory Committee, and the Learning Management System Advisory Committee. Together with the Office of the Vice Chancellor, he convenes the MIT Festival of Learning each January, and the Teaching with Digital Technology awards each spring. During 2023-24, he also serves on the Classroom Advisory Board, on the Faculty Advisory Board of MIT Solve, and planning committee for MIT Generative AI Week.

Beyond the Institute, he is a member of the 2U Partner Advisory Council and served as a judge for the 2023 edX Prize.

For more than 20 years, Capozzola has taught U.S. history at MIT. He graduated from Harvard College and completed his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 2002. At MIT, he teaches courses in political and legal history, war and the military, and the history of international migration. From 2015-17 he served as the Secretary of the Faculty, and in 2018 was named a MacVicar Faculty Fellow, MIT’s highest honor for undergraduate teaching.

His research interests are in the history of citizenship, war, and the military in modern American history. He is the author of two books, Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen (Oxford University Press, 2008), and Bound by War: How the United States and the Philippines Built America’s First Pacific Century (Basic Books, 2020).

Professor Capozzola is also active in public history. He is Co-Curator of “The Volunteers: Americans Join World War I, 1914-1919,” Academic Adviser for the Filipino Veterans Recognition and Education Project, and a co-author of its digital exhibition, “Under One Flag: America’s Broken Promise to the Philippines.” He was recently appointed to the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, a federal committee that advises the U.S. Treasury Department on coins and medals issued by the U.S. Mint.

Since 2011, he has been a Distinguished Lecturer of the Organization of American Historians and has appeared on American Experience, CSPAN, History, History Detectives, and Who Do You Think You Are? A former middle school history teacher, he works closely with secondary school instructors, and served from 2014 to 2017 on the Development Committee for the College Board Advanced Placement exam in U.S. History.

He is a member of the editorial boards of California History, the Law and History Review and the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. He has published articles and essays in American Quarterly, Diplomatic History, Georgetown Law Journal, Journal of American History, Journal of Women’s History, and New England Quarterly, as well as in popular periodicals including The Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, The Diplomat, Global Asia, The Nation, Politico, and the Washington Post.