Bennett Koerber, Senior Research Professional

Bennett Koerber is a public historian who is passionate about transforming seemingly ordinary stories into actionable insights. He will use his historical research and project management experience in support of Taylor Research Group’s (TRG) environmental and corporate succession research matters. Prior to joining TRG in April 2023, he earned his PhD in American History from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Bennett received research and writing funding for his dissertation via CMU’s William S. Dietrich II Presidential Fellowship as well as the North American for Sports History’s Dissertation Research Award. His work related to American academics and athletics has been published in The Washington Post and he has hosted several interviews on the New Books in Sport podcast network.

Education

• Louisiana State University, BA and MA, American History

• Carnegie Mellon University, MA and Doctor of Philosophy, American History 

Professional Research Experience:

• Performed research at federal repositories to locate contractual documents and records of government- contractor interaction in matters related to government contractor defense, indemnity arguments, and assessments of potential product liability (Client: Law Firms) 

• Research into the corporate succession and property ownership/operation history within a heavily industrialized watershed area (Client: Law Firm and Fortune 500 Company)

• Focused research involving federal, state, local, and corporate records to document heavy metals contamination at neighboring industrial sites during the 20th century (Client: Law Firm)

• Researched corporate liability regarding a highly sensitive foreign relations matter that spanned multiple Countries (Client: Law Firm)

• Performed research into the historical usage of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) in capacitors and transformers (Client: Law Firm)

• Worked with federal courts and archivists at federal repositories to track down elusive and non-digitized early-20th century court case records (Client: United States Department of Justice) 

• Prepared and submitted targeted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to federal agencies on a matter of high sensitivity (Client: Law Firm)

• Targeted federal, state, and local archival collections across seven states in support of PhD dissertation titled “Liberal Arts Football: Athletics, Academics, and American Higher Education, 1906-1948”

• Conducted extensive primary source research at the Library of Congress and several regional archives to document changes to various American colleges and universities

• Led research projects to document the development of federal higher education policy over the course of the 20th century