James Fortuna

Adjunct Assistant Professor

James Fortuna’s research focuses primarily on the twentieth century and is situated at the intersection of cultural and diplomatic history. He is especially interested in the architectural production of the interwar period and its relationship to the construction of national, ethnic, or civic identity.  

Fortuna received his PhD from the University of St Andrews in 2024 and is spending the current academic year as a visiting scholar at Columbia University where he is working on his first monograph. Entitled The 1939 New York World’s Fair: Cultural Diplomacy in the Age of Fascism, the book explores the relationship between diplomacy and design at the final international exposition held before the Second World War. This project has been supported by several different organizations, including the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Association for the Study of Modern Italy, and Italian Art Society. 

He is co-editor, with Lisa D. Schrenk, of the forthcoming volume entitled International Expositions, 1851 to Today (Routledge, 2026), and author of several recent articles, including “Building Bridges on the Brink of War: Urban Planning, Pan-American Identity, and the International Expositions of 1939” Planning Perspectives (2025). He has also published on the environmental design of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the United States and the evolution of Fascist design throughout the ventennio.

Fortuna is co-founder of the Institute for the Study of International Expositions and welcomes opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and public engagement.
 

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