Robert Forrant

Co-Director, Professor

Phone: 978-934-2904

Office: Wannalancit

Email: Robert_Forrant@uml.edu

Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst

Robert Forrant is Professor of History and Regional Economic and 
Social Development at UMass Lowell and co-director of the Center for 
Family, Work and Community. He received his PhD in history from UMass 
Amherst in 1994.  His latest book is a history of metalworking in the 
Connecticut River Valley, Metal Fatigue: American Bosch and the Demise 
of Metalworking in the Connecticut River Valley (2009). He serves as a 
historian to numerous Teaching American History grants designed to 
improve high school history teaching and works with the Tsongas 
Industrial History Center on its National Endowment for the Humanities 
summer residency program for history teachers. Forrant writes a 
monthly column for the Sunday edition of the Lowell Sun on politics 
and the economy and currently leads a research project assessing the 
university's impact on the regional economy. He is also completing 
research on the history of immigration in Lowell for the Lowell 
National Historical Park. Before completing his graduate education, 
he worked as a machinist at the now-closed American Bosch plant in 
Springfield, MA.