Nicole Adrian is a second-year doctoral student studying environmental history with a focus on agriculture. She is interested in the development of corporate agribusiness and its influence on the U.S. policymaking process throughout the twentieth century. Specifically, her current project focuses on federal U.S. agricultural credit programs and farm debt during the first half of the twentieth century.
She is currently a graduate fellow for the Business, Economic, and Financial History Project (BEFH) at the Wharton School, organized by the Wharton Initiative for Financial Policy and Regulation (WIFPR). For AY 2023-2024 Nicole is serving as the co-president for Clio, the history department's graduate student organization.
Prior to Penn, Nicole studied history, environmental studies, conservation biology, and public policy at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. After graduation, she worked for two years as a public sector consultant for the U.S. federal government.
Committee: Jared Farmer (advisor), Amy Offner, Brent Cebul
M.P.A., Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin - Madison
B.S., History and Conservation Biology, Environmental Studies Certificate, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Environmental history, agricultural history, political history, political economy, farm finance, rural development, food studies, and U.S. policy.
History 1153 – Transformations Of Urban America, 1945 to Today (Fall 2023; B. Cebul)
History 0100 – Deciphering America: Telling Moments in American History (Spring 2024; K. Brown and A. Offner)