Albert Churella

Dr. Churella earned his B.A. in economics from Haverford College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.  He joined the faculty of Southern Polytechnic State University in 2001, and following consolidation he is now a professor at Kennesaw State University.  He has taught a wide variety of courses, including the U.S. History research seminar, Historical Methods, early and modern U.S. history surveys, business and economic history, railroad history, the history of the Pacific Rim, African-American history, introduction to the International Studies major, and the International Studies senior capstone.  He has won several teaching awards, including an Outstanding Faculty Award, a Student Government Association Teacher of the Year Award, and an Honors Program Teacher of the Year Award.

Dr. Churella's research focuses on transportation history and transportation policy, with particular emphasis on the relationship between the railroads and the regulatory state.  His publications include From Steam to Diesel: Managerial Customs and Organizational Capabilities in the Twentieth-Century American Locomotive Industry (Princeton University Press, 1998) and The Pennsylvania Railroad: Volume 1, Building an Empire, 1846–1917 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), The Pennsylvania Railroad, Volume 2: The Age of Limits, 1917-1933 (Indiana University Press, 2023), and The Pennsylvania Railroad, Volume 3: The Long Decline, 1933-1968 (Indiana University Press, 2024).  The Pennsylvania Railroad trilogy, encompassing 1.6 million words and more than 2,500 pages, constitutes the first complete scholarly history of the nation's most important railroad and, between 1881 and 1901, the world's largest business corporation.

Dr. Churella has authored articles in the Business History Review, Enterprise & Society, the Journal of Transport History, and Railroad History, among others, and has authored more than eighty book reviews and review essays.  He has served as a content expert and invited presenter in numerous media venues, including The American Experience and Marketplace on National Public Radio.

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