Hamilton M. Stapell is Professor of History at SUNY New Paltz and a historian of modern Europe. His research examines political and cultural change in modern Spain and the history of popular social movements that have sought to reshape modern life.

His scholarship on modern Spain has explored national and regional identity, democratization, Americanization, and urban culture. He is the author of Remaking Madrid: Culture, Politics, and Identity after Franco, which traces the cultural and political transformation of the Spanish capital during Spain’s transition from dictatorship to democracy. His current work on the Spanish Civil War examines foreign women’s labor and activism as forms of political participation.

A second strand of his work focuses on evolutionary health, the Paleo movement, and the history of physical culture. It examines how reformers — both past and present — have drawn on evolution and the human past to diagnose the problems of modern life and propose alternatives. His article “Postmodern Cavemen: The Rise, Fall, and Afterlife of the Paleo Diet, 2000–2025” is forthcoming in Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies. He is also developing a book on degeneration, health, and the European physical-culture movement.

Professor Stapell teaches modern and medieval European history, Western intellectual history, and interdisciplinary courses on the relationship between the individual and society. He also created EVO201: Evolution and Human Health, one of the first college-level courses that examines the implications of evolutionary theory for human health.

At SUNY New Paltz, he served as chair of the History Department from 2020 to 2023 and continues to serve on the board of the Evolutionary Studies Program. He was also an associate editor of the Journal of Evolution and Health from 2012 to 2022.

Professor Stapell’s teaching has been recognized with the Liberal Arts and Sciences Teacher of the Year Award, the Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence, and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has taught in the SUNY New Paltz Honors Program since 2009.

Before joining the faculty at SUNY New Paltz, he taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point and in the Revelle Humanities Program at the University of California, San Diego.