Christopher Capozzola is Senior Associate Dean for Open Learning. He oversees open education offerings including OpenCourseWare, MITx, and MicroMasters, as well as the Digital Credentials Consortium, MIT Digital Learning Lab, Digital Learning in Residential Education, and MIT Video Productions.

As part of his work with MIT instructors, he participates in the MITx Faculty Advisory Committee, the OCW Faculty Advisory Committee, the Learning Management System Advisory Committee, and the IT Policy Group. Together with the Office of the Vice Chancellor, he convenes the MIT Festival of Learning each January, and the Teaching with Digital Technology awards each spring. To advance the use of generative AI tools in digital and residential education, he convenes the MIT Generative AI Faculty Learning Community and serves a Co-Chair of MIT’s Subcommittee on the Communication Requirement. 

During 2024-25, Capozzola also serves on the Faculty Advisory Board of MIT Solve and on the Challenge Leadership Group for MIT Solve’s Learning Challenge. Beyond the Institute, he is a member of the 2U Partner Advisory Council, the Open 2030 Working Group, the AI and Higher Ed Alliance, and is a judge for the Enhancing Post-Secondary Learning Track of the 2025 Tools Competition.

For more than 20 years, Capozzola has taught U.S. history at MIT. He graduated from Harvard College and completed his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 2002. At MIT, he teaches courses in political and legal history, war and the military, and the history of international migration. From 2015-17 he served as the Secretary of the Faculty, and in 2018 was named a MacVicar Faculty Fellow, MIT’s highest honor for undergraduate teaching.

His research interests are in the history of citizenship, war, and the military in modern American history. He is the author of two books, Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen (Oxford University Press, 2008), and Bound by War: How the United States and the Philippines Built America’s First Pacific Century (Basic Books, 2020).

A former middle school history teacher, Capozzola works closely with secondary school instructors, and formerly served on the Development Committee for the College Board Advanced Placement exam in U.S. History. He is also active in public history, and serves on the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, a federal committee that advises the U.S. Treasury Department on coins and medals issued by the U.S. Mint.

Capozzola is a member of the editorial boards of California History and the Law and History Review. He has published articles and essays in American Quarterly, Diplomatic History, Georgetown Law Journal, Journal of American History, Journal of Women’s History, and New England Quarterly, as well as in popular periodicals including The Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, The Diplomat, Global Asia, The Nation, and Politico.