As The co-founder of the Crossroads Seminar in African American studies, Rutkoff specializes and directs several projects that work in close collaboration with secondary teachers across Ohio.

Rutkoff is the co-author, with Will Scott, of three books, New School, New York Modern: The Arts and the City, and Fly Away: The Great African American Migrations. He has also written several works of fiction including a collection of short stories, Cooperstown Chronicles, and the novels Shadow Ball: A Novel of Baseball and Chicago and Irish Eyes.

Rutkoff co-directed several Teaching American History Projects, was awarded Fulbright fellowships to Paris in 1968 and Cyprus in 2005, and was the recipient of Kenyon’s Trustee Teaching Excellence Award in 2004.

A native of New York City, educated at St. Lawrence University and the University of Pennsylvania, Rutkoff has resided in Gambier Ohio since 1971.