Academia
Download a copy of my CV here.
Ph.D, American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, November 2012
Dissertation: “How Science Became Child’s Play: Science and the Culture of American Childhood, 1900-1980″
M.A., American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, May 2007
Thesis: “Sled Dog Stories: Discourses of Domestication, Race, and Work in Alaska, 1867-1925”
B.A., American Studies, Yale University, cum laude, with distinction, May 2000
Books:
Innocent Experiments: Childhood and the Culture of Public Science in the United States. University of North Carolina Press, Fall 2016.
Journal Articles:
“Writing a ‘Wonderland’ of Science: Child-Authored Periodicals at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, 1936-1946.” American Periodicals, vol. 23, no. 1 (2013), 1-21.
“Picturing Nature and Childhood at the American Museum of Natural History and the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, 1899-1930.” Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Fall 2011), 434-469.
“Reclaiming the Machine: An Introductory Look at Steampunk in Everyday Practice.” Journal of Neo-Victorian Studies 1:1 (Autumn 2008), 138-163.
Book Chapters:
“Environmental Health, Biological Risk, and Medical Display: The Individualist Etiologies of BODY WORLDS,” in The Anatomy of Body Worlds, ed. Thora Jespersen et. al (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008), 55-65.
“Sled Dogs of the American North: On Masculinity, Whiteness, and Human Freedom,” in Animals and Agency, ed. Sarah MacFarland and Ryan Hediger (Leiden: Brill Academic, 2009), 129-156.
Review Essays:
“Graphic Histories,” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, Vol. 45, Number 4, 621-629.
Book Reviews:
Review: Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, The Nature of Childhood: An Environmental History of Growing Up in American since 1865. Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Spring 2015), 62.
Review: Analisa Leppanen-Guerra. Children’s Stories and “Child-Time” in the Works of Joseph Cornell. The Lion and the Unicorn, Vol. 36, No. 3 (September 2012), 308-311.
Review: Sally Kohlstedt, Teaching Children Science: Hands-On Nature Study in North America, 1890-1930. Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Fall 2011), 518-520.
Manuscripts in Process:
“Enlightenment and Danger: Science, Play, and the Material Culture of 20th-Century American Boyhood.” Commissioned essay for forthcoming Oxford Handbook of History and Material Culture.
Online Academic Writing:
“Honey, You’re Scaring the Kids.” Appendix Journal, July 22, 2014.
“Audi, Cartier, Louboutin, Escala: Fifty Shades, Pinterest, and the Fantasy of Luxury.” In Media Res, September 28, 2012.
“Teaching the Hunger Games in the Undergraduate American Studies Classroom.” Blog of the American Studies Journal, June 22, 2012 ().
William S. Livingston Graduate Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin, 2010-11
Library Research Grant, Friends of the Princeton University Library, 2011
Shin Pond Summer Retreat Program Fellowship, Humane Society of the United States, 2011
Robert A. Heinlein Online Archives Research Grant, 2010
Chemical Heritage Foundation Travel Grant, 2010
Hannah Beiter Graduate Student Research Grant, Children’s Literature Association, 2010
Donald D. Harrington Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin, 2005-6
Writer in Residence, History Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2016
HRA New Professional Travel Award, National Council for Public History, 2015
Departmental Nominee, Outstanding Dissertation Award, University Co-Op, University of Texas at Austin, 2013
Winner, Nathan Reingold Prize, for original graduate student essay on the history of science and its cultural influences. Given by the History of Science Society, 2012
Honorable Mention, Neil Sutherland Award, Best Article in the History of Childhood and Youth. Given by History of Childhood and Youth Group, Canadian Historical Association, 2012
Winner, Graduate Research Award, University Co-Op, University of Texas at Austin, 2011
Winner, Outstanding Thesis Award, University Co-Op, University of Texas at Austin, 2008
“Pop History,” High-Stakes History: The Many Conversations of the Historian, History in Action, Columbia University, January 22, 2016
“Writing History Outside of the Academy,” Historians are Writers!, Cornell University, April 24, 2015
“How Science Became Child’s Play: Childhood and Public Science in the 20th-Century United States,” Case Western Reserve University Department of History, March 27, 2015
“How I Got Here,” Case Western Reserve University Department of History, March 26, 2015
“The Practice of Viral History,” Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo Department of History, November 12, 2014
“Saving ‘Embryo Scientists’: The Westinghouse Science Talent Search vs. Postwar Youth Culture,” University of Pennsylvania History and Sociology of Science Workshop, November 5, 2012
“The Story of a Wonder World: Science, Industry, and the ‘Romance of Reality’ in American Kids’ Books of the 1920s and 1930s,” brown-bag talk for the Friends of the Princeton University Library, Princeton, NJ, July 15, 2011
“Reclaiming the Machine: Steampunk Practice and the Humanization of the Technological Object,” Material Culture Symposium for Emerging Scholars, Winterthur Museum, Delaware, April 12, 2008
Panels Organized:
“Destroyed Worlds, Unpayable Debts: Uses of Children and Childhood in Environmentalism” (co-sponsored by Childhood and Youth Studies Caucus and Environment and Culture Caucus). American Studies Association annual meeting, Washington, DC, November 21-24, 2013
“Going Public: Scientists in 20th-Century US Culture, Politics, and War” (co-organized with Sarah Bridger). Society for US Intellectual History, Irvine, CA, November 1-3, 2013
“Space, Place, and Privilege: The New Geographies of Childhood” (co-organized with Nicholas Syrett; sponsored by Childhood and Youth Studies Caucus). American Studies Association annual meeting, San Juan, PR, November 15-18, 2012
“Objects of Learning: Material Culture, Imaginative Pedagogy, and the Transformation of American Childhood, 1880-1980” (co-organized with Sarah Carter; sponsored by Material Culture Caucus). American Studies Association annual meeting, Baltimore, MD, October 20-23, 2011
“From Decay to Deterioration: Questioning the Aesthetics of Abandonment” (sponsored by Visual Culture Caucus). American Studies Association annual meeting, Baltimore, MD, October 20-23, 2011
Roundtable Participation:
“History Communicators,” American Historical Association, Atlanta, GA, January 7, 2016
“H.O.T. Goes Pop! Histories of Technology in the Public Eye,” Society for the History of Technology, Albuquerque, NM, October 8-11, 2015
Panels Chaired:
“Podcasting—Reaching a Mass Audience From Above and Below,” Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Providence, RI, April 7-10
Papers Presented:
“History Communicators,” National Council on Public History, Nashville, TN, April 15-18, 2015
“The Virality of History: Playing with Historical Enthusiasms in the Digital Age,” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, November 6-9, 2014
“Tracking and Mapping Young Scientists: The Science Talent Search Database” (with Jill Anderson), Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, Toronto, Canada, May 22-25, 2014
“How the Chemistry Set Lost Its Teeth: Consumer Safety and Childhood Play,” Eastern American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, March 28-29, 2014
“Growing Up Into Climate Change: Children’s Knowledge, Children’s Fears, and the Politics of Science Education,” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, November 21-24, 2013
“Restoring Color to Science: Frank Oppenheimer’s Exploratorium as Cultural Intervention,” Society for US Intellectual History, Irvine, CA, November 1-3, 2013
“Playing the Environment: Advocacy and Web-Based Video Games in Contemporary American Children’s Culture,” Society for the History of Technology, Portland, ME, October 10-13, 2013
“Environmental Pessimism, Science, and Children’s Media in the 1970s,” International Congress for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Manchester, UK, July 21-28, 2013
“Childhood, Animality, and New Geographies of Extinction in the 1970s,” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Juan, PR, November 15-18, 2012
“Dark Futures: Environmental Catastrophes and American Childhood in the 1970s,” Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science Introductory Symposium, Philadelphia, PA, September 28, 2012
“Making Science Fun: Critical Intersections of Science and Childhood in 20th-Century American Culture,” University of Texas at Austin History of Science Colloquium, Austin, TX, March 30, 2012
“Reality in the Basement: Science Sets, Home Laboratories, & the Market for the Modern Mind,” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, October 20-23, 2011
“Science, Childhood, and the ‘Informational’ Book: Knowing the Modern World in the 1920s and 1930s,” Children’s Literature Association annual meeting, Hollins, VA, June 23-25, 2011
“Varieties of Scientific Experience: The American Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and the Production of Wonder, 1900-1930,” American Studies Association annual meeting, San Antonio, TX, November 18-21, 2010
“Melding Childhood Studies, Science Studies, and the History of Education,” Exploring Childhood Studies Conference, Childhood Studies Graduate Program, Rutgers-Camden, Camden, NJ, April 9, 2010
“Re-articulating the Native, Claiming the Human: Man-Dog Relationships in the New American North,” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Portland, ME, November 1-4, 2007
“Colonial Narratives, Written on The Animal Body: The Watercolors of Walton Ford,” Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment, Spartanburg, SC, June 12-16.
“Visions of Carnivore Ecology in Children’s Culture: Dinotopia and Jurassic Park,” Carnivores 2006 (Defenders of Wildlife conference), St. Petersburg, FL, November 12-15, 2006
“Lead Dogs and Heroic Masculinity in the New Age of Celebrity,” Western Literature Association, Boise, ID, October 25-28, 2006
“The Endless Quest for Authenticity: The Lord of the Rings and Teenage Girls,” SW/TX Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, Albuquerque, NM, February 8-11, 2006