Department Faculty

"I am an historian of nineteenth-century American women with a particular interest in the intersections between intellectual and social history. My research has focused on the ways that ideologies about gender obscure the material and ideological realities of class, how women of different groups express political identities, and the ways that commonsense notions of American life shape, contain, and control radical ideas. My most recent book, Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2009), discusses the life and legacy of the nineteenth century's foremost feminist thinker. As a joint appointment in History and Women's Studies, I have taught a wide range of courses in U.S. history, women's history, lesbian and gay history, and feminist theory. For the past four years I have also been the Women's Studies Graduate Officer. In that role I have advised graduate students from many departments and have helped to build Penn State's innovative dual title degree program with Women's Studies."