My focus in American history is on culture and women. I am fascinated by the interplay between “reality” and imagination—how peoples’ imagination shapes their reality and how reality in turn shapes their imagination. But I’m equally interested in the dynamic between the person, with all her subjectivities, and her context. To that end, I’m currently writing a book called In Her Shoes: Getting to the Sole of 20th Century American Women’s History. It uses historical shoes to open up women’s history for a nonacademic audience. It’s been a lot of fun to write because I get to imagine a particular woman in a certain historical context and that act brings all kinds of unexpected realizations to the fore.

I am a professor in the Department of History, but my background is in American Studies and I remain fully committed to interdisciplinary approaches. In my graduate teaching, I work with students not only in history but also English, Music, and Art History. On the undergraduate level I teach courses ranging from a three-part series on intersectional American women’s history, a course on books that changed American culture, history of childhood in America, the American West, Biography as History, and women and medicine.

I have written two books: Performing Menken: Adah Isaacs Menken and the Birth of American Celebrity (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and American Tomboys: 1850-1915 (University of Massachusetts Press, 2018).

Creative writing is of strong interest to me. My current project could be termed historical fiction-meets -narrative nonfiction. I am looking forward to finding and creating new opportunities to amplify the trends in creative historical writing.

On the personal side, I also paint (mostly flowers) and raise my son in Cleveland Heights.