ABOUT ME

Education

Ph.D. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 2000
Dissertation: "What Is Modish Is Doomed: Fashion and American Feminism in the 1910s and 1920s"

M.A. University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 1992
Thesis: "The Better to Conquer Hearts: Vogue and the New Woman in the 1920s"

B.A. University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 1989
Major Field: History
Minor Field: Women's Studies

Professional Experience

Menlo College, Liberal Arts, Atherton, CA
Instructor, Fall 2001 through the present American History

Foothill Community College, Department of History, Los Altos, CA
Instructor, Winter 1998 through the present American History and Women's Studies

University of Southern California, Department of History, Los Angeles, CA
Teaching Assistant, Fall of 1992 through Spring of 1994 Early Modern and Modern European History

University of Oregon, Department of History, Eugene, OR
Graduate Teaching Fellow, Fall of 1990 through Spring of 1992 American History

Conference Presentations

June 2000
"Dissertating from Beginning to End: A Round Table Workshop," with Allison Baker, Regina Lark, and Elisabeth Orr
Conference of the Western Association of Women Historians, at the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA

August 1999
"A New Hat and a New Attitude: The Fashionable Construction of Feminism in Magazines During the 1920s"
Conference of the American Historical Association, Pacific Coast Branch, at the Royal Lahaina Resort, Ka'anapali Beach, Maui, HI

March 1999
"The Women's Liberation Movement Internationally," with Meredith Heiser and Dolores Davison Peterson
Women's History Month program, at Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, CA

March 1998
"From Little Boys to Real Ladies: The Rhetoric of the New Woman in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar"
"Boundaries in Question: Designing Women" Graduate Student Conference, at the University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

August 1997
"The Dictates of Paris Meet the Modern American Girl: Vogue, the New Woman of the 1920s, and the Creation of a Fashion Legend"
Conference of the American Historical Association, Pacific Coast Branch, at the Benson Hotel, Portland, OR

May 1996
"Future Fashions of Life: From the New Woman to the Flapper, 1870-1929"
Conference of the Western Association of Women Historians, at the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA

February 1994
"Flat Heels or Feminine Charm: Images of 1920s Feminists and Their Movement from the 1920s to the 1950s"
"Thinking Gender" Graduate Student Research Conference, at the University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

Interests

Obviously, fashion is a big one. I'm fascinated by what people choose to wear and why, and what we make of those decisions on a cultural level. Also, I just like to shop.

I do a lot of reading. I try to keep up with the latest developments in American history and will drop everything to read a new Ulysses S. Grant biography. For relaxation, I prefer humorous essays (Bill Bryson is a current favorite), Victorian novels, murder mysteries, and practically anything by Margaret Atwood or Barbara Pym.

I love movies, either in the theatre or at home. Right now I'm watching a lot of Sex in the City and the more violent Kung Fu movies.

I like to take long, exausting urban hikes through the hills of San Francisco, which helps offset an healthy diet that revolves around fatty dairy products.

And I absolutely adore cats. I have four of my own; they are fat and lazy and spoiled and I love them.