Content

Beth Bailey, Ph.D.

Beth Bailey is a social/cultural historian of the 20th century United States and Professor of History at Temple University. Her research has focused on the history of gender and sexuality within the context of the importance of “respectability” in postwar American culture. She is the author of From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in 20th Century America and Sex in the Heartland, and co-author of the American history survey text, A People and a Nation. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Prof. Bailey earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in American History from the University of Chicago.

Bradford Martin, Ph.D.

Bradford Martin focuses on post-World War II political, cultural, social, and intellectual history. His first book, The Theatre Is in the Streets: Politics and Performance in 1960s America, ties together his Yale undergraduate interests in History and Theatre Studies and his graduate pursuit of American Studies. It won the 2005 New England American Studies Association Lois P. Rudnick Book Prize. His second book, The Other Eighties: A Secret History of America in the Age of Reagan, explores the place of the political left during the conservative Reagan years.  Prof. Martin serves as History Curriculum Coordinator at Bryant University, and teaches courses on The United States in the 1960s, The History of Popular Culture, and The United States in the 1970s and 1980s.

Shealeen A. Meaney, Ph.D.

Shealeen A. Meaney studies early 20th century American culture, feminism, and women’s writing. As Director of the Helen M. Upton Center for Women’s Studies at Russell Sage College, she brings a commitment to interdisciplinary humanities work and experience developing programming aimed at bridging academic and non-academic communities. Her dissertation focuses on the 1920s phenomenon—shocking at the time—of women traveling unaccompanied by the men in their lives. Her scholarship, grounded in history, explores what it meant for women of that era to “travel,” in a figurative sense, far from their roots. Prof. Meaney teaches seminars on Feminist Literary and Cultural Theory, Women Changing the World, and Literature and Culture of the 1920s.

Susan M. Yohn, Ph.D.

Susan M. Yohn is a scholar of American women’s history and migrations, including U.S. social and geographic mobility. She chairs Hofstra University’s History department, has served as director of its Women’s Studies Program, and is treasurer of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians. Her current research focuses on women in corporate America in the latter part of the 20th century, and the extent to which women’s colleges served as vehicles of social mobility. Prof. Yohn served as historical advisor for the online documentary, Timeline: 50 years of Catalyst, which marked that anniversary for the women’s workplace advocacy group. Her recent articles and papers include “Diversity as a Business Strategy or How Liberal Feminism Saved American Capitalism in the late 20th Century.”

Media

Stephen Brier, Ph.D.

Stephen Brier offers extensive experience in producing historical documentaries and online narratives, as well as expertise as a leading historian of 20th century U.S. labor economics. He will consult on the filming, editing, direction, and presentation of the film and related online offerings. Prof. Brier serves as senior academic technology officer, and coordinator and founder of the Doctoral Certificate Program in Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY); as co-director of The Graduate Center’s New Media Lab; and as faculty co-chair of its Digital Studies/Digital Humanities Group at the Center for the Humanities. Prof. Brier co-founded the American Social History Project at CUNY, and served as supervising editor and co-author of the award-winning Who Built America? multimedia history curriculum. He received his Ph.D. in U.S. History from UCLA.

 
Tom Lewis, Ph.D.
 

Tom Lewis, a professor of English at Skidmore College and author of The Hudson: A History, brings expertise in documentary and an insider’s understanding of Skidmore College. He joined the Skidmore faculty in the fall of 1968 from Columbia University, where he earned his M.A. and Ph.D. and witnessed the student uprisings on that campus in the spring of 1968. His book is a grand retelling of the Hudson River’s past, featuring well-known and little-known stories of the people who lived and worked along its shores. His previous books include Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life, and Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, both made into acclaimed PBS documentaries. Prof. Lewis co-directed Divided Highways, which received a 1997 Peabody Award. Ken Burns directed Empire of the Air, which earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Informational Special.