Collegiate Affiliation
History
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Building a Housewife's Paradise: Gender, Politics, and American Grocery Stores …

I teach, research, and write about gender and women’s history, the history of capitalism, critical food studies, and modern US history. I particularly enjoy looking at sites in which capitalism and gender systems intersect.

My current project uses the life of Julia Child to ask how and why food, especially gourmet food, became so central to mid-20th century American life and politics. I have also written about the emergence of supermarkets (Building a Housewife’s Paradise: Gender, Government, and American Grocery Stores, 1919-1968) and have published essays on food and labor in The Oxford Handbook of Food History and in the Radical History Review.

Although a committed historian, much of my work is informed by interdisciplinary collaborative endeavors. I, along with George Henderson (Geography) and Karen Ho (Anthropology), created the “Markets in Time” collaborative for studies of capitalism. More recently I have come to study food and agriculture through the AgriFood Colllaborative and the Graduate Group in Food Studies. I have particular interests in the uses of historical narratives in contemporary food politics and in robust publicly engaged scholarship around issues of food justice.

Educational Background & Specialties
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Educational Background

  • Ph.D.: U.S. History, University of Wisconsin, 2001
  • M.A.: U.S. History, New York University, 1993

Specialties

  • Consumption and consumerism
  • Women's and gender history
  • History of capitalism
  • Food studies