Dr. Laura Beers, American University

Transcription

1 Dr. Laura Beers, Assistant Professor of History, College of Arts and Sciences and Affiliate Assistant Professor in the School of International Service American University Department of History, Batelle 161, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC Office ph: +1 (202) EDUCATION Harvard University, Cambridge, MA PhD in Modern British History, 2007 MA in History, 2003 Princeton University, Princeton, NJ AB in History, 2000, summa cum laude EMPLOYMENT HISTORY American University, Washington, DC Assistant Professor of History, 9/2009-present Newnham College, Cambridge, UK Post-doctoral fellow, 10/2008-8/2009 Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK ESRC-funded post-doctoral fellow, 10/2007-9/2008 HONORS AND AWARDS Major Fellowships Birmingham Fellowship, Department of History, University of Birmingham from 2014 Leverhulme Trust fellowship, Department of History, Exeter University Junior research fellowship, Newnham College, Cambridge University ERSC postdoctoral research fellowship, Faculty of History, Cambridge University Mellon Foundation research fellowship, Institute of Historical Research, London Krupp-Foundation Harvard Center for European Studies Research Fellowship Outstanding Young Scholars fellowship, Dept of History, Warwick University Fall 2004 Research Grants, external to American University: Bernadotte E. Schmitt research grant, American Historical Association, awarded summer 2013 British Academy Small Research Grant (ref. SG 51480), awarded January 2009 Mellon Foundation seminar in Modern British History, Columbia University, May-June 2007, funded participant Krupp Foundation - Harvard Center for European Studies research grant, summers 2004& 2006 Research Grants, American University-funded: Provost s International Travel Fund grant, awarded April 2013 College of Arts and Sciences Mellon Fund grant, awarded November 2010 National and International Honors Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, London Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching (Fall 2005)

2 Princeton University Walter Phelps Hall thesis prize in European History (2000) MEDIA APPEARANCES Expert commentator on London Riots, WTTG Fox 5 News, Washington, D.C., 10 August Expert commentator on Learning to Love the Microphone, BBC Radio 4, 14 June 2009, 10.45pm. PUBLICATIONS Books: Your Britain: Media and the Making of the Labour Party, Harvard University Press (2010). (edited with Geraint Thomas), Brave New World: Imperial and Democratic Nation-Building in Britain between the Wars, Institute of Historical Research (2012). Refereed Journal Articles: Model MP?: Ellen Wilkinson, gender, politics and celebrity culture in interwar Britain. Cultural and Social History, Vol. 10, no 2 (June 2013): Feminism and Sexuality in Ellen Wilkinson s Fiction. Parliamentary Affairs, vol. 64, no. 2 (2011): Punting on the Thames: Political Betting in Interwar Britain. Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 45, no. 2 (2010), Is this man an anarchist? : industrial action, publicity and public opinion in Britain, Journal of Modern History, vol. 82, no. 1 (Mar. 2010), Labour s Britain, Fight for it Now!, Historical Journal, vol. 52, no. 3 (Sept. 2009), Education or manipulation?: Labour, democracy and the popular press in interwar Britain. Journal of British Studies, vol. 48, no. 1 (Jan. 2009): Whose Opinion?: changing attitudes towards opinion polling in British politics, Twentieth Century British History, vol. 17, issue 2 (2006): Chapters in edited volumes: Representatives for women around the world: women MPs and international advocacy, the case of Ellen Wilkinson. In Women, Diplomacy, and International Relations since 1500, Guilia Calvi, Carolyn James and Glenda Sluga, eds. (Routledge, under contract for 2015). Revisions submitted, awaiting proofs. Women for Westminster, feminism, and the limits of non-partisan associational culture. In The Aftermath of Suffrage, Julie Gottlieb and Richard Toye, eds. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Thatcher and the Women s Vote. In Making Thatcher's Britain, Ben Jackson and Robert Saunders, eds. (Cambridge, 2012), Introduction and A timid disbelief in the equality to which lip-service is constantly paid : gender, politics and the press between the wars. In Brave New World: Imperial and Democratic Nation-

3 Building between the Wars, Laura Beers and Geraint Thomas, eds. (Institute of Historical Research, 2012), 1-38, Polling public opinion before opinion polling: election prediction between the wars. In Numbers, Norms and the People: Statistics and the Public Sphere in Modern Britain, c , Tom Crook and Glen O Hara, eds. (Routledge, 2011) Counter-Toryism: Labour s response to anti-socialist propaganda, In The Foundations of the Labour Party: Identities, Cultures and Perspectives, , Matthew Worley, ed. (Ashgate, 2009), Review Essays: Review essay on David Thackeray s Conservatism for the Democratic Age: Conservative Cultures and the Challenge of Mass Politics in Early Twentieth-century England. Forthcoming in Reviews in History. Review essay on Ross McKibbin s Parties and People, Reviews in History, review no Available at: The Battle of Britain, Review essay on Graham Stewart s Burying Caesar. The New Republic (19 February 2001): Book Reviews for American Historical Review, Cercles: Revue pluridisciplinaire du monde Anglophone, Economic History Review, H-Albion, Journal of American Studies, Journal of British Studies, Journal of Modern History, Journal of Social History, London School of Economics Review of Books, Parliamentary History, Times Higher Education Supplement, Twentieth Century British History RECENT SEMINAR AND CONFERENCE PAPERS (SELECTED) Defining Peace and Freedom: The British Women s International League and the Fascist Threat. Paper presented at North American Conference on British Studies, Minneapolis, MN, November 7, Forging a feminist internationalism: the British Women's International League between the wars. Invited paper presented at Modern British History Seminar, St. John s College, Oxford, 23 October Blurred Lines: Feminism, Socialism and Anti-Fascism in the 1930s. Invited paper presented at International workshop on Interwar democracy and democratic governance, Hamburg, Germany, November Ellen Wilkinson and the Fight Against Oppression. Paper presented at North American Conference on British Studies, Montreal, Canada, November 9, Communicating the Women s International League. Invited paper presented at The Comparative History of Political Engagement in Western and African Societies, International Workshop, Le Mans, France, September 2012.

4 Feminism, domestic politics and international activist networks: the case of Ellen Wilkinson. Invited paper presented at Exeter University History Department Seminar, May 2, Who's left? Mapping the Republican front in Britain during the Spanish Civil War. Invited paper presented at Southwest Labour History Workshop, Bristol and Exeter Universities, UK, Exeter, England. March 22, TEACHING at American University: Hist 222: History of Britain II: 1815 to the present Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2014 Biweekly lecture with discussion component on Britain and its empire. Includes two research projects based on primary source materials. Capped at 30 students. Hist 235: The West in Crisis, Spring 2013, Fall lecture + 1 seminar per week. Seminars led by myself + 2 teaching assistants. Covers liberalism, fascism, imperialism, communism, WWI, WWII and the Great Depression in European and America. Hist 235 is part of American University s general education curriculum. Hist 235H: The West in Crisis, , honors seminar Spring 2010, Spring 2014 Honors version of the above. Meets once weekly as a seminar. Capped at 20 students, and requiring greater primary source work and a final research paper. Hist 327: Twentieth-century Europe Fall 2013 Upper-division history course, capped at 40 students. Three-hour lecture taught as a combination lecture/discussion with the aid of a teaching assistant. Makes extensive use of primary source material to cover major issues in Western and Central European history from the Belle Epoque through the expansion of the European Union. Hist 437/637: Labour and Politics in Britain from Adam Smith to Gordon Brown Fall 2009 Upper-division undergraduate history course, with additional readings for enrolled graduate students. Capped at lecture + 1 seminar per week. Focused on the economic and social history of the United Kingdom. Students read central historiographical texts such as EP Thompson s The Making of the English Working Class, analyzed government reports, speeches and other primary source material, and wrote a final research paper. Hist 480/481: Major Seminar Fall 2009/Spring 2010, Fall 2010/Spring 2011 Year-long required research seminar for history majors. The fall semester focused on historiography and methods, while the spring semester consisted of supervision of the research and writing of a 10,000 word senior thesis. I was in charge of 20 non- American majors, and supervised primarily European, but also African and Asian topics. Hist 500: European International Relations Spring 2013 Graduate seminar, open to talented undergraduates. Course began with AJP Taylor s The Origins of the Second World War and considered the developments in the historical

5 study of European International Relations over the past half century, focusing on issues such as the role of gender and public opinion in the shaping of foreign policy. TEACHING (CONT.) PhD supervisor for Dr. Erica Munkwitz, Straight Ahead and Over Everything: Women and Equestrian Sports in Britain, PhD defended on April 14, PROFESSIONAL SERVICE Program organizer, Mid-Atlantic Conference on British Studies, Manuscript reviewer for Palgrave Macmillan, McGill-Queens University Press, Pickering and Chatto, Journal of Modern History, Journal of British Studies, Twentieth Century British History, Journal of Social History, Journal of Historical Biography, Labour History Review PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS Member of the North American Conference on British Studies Member of the American Historical Association