Allison J. Abra, Ph.D.

Allison J. Abra, Ph.D. Department of History University of Southern Mississippi 118 College Drive, Box # 5047 Hattiesburg, MS 39406 allison.abra@usm.edu CURRENT POSITION University of Southern Mississippi Nina Bell Suggs Professor Assistant Professor, Department of History Fellow, Dale Center for the Study of War & Society Affiliate Faculty, Women s and Gender Studies Program 2016-Present 2012-Present EDUCATION Ph.D. University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI History 2009 M.A. Queen s University Kingston, ON History 2001 B.A. (Hons.) University of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB History 1999 PUBLICATIONS Book Dancing in the English Style: Consumption, Americanisation, and National Identity in Britain, 1918-50. Manchester: Manchester University Press, forthcoming 2017. Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters Dancing in the English Style: Professionalisation, Public Preference, and the Evolution of Popular Dance in 1920s Britain. Brett Bebber, ed. Leisure and Cultural Conflict in Twentieth-Century Britain. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012. 41-62. Doing the Lambeth Walk: Novelty Dances and the British Nation. 20th Century British History 20:3 (2009): 346-369. Book Review Essays Review essay of Lara Putnam, Radical Moves: Caribbean Migrants and the Politics of Race in the Jazz Age, (University of North Carolina Press, 2013), and Robin D.G. Kelley, Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times (Harvard University Press, 2012), in Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 15:1 (Spring 2014). 1

Book Reviews Review of James Nott, Going to the Palais: A Social and Cultural History of Dancing and Dance Halls in Britain, 1918-1960, (Oxford University Press, 2015) in Contemporary British History (July 2016): 432-433. Review of Brett Bebber, Violence and Racism in Football: Politics and Cultural Conflict in British Society, 1968-1998, (Pickering & Chatto, 2012) in Journal of British Studies (October 2014): 1067-1069. Review of Judith Walkowitz, Nights Out: Life in Cosmopolitan London, (Yale University Press, 2012) in Canadian Journal of History, (Winter 2013): 653-655. Blog Posts Brexit and the Search for British Identity, Reflections on War & Society: the Blog of the Dale Center for the Study of War & Society, (Forthcoming October 2016). The Women of the SOE in History and Culture, Reflections on War & Society: the Blog of the Dale Center for the Study of War & Society, (March 2015). Work In Progress Essential Amusements? Racing and Good Citizenship during the People s War, (article draft in preparation). FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS Nina Bell Suggs Endowed Professorship, University of Southern Mississippi, 2016-Present. College of Arts & Letters Scholarly & Creative Research Grant, University of Southern Mississippi, 2014. Mini-Grant, Mississippi Humanities Council, 2013-2014 (Application authored on behalf of the War & Society Roundtable, Hattiesburg Public Library). Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, University of Michigan, 2009-2010. Dissertation Finishing Fellowship, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan, 2009. Janey and Melvin Lack Fellowship, Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, University of Michigan, 2008-2009. Community of Scholars Fellowship, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, University of Michigan, 2007-2008. 2

Mellon Fellowship for Dissertation Research in Original Sources, Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), 2006-2007. Research, Study, and Travel Grant, Department of History, University of Michigan, 2006. University of Michigan Regent s Fellowship, University of Michigan, 2005-2006; 2002-2003. Commonwealth Scholarship, Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan/ International Council of Canadian Studies, 2002. (Declined) Queen s Graduate Scholarship, Queen s University, 2000-2001. Gordon Rothney Scholarship in Modern World History, St. John s College, University of Manitoba, 1998. Entrance Scholarship, University of Manitoba, 1995. AWARDS AND HONORS: SCHOLARSHIP Junior Fellowship, St. John s College, University of Manitoba, 2011-2012. Duncan Tanner Post-Graduate Essay Prize, 20th Century British History (peer-reviewed journal), 2008. Graduate Student Research Award, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, University of Michigan, 2006. Pre-Dissertation Award, International Institute, University of Michigan, 2003. Lovell Clark Prize for History, St. John s College, University of Manitoba, 1998. Kleiforth Prize in American History, University of Manitoba, 1997. AWARDS AND HONORS: TEACHING Nominee, Junior Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award, Office of the Provost, University of Southern Mississippi, 2015 & 2016. Guest Coach, Student Athlete Enhancement Program (SAEP), in recognition of making a positive impact on the academic careers of student-athletes, 2013. Nominee, University 1 Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Manitoba, 2012. Nominee, Symons Award for Excellence in Teaching, Trent University, 2011. 3

PRESENTATIONS Invited Presentations Modern Dances, Modern Women: Gender, Sexuality, and Popular Dance Culture in Interwar Britain, Isom Center Colloquium Series, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, March 24, 2014. "Dancing in the English Style: National Identity and Popular Dance Culture in Interwar Britain, Phi Alpha Theta Faculty Lecture Series, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, September 18, 2013. Teaching Atlantic and Transnational Histories, Atlantic Studies Workshop, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, November 5, 2010. From Flapper to Good-Time Girl: Women, Respectability, and Public Dancing in Britain, 1919-1945, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, February 20, 2008. Public Presentations Dancing Modernity in Britain after World War I, Keynote speaker for Art of War Program, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS, April 30, 2016. How Britain Danced Democracy during World War II, Roundtable panelist for Art of War Program, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS, February 21, 2015. Mothers and Munitionettes: Women and the War on the Homefront, Lecture Series, The Great War Remembered: 100 Years On, Mississippi College, Clinton, MS, October 14, 2014. Essential Amusements: Popular Culture and the People s War in Britain, McCarthy Lecture Series, We Shall Defend our Island: The British Experience of the World Wars, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, October 21, 2013. American Popular Dance Invades Britain, 1919-1939, Soup & Bread Lecture Series, St. John s College, Winnipeg, MB, January 17, 2012. Dancing with the Stars and Stripes: American Popular Culture and the Construction of Race and Nation in Interwar Britain, A Day in History, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, March 7, 2011. Conference Papers After the GIs and Jitterbugs: Race, Nation, and Americanization in Post-War Britain, Waging Peace: Studying the Challenges of Postwar Peace, New Orleans, LA, September 8-10, 2016. 4

Instead of taking drugs and pills : Dancing and Good Health in Interwar Britain, Midwest Conference on British Studies, Detroit, MI, Sept. 24-27, 2015. Keep Calm and Party On: Popular Culture and Citizenship in World War II Britain, Popular Culture Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, April 1-4, 2015. Dancing Democracy in Wartime Britain, Society for Military History Annual Meeting, Kansas City, MO, April 3-6, 2014. Foxtrotting Fellows: Masculinity and Popular Dance Culture in Interwar Britain, Western Conference on British Studies, Kansas City, MO, Oct. 3-6, 2013. At the Palais: Mass Observation and the Cultural Mechanics of Popular Dancing in Interwar Britain, North American Conference on British Studies, Montreal, PQ, November 9-11, 2012. They must get their entertainment where they can: The Class and Gender Politics of Dog and Horse Racing in Wartime Britain, 1939-1945, Western Conference on British Studies, Las Vegas, NV, September 20-22, 2012. Are we at war? Leisure and Good Citizenship during the People s War in Britain, 1939-1945, Canadian Historical Association meeting, Waterloo, ON, May 28-30, 2012. Protecting Britishness? American Popular Culture and the Construction of Race and Nation in Interwar Britain, North American Conference on British Studies, Baltimore, MD, November 12-14, 2010. "Reconceptualizing Americanization in Early Twentieth-Century Britain," Reading the Atlantic: An Atlantic Studies Symposium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, April 24, 2009. Performing the People s War: Popular Dance and National Identity in Britain, 1938-1945, North American Conference on British Studies, Cincinnati, OH, October 3-5, 2008. The Dance Evil? Popular Dance and the Quest for Respectability in Interwar Britain, Western Conference on British Studies, San Antonio, TX, September 19-21, 2008. Dancing in the English Style: Modern Ballroom Dancing and National Identity in Interwar Britain, Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, March 28-30, 2008. Approaching the Atlantic: Research Sources and Methods in Atlantic Studies, roundtable participant, Atlantic Studies Symposium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, March 21, 2008. An Absolutely National Development: America, Race, and the Evolution of Modern Ballroom Dancing in Interwar Britain, Reconsidering Europe: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference in European Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, March 15, 2008. 5

Doing the Lambeth Walk: Novelty Dances and the Performance of Englishness, 1937-1939, Drama Interest Group conference, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, March 23, 2007. Jitterbugs and Colour Bars: Race, Nation, and Dance Culture in Wartime Britain, 1939-1945, 11 th Annual New Frontiers in Graduate History, York University, Toronto, ON, February 15-17, 2007. Jitterbugging towards Victory: Public Dancing and the People s War in Britain, 1939-1945, Construction Sites: Building Histories Conference, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, February 12-13, 2005. Conference Panel Chair/Comment Commentator: No Body s Business: Gender, the Body, and State Power in Modern Britain and Empire, North American Conference on British Studies, Washington, DC, November 11-13, 2016. Organizer/Moderator: Margaret Boone Dale Keynote Roundtable on Women, Gender and War, Waging Peace: Studying the Challenges of Postwar Peace, New Orleans, LA, September 8-10, 2016. Commentator: Broadening the U.S. Military Enterprise since World War II, Society for Military History Annual Meeting, Ottawa, ON, April 14-17, 2016. Commentator: Masculinity on the Backfoot, North American Conference on British Studies, Little Rock, AR, Nov. 13-15, 2015. Commentator: Britain Stands Alone: Re-Assessing 1940, Society for Military History Annual Meeting, Montgomery, AL, April 9-12, 2015. Chair/Commentator: Women as Philosophers, Caregivers, and Soldiers in War, Society for Military History Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 14-17, 2013. Chair: Adorning and Grooming the Male Body in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, North American Conference on British Studies, Denver, CO, November 18-20, 2011. Chair/Commentator: Alternative Educations: Rock, Film, and Youth Subcultures, Graduate Student Conference on European History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, March 20, 2010. Chair/Commentator: How I Met Your Other: Reconciling Imperial Experience with Domestic Expectation in Nineteenth Century Britain, North East Conference on British Studies, Brown University, Providence, RI, October 2-3, 2009. Chair: Violence and Colonialism, Topographies of Violence Symposium, Eisenberg Institute of Historical Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, April 16-17, 2009. Chair/Commentator: Sexual Knowledge and Representation, Reconsidering Europe: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference in European Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, March 15, 2008. 6

MEDIA APPEARANCES, COMMUNITY OUTREACH, AND PUBLIC HISTORY Interview with Holocaust survivor Leslie Schwartz, Mississippi Public Broadcasting, February 2016. Coordinator, National History Day in Mississippi, 2013-2016. Historical Consultant and Expert Interview, Dancing Cheek to Cheek: An Intimate History of Social Dance, Television Documentary for BBC Four, Silver River Productions, 2014. Co-Coordinator, War & Society Roundtable, Hattiesburg Public Library, 2013-2014. Organizer, McCarthy Lecture Series, We Shall Defend our Island: The British Experience of the World Wars, 2013. Judge, National History Day in Mississippi, 2013. TEACHING Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 2012-Present Undergraduate Courses History 102: World Civilizations from 1500 History 300: Research Seminar History 334: Europe in the 20 th Century History 349: Modern British History History 400: Senior Seminar, Theme: Culture and Conflict History 415: World War I History 416/516: World War II (combined undergrad/grad) History 447/547: Victorian Britain (combined undergrad/grad) History 498: Topics in European History: Britain in the 20 th Century History 498: Anglo-File: History and Culture in the British Isles (study abroad) Graduate Courses History 692: Special Problems in History: Britain in the 20 th Century History 732: Graduate Seminar in British History History 736: Topics in Modern War and Society: War and Culture in Twentieth-Century Europe History 722: War Historiography Independent Studies Comparative Gender History (graduate) European Imperialism (undergraduate) Homefronts of World War II (undergraduate) 7

Sessional Instructor, Department of History, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 2011-2012 Courses World History, 1800-Present Introduction to the History of Western Civilization Assistant Professor (Limited Term), Department of History, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, 2010-2011 Courses Modern British History The Era of the Second World War Film and History 10 Days that Shook the World (team taught) Instructor, Department of History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2008-2010 Courses Women and Gender in European History (cross-listed with Women s Studies) Americanization and British Invasion: A Transnational History of Popular Culture The Writing of History: European Women and the Second World War A History of Britishness in the Modern World (study abroad) Graduate Student Instructor, Department of History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2003-2008 Courses Modern Europe Europe in the Age of Total War British History, 1688-Present Culture and Politics in Britain, 1901-1939 Modern Scotland (study abroad) Teaching Assistant, Department of History, Queen s University, Kingston, Ontario, 2000-2001 Course Modern World History STUDY ABROAD Instructor, British Studies Program, University of Southern Mississippi, 2013-Present. Director, London Summer Program, Center for Global and Intercultural Study, University of Michigan, 2010. Graduate Student Instructor, Study Abroad in Scotland, University of Michigan, 2008. 8

Graduate Resident Adviser, St. Peter s College Academic Summer School, University of Oxford, 2003-2005. SERVICE Profession Peer review of article manuscript, Journal of British Studies, 2014. Peer review of book proposal, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014. College and University, University of Southern Mississippi College of Arts & Letters Student Success Committee, 2014-Present. Study Abroad Interviewer, Office of International Programs Judge, Undergraduate Research Symposium, 2013-2016. Department of History, University of Southern Mississippi Academic Advisor, 2013-Present. Member, Organizing Committee for Waging Peace Conference, Dale Center for the Study of War & Society, 2014-2016. Director of Undergraduate Recruitment, 2014-2016. Chair, National History Day Committee, 2013-2016. Annual Evaluation Document Revision Committee, 2014-2015. Coordinator of Social Media, 2013-2015. Chair, Graduate Travel Award Committee, 2012-2015. Member, Modern European History Search Committee, 2013-2014. Judge, Jack Lucas Award for Best Undergraduate Paper in War & Society, Dale Center for the Study of War & Society, 2013-2014. Member, Undergraduate Committee, 2012-2014. History Department Representative, USM Foundation Campaign for Southern Miss, 2013. Member, Organizing Committee for Society of Military History Conference, Dale Center for the Study of War & Society, 2012-2013. 9

PROFESSIONAL AFFLILATIONS American Historical Association North American Conference on British Studies Western Conference on British Studies Canadian Historical Association Society for Military History LANGUAGES French (reading and speaking fluency); Spanish (reading) 10