I examine differing visions of American identity—whether female or male, immigrant or native—and the way in which contrasting groups have imagined the United States’ place in the world. My work contributes uniquely to the study of nationalism by focusing on reformers and their work within immigrant communities. Currently, I have two major projects examining different aspects of this inquiry:

1. •Citizens in the ‘Republic of Childhood’: Immigrants and the Free Kindergarten, 1860-1925
   

2. •Where Have You Gone, Miss Columbia? American Identity and Uncle Sam’s Forgotten Partner
   

My first manuscript, “Citizens in the Republic of Childhood: Immigrants and the Free Kindergarten, 1860-1925,” contributes to understanding female reformers’ work with immigrants, elucidating the tension between national, ethnic, and religious identities and the reformers’ desire for a cohesive American society.  The kindergarten movement provides fruitful ground in which to study the increasingly public role of women in American society during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.  The kindergarten teachers felt that their interactions with immigrant children brought them closer to immigrant women than any other group of reformers.  My research into the teachers’ work both within the classroom and in mothers’ meetings and home visits allowed me to reconstruct their coherent and distinctive view of the place of immigrants in American society and of an ideal of patriotism that also embodied internationalism, pacifism, and anti-racism.   I have presented numerous papers resulting from my research at conferences. This manuscript is complete and letters of inquiry have been submitted to academic presses.

Press coverage:

1. “Hail, Miss Columbia” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 18 Mar 2008
   

2. “Where have you gone, Miss Columbia?” Voice of America, 10 Mar 2008
   

Recent book reviews:

1. Review of A. van Slyck,  A Manufactured Wilderness: Summer Camps and the Shaping of American Youth, 1890-1960. Nov 2007. In H-SHGAPE.
   

2. Review of M. Klapper,  Small Strangers: The experiences of Immigrant Children in America, 1880-1925. Feb 2008. In H-Childhood.
   

3. Review of Michael Kazin and Joseph A. McCartin, eds., Americanism: New Perspectives on the History of an Ideal.  In Journal of American Ethnic History.  Spring 2007.
   

4. Review of Melissa R. Klapper, Jewish Girls Coming of Age in America, 1860-1920. In Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. July 2005.
   

5. Review of Alan M. Kraut, Goldberger’s War: The Life and Work of a Public Health Crusader. In  Journal of American Ethnic History.  Spring 2005.
   

Recent talks and invited presentations:

1. Presenter, “Daughters of Columbia: Children’s Portrayals of an American Symbol.  At “Children at Risk/Children Taking Risks: Historical Inquiries in International Perspective,” Biennial Conference of the Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY), Berkeley, California, July 10-12, 2009.
   

2. “Where have you gone, Miss Columbia?” National Museum of American History, February 17, 2009.
   

3. Invited Presenter, “Turning Immigrants into Americans: The Role of the Kindergarten in the Early Twentieth Century.”  At “Agencies of Child Socialisation from the Late Nineteenth Century to the Present,” Colloquium of the Centre for the History of Childhood, University of Oxford, June 21, 2008.
   

4. “Where have you gone, Miss Columbia?”  Library of Congress, March 5, 2008.
   

5. Presenter, “Miss Columbia and the ‘Mortar of Assimilation.’” At “Activating American Cultures: The Politics of Identity, Media, and Public Policy,” Chesapeake Chapter of the American Studies Association (CHASA) Conference, University of Maryland, College Park, April 4-5, 2008.
   

6. Invited commentator, “Childhood in the Making: Early Childhood Education” panel; Presenter, “Patriotism and Nationalism in the American Kindergarten, 1890-1920.”  Presented at “‘In the Name of the Child’: The Social and Cultural History of Children and Youth,” Biennial Conference of the Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY), Norrköping, Sweden, June 27-30, 2007.
   

7. Presenter, “Where Have You Gone, Miss Columbia?: American Identity and Uncle Sam’s Forgotten Partner.”  Presented at “U.S. National Identity in the 21st Century,” Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, November 9-11, 2006.
   

8. Session organizer, “Anglo-Protestant Liberals and America: Reformers’ Divergent Visions of National Identity,” and Presenter, “American and World Citizens: The Kindergarten, Nationalism, and Internationalism.” Co-sponsored by Immigration and Ethnic History Society (IEHS) and Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (SHGAPE). Presented at American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, January 5-8, 2006.
   

Halsted, “Columbia Calls,” 1916.

Source: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division

“Columbia Welcomes the Victims of German Persecution to ‘the Asylum of the Oppressed’” Frank Leslie’s, 1881. Source: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division