Mari Jo Buhle
Mari Jo Buhle
Professor Emerita of American Studies
Overview
Mari Jo Buhle, William R. Kenan Jr. University Professor, began teaching at Brown University in 1972, as the first member of the faculty to hold a position dedicated to women's studies. She has taught mainly on the history of American women, training students at the undergraduate and graduate levels in both the American Civilization and History departments. She has directed nearly fifty dissertations and is currently chairing approximately fifteen Ph.D. committees. Her own research, which began with a specialty in the history of American radicalism, now centers on the history of the behavior sciences in the United States. In 1998, she published "Feminism and Its Discontents: A Century of Struggle with Psychoanalysis" with Harvard University Press. She is currently working on a companion study, a history of the intersection of Jungian analytical psychology and mainly American feminism in the twentieth century. She is the co-author of "Out of Many: A History of the American People," a best-selling U.S. history textbook, which is now in its 5th edition. With two other authors, she is currently working on a textbook on U.S. women's history, which is scheduled for publication in 2008. Buhle has received fellowships from the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College; the Bunting Institute (now the Radcliffe Institute) at Harvard University; and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (1991-1996).
Brown Affiliations
Research
Research Overview
Research Statement
Funded Research
1977 - Louis M. Rabinowitz Fellowship
1978 - Faculty Development Grant, Center for Research on Women in Higher Education, Wellesley College
1982 - Honorary Fellow, Women's Studies Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
1985 - Odyssey Summer Grant, Brown University
1991-96 - Prize Fellowship, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
1996-95 - Salomon Faculty Research Award, Brown University
Scholarly Work
Biographical entries, "Therese F. Benedek" and "Helene Deutsch," Notable American Women, Vol. 5(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004)
"Introduction," in Florence Howe, ed., The Politics of Women's Studies: Testimony from 30 Founding Mothers, (New York: The Feminist Press, 2000)
Short biographies of Jennie Collins and Milton H.Erickson, in John A. Garraty, ed., American National Biography (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999)
Feminism and Its Discontents: A Century of Struggle with Psychoanalysis (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998)
The American Radical, edited with Paul Buhle and Harvey Kaye (New York: Routledge, 1994)
Out of Many: A History of the American People, with John Mack Faragher, Daniel Czitrom, and Susan Armitage (Upper Saddle River, N. J.: Prentice Hall, 1994, 1997, 2000; 2003; 2005); Brief Edition (Upper Saddle River, N. J.: Prentice Hall, 1995, 1998, 2000; 2003); AP Edition (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002)
"Needlewomen and the Vicissitudes of Modern Life: A Study of Middle-Class Construction in the Antebellum Northeast," in Nancy Hewitt and Suzanne Lebsock, eds., Visible Women: An Anthology (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993)
"Feminist Approaches to Social History, in Mary Kupiec Cayton, Elliott J. Gorn, and Peter W. Williams, eds., Encyclopedia of American Social History (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993; 1999)
"Gender and Labor History," in J. Carroll Moody and Alice Kessler-Harris, eds., Perspectives on American Labor History: Conceptual Dilemmas and the Problem of Synthesis (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press,1990)
Encyclopedia of the American Left, edited with Paul Buhle and Dan Georgakas, 1st Edition (New York: Garland Publishing 1990; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992); 2nd Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998)
"The Struggle to Reshape Industrial America in the Late Nineteenth Century: The Knights of Labor, Socialism, and Feminism," in Irwin Marcus, ed., Major issues in the Rise and Consolidation of U.S. Workers and the Labor Movement (Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1989)
"The New Labor History at the Cultural Crossroads," with Paul Buhle, Journal of American History (June, 1988); reprinted in Leon Fink, In Search of the Working Class (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994)
Short Biographies of Leonora O'Reilly, Rheta Childe Dorr, Rose Schneidermann, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman in John D. Buenker, ed., The Historical Dictionary of the Progressive Era (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988)
"Women and the Socialist Party of America," in Pourqui n'y a-t-il pas de socialism aux Etats-Unis?/Why Is There No Socialism in the United States? (Paris: Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 1987)
"Women in the Labor Movement," in Paul Buhle and Alan Dawley, eds., Working for Democracy: American Workers from the Revolution to the Present (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985)
"Comment on Women in the Socialist Party Bureaucracy," in John Laslett and Seymour Lipsit, ed., Failure of a Dream? Essays in the History of American Socialism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984)
"Afterword," co-authored with Florence Howe, to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, The Silent Partner (Old Westbury, NY: The Feminist Press, 1983)
Women and the American Left: A Guide to Sources (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1983)
"Lena Morrow Lewis: Her Rise and Fall," in Sally Miller, ed., Flawed Liberation (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,1981)
"From Sisterhood to Self: Woman's Road to Advancement in the Early 20th Century," In Howard Quint and Milton Cantor, eds., Men, Women, and Issues (Homewood,Ill: Dorsey Press, 1980)
"Politics and Culture in Women's History: A Symposium," Feminist Studies, 6(Spring, 1980)
The Concise History of Woman Suffrage, edited with Paul Buhle (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978); 2d edition with new preface (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005)
"Recent Contributions to Women's History," Radical History Review, II(Summer, 1975)
"Introduction to Socialist Woman/Progressive Woman," in Joseph Conlin, ed., The American Radical Press, 1880-1960 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1974)
Women and American Socialism, 1870-1920 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981)
"Socialist Women and the 'Girl Strikers,' Chicago, 1910," Signs, I(Summer, 1976)
"Chicago Clothing Workers Striker of 1910," in Ronald L. Fillipelli, ed., Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor Conflict (New York: Garland, 1990)
Background
Education and Training
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 1974 | PhD | University of Wisconsin |
| 1968 | MA | University of Connecticut |
| 1966 | BA | University of Illinois |
Honors and Awards
1968 - Phi Kapp Phi, University of Connecticut
1971 - Alice E. Smith Honoraria, Madison, Wisconsin
1976 - Henry M. Wriston Fellowship, Brown University
1977 - Louis M. Rabinowitz Fellowship
1978 - Faculty Development Grant, Center for Research on Women in Higher Education, Wellesley College
1978-80 - Research Associate, The Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College
1982 - Honorary Fellow, Women's Studies Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
1985 - Odyssey Summer Grant, Brown University
1991-96 - Prize Fellowship, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
1996-95 - Salomon Faculty Research Award, Brown University
1997-99 - Harrison S. Kravis Endowed Professorship, Brown University
1999 - William R. Kenan Jr. University Professorship, Brown University
2000 - Elected Fellow, Society of American Historians
2002-03 - Faculty Fellow, Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women
Affiliations
Affiliations
Consultant, American Labor History Project (NEH and Ford Foundation), 1976
Evaluation panel, Media Program, Division of Public Programs, NEH, 1981
Evaluation panel, Les Dames d'Escoffier Fellowship Program, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, 1980
Evaluation panel, Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College Fellowship Program, 1980
Consultant, "Reflections: Imagines of Women in Popular Culture," Media Program, Division of Public Programs, NEH, 1981
Co-Director, "Grandma Was an Activist," WBAI-radio series, New York Council for the Humanities, 1981
Evaluation panel, History Selection Committee, Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College Fellowship Program, 1983-84; 1984-85
Reviewer, Radcliffe College Research Scholars Fellowship Program, 1983-84
External Review Committee, American Studies Department, SUNY-Buffalo, 1985
Program Committee, Seventh Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, 1986
Workshop coordinator, conference on Graduate Training in U.S. Women's History, NEH and the Johnson Foundation of Racine, Wisconsin, 1988
Program Committee, Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, 1990
Editorial Board, Journal of American History , 1991-94
Consultant, The Great American History-Fact Finder (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993)
Consultant, "Love in the Cold War," Windfall Films, Cambridge, MA, 1993
Planning Committee, 50th Anniversary Program, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, 1993
Jury, Bancroft Prize in American History, Columbia University, 1994
External reviewer, Institute for the Study of Culture and Society, Bowling Green Sate University, 1996
Consultant, The Women's Museum: An Institute for the Future, Dallas, Texas. A Project of the Foundation for Women's Resources, June 1998
External Review Committee, Department of History, Columbia University, 1999
Evaluator, National Humanities Center Fellowships, 1993
Editor (with Anne Firor Scott, Nancy Hewitt, and Stephanie Shaw), Women and American History Series , University of Illinois Press, 1984-1999
Jury, Parkman Prize in American History, Society of American Historians, 2003
Consultant, Rhode Island Feminist Theater/Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities, 1976; 1981
Consultant, "Working Women Make History: A Curriculum for Office Workers," Rhode Island Working Women/ NEH, 1981
Panelist, "Women and Children at Work," Lewis Hine exhibit, Slater Mill Historic Site, 1982
Teaching
Teaching Overview
Some of the recent courses taught include the graduate seminars, AC 201 Introduction to Interdisciplinary Methods, and HI285 Readings & Research in U.S. Women/Gender History; and AC161 Women and Social Activism, 1860-1920, which examines women's activities in a variety of reform/radical movements, beginning with volunteer efforts during the Civil War.