|
I am a cultural historian of nineteenth-century American technology. My work on American luxury hotels seeks to explain the way in which nineteenth- and early twentieth-century capitalists and civic leaders used representations of technology to reconcile an agenda of luxury development with emerging ideas about egalitarian democracy and progress. I served as Guest Editor for The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Volume 25. This hotel theme issue is the first scholarly collection of essays devoted to the study of American hotels. JDAPA is the journal of the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami Beach, Florida, affiliated with Florida International University. The journal is distributed by MIT Press and has won several design awards.
I have taught an array of American history courses for the department. I regularly teach Technology in America (HSTY 152). This class explores in different ways the relationship between technological development and social change. My goal is to encourage critical thinking about technology and its relationship to political systems, labor and work, gender, and the material world. In Fall 2008, I will once again teach my First Seminar FSNA 107 Culture and Computers, an exploration of cultural manifestations of computer society. In addition to meeting in our high-tech classroom, we also convene periodically in Second Life. Students also serve as teaching aides at the Ashbury Avenue Computer and Community Center (ASC-3). I have published an article about the course in Technology and Culture, the journal of the Society for the History of Technology.
My other responsibility for the University is as Associate Dean in the College and Arts and Sciences. Part of my portfolio is to administer the Summer Session for the College of Arts and Sciences, the Case School of Engineering, and the Weatherhead School of Management. Students in my Spring class will be guaranteed to receive summer giveaways! I also administer the Alumni/Senior Audit program and work with the Teacher Education Program, in addition to serving as PI on a McGregor Fund grant, A World-Wide Learning Environment. |
