Faculty and Staff

Curriculumn Vitae

October, 2005

Elizabeth H. Pleck

Department of History
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, IL 61801
217-244-2079
epleck@uiuc.edu

Education:

Brandeis University, B.A., l967, cum laude in History
Brandeis University, M.A., 1969, History of American Civilization
Brandeis University, Ph.D., 1973, History of American Civilization

Employment

  • Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Michigan, l973-l978
  • Departmental Committees and Activities:  Alice Freeman Palmer Chair Search Committee, l973-l974; Fellowship Committee, 1974-l975, l976-l977;  Counselor for Undergraduates, l974, l977;  NEH Faculty Seminar on Women and Culture, l977
  • Visiting Research Scholar, Center for Research on Women, Wellesley College, l978-l994
  • Publications Committee, l979-1994; Steering Committee, Women's Studies, l98l-l982;  Project Historian, Legacies: Family History in Sound, l985-l987;  Project Director, Women in American Politics, 1992-93
  • Visiting Professor, New York Council for the Humanities Summer Institute, State University of New York at Albany, l994
  • Graduate Research Scholar, University of Illinois, 1994-1996
  • Visiting Associate Professor, Dept of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994-1996
  • Visiting Associate Professor, Division of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994-1996
  • Associate Professor, Dept of Human and Community Development, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1996-1999; Professor, 2000-present
  • Search Committee, l996-l997
  • Associate Professor, Dept of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1996-2001
  • Professor, Dept of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001-present
  • Computer Advisory Group, 1995-1996, 1998-2000
    • Graduate Committee and Graduate Fellowship Committee, l996-l997, 2000-2003
    • Undergraduate Committee, 1998
    • Swain Prize Committee, 1998, 1999, 2005
    • Graduate Committee, 1998, 2000-3; Graduate Admissions, 2004, 2005
    • Asian-American Search Committee, 1998-1999
    • Computer Advisory Committee, 1996-1997, 1998-2000
    • Associate Editor, History at Illinois, 1999
    • Randall Chair Search Committee, 1999-2000; Chair, Search Committee, 2005-2006
    • Dissertation Workshop, 2000
    • Graduate Advisor, 2001-2003
    • Committee on Disputed Grades, 2001-2002, 2005-2006
    • Ad Hoc Committee on Revision of the Bylaws, 2003
    • Mellon Initiative, 2003-2004
    • Committee on Anthropology/History Initiatives, 2003-2004
    • Organizer, Gender History Reading Group, 2003-2004
    • University Committee for Oversight of the Library, 2005-2006

University Affiliations and Service

Zero Time Appointment, Women’s Studies, 1994-present
Zero Time Appointment, African American Studies, 2001-present
Advisory Committee, OCCSS, l995-l996
Faculty Senate, 1998-2000, 2001-2003 
Social Studies Area Committee, 1999-2000 
Women's Studies, General Council, l994-l996; Library Committee, 1996-1997; 25th Anniversary Celebration Committee, 2004

Fellowships, Grants, and Honors

  • Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in Ethnic Studies, l972-l973
  • Irving and Rose Crown Fellowship, Brandeis University, l97l-l973
  • National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Grant, l972-l973
  • Newberry Library Family and Community History Program, Summer, l974
  • Rackham Faculty Research Grant, University of Michigan, l974-l975
  • Ford Foundation Faculty Fellowship for the Study of the Role of Women in Society, l975-l976
  • Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, l979-l980
  • Annenberg Grant for Legacies: Family History in Sound, l985-l987
  • National Endowment for the Humanities, Women in American Politics, Summer Institute for College Teachers, l992-l993
  • University of Illinois Research Board Grant, l995; 2002
  • University of Illinois Fellowship, Institute for the Study of Values and Ethics, l997-l998
  • Incomplete List of Teachers Rated Excellent, Fall, l997, Spring 1999, Fall, 1999
  • Woman to Woman: Making a Difference Award from the Office for Women’s Issues, State Of Illinois, March, 2002
  • Mellon Initiative for a Senior Humanities Scholar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004
  • OAH Distinguished Lecturer, 2004-2007
  • Associate, Center for Advanced Study, 2004
  • Alumni Discretionary Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004
  • University of Illinois Research Board International Travel Grant, 2004

Books

Catherine Adams and Elizabeth H. Pleck, Daughters of Orisa: African American Women and Resistance to Slavery in Colonial and Revolutionary New England. Under contract, University of Pennsylvania Press.

Cele Otnes and Elizabeth H. Pleck, Cinderella Dreams: The Allure of the Lavish Wedding  (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).

Celebrating the Family: Ritual, Consumer Culture and Ethnicity. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000).

Domestic Tyranny: The Making of Social Policy Against Family Violence (New York: Oxford University Press, l987). With New Introduction (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004).

Elizabeth H. Pleck and Joseph H. Pleck, eds., The American Man. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, l980).

Black Migration and Poverty: Boston, l870-l900.  (New York: Academic Press, l979).

Nancy F. Cott and Elizabeth H. Pleck, eds.,  A Heritage of Her Own: Toward a New Social History of American Women.  (New York: Simon and Schuster, l979). Selected as E-Book, 2004.

Curriculum Materials

Elizabeth H. Pleck and Todd E. Larson, A Historian's Guide To Using the Computer. (Urbana: Dept of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1996). 

Elizabeth H. Pleck and Ellen K. Rothman, Legacies: Family History.  (San Francisco: BMR, l986).

Elizabeth H. Pleck,  Ellen K. Rothman, and Judith Babbitts, Legacies: A Teacher's Guide. (San Francisco: BMR, l986).

Elizabeth H. Pleck, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Joan Hoff-Wilson, Restoring Women to History: The U.S. Survey.  (Bloomington, IN: Organization of American Historians, l984).

Articles and Chapters

“Rituals, Families and Identities,” in Amitai Etzioni and Jared Bloom, eds., We Are What We Celebrate: Understanding Holidays and Rituals (New York: New York University Press, 2005). 
“Abram L. Sachar,” in One Hundred Years of Sinai Temple (Champaign, IL: Sinai Temple, 2005).

“Two Dimensions of Fatherhood: A History of the Good Dad/Bad Dad Complex,” in M. E. Lamb (Ed.), The Role of the Father in Child Development, 4th edition. (New York: John Wiley, 2004).

"The History of the Family Photograph," in Colleen O'Connor, ed., Family History and the Family Photograph (Chicago: Arcadia Press, 2001).

"Christmas in the l960s," in Richard Horsley and James Tracey, eds., Christmas: The Religion of Consumer Capitalism (Boston: Trinity Press International, 2001).

"Kwanzaa: An Invented Black Nationalist Tradition, 1966-1990," Journal of American Ethnic History (Summer, 2001). Reprinted in Cele C. Otnes and Tina M. Lowrey, eds., Contemporary Consumer Rituals: A Research Anthology (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Press, 2003).

"The Making of a Domestic Occasion: The History of Thanksgiving," Journal of Social History (June, 1999).

Elizabeth H. Pleck and Joseph H. Pleck, "Fatherhood Ideals in the United States: Historical Dimensions," in Michael Lamb, ed., The Role of the Father in Child Development, 3rd edition. (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Press, l997).

"Rape and the Politics of Race, l865-l900," Working Papers of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women. (Wellesley, MA: Wellesley College, l990).

"The History of Criminal Approaches Toward Family Violence," in Lloyd Ohlin and Michael Tonry, ed., Crime and Justice: Annual Review, 19-57. (Chicago: University of Chicago, l988). Reprinted in Matthew Silberman, ed., Sociology of Violence: A Comprehensive Reader (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003).

"Failed Strategies; Renewed Hope," in Joan Hoff-Wilson, Rights of Passage: The Past and Future of the ERA, 106-120. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986).  Earlier versions in Working Papers of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, l983; Organization of American Historians Newsletter (l982).

"Women's History," in Ordinary People and Everyday Life (Nashville, Tenn.: American Association for State and Local History, l983), 51-65.  Reprinted in abridged form in History News, v. 37, No. 4 (April, l982).

"Challenges to Traditional Authority in Immigrant Families," in Michael Gordon, ed., The American Family in Socio-Historical Perspective, 3rd edition (New York: St. Martin's Press, l983), 504-517.  Revised as "Old World, New Rights and Limited Rebellions: Challenges to Traditional Authority in Immigrant Families, l880-l940," in Helena Lopata and Joseph Pleck eds., Research in the Interweave of Social Roles,  vol. 3, Families and Jobs (Greenwich, Ct.: JAI Press, l983).

"The Whipping Post for Wife Beaters, l876-l906," in Leslie Moch and Gary Stark, eds., Essays on the Family and Historical Change (College Station: Texas A and M University Press, l983),127-149.

"A Mother's Wages: A Comparison of Income-Earning among Married Black and Italian Women, l896-l9ll," in Michael Gordon, ed., The American Family in Socio-Historical Perspective (New York: St. Martin's Press, l977), 490-510. Reprinted in Nancy F. Cott and Elizabeth Pleck, eds., A Heritage of Her Own: Toward a New Social History of American Women (New York: Simon and Schuster, l980); reprinted in Darlene Clark Hine, ed., Black Women in American History (Brooklyn, New York: Carlson Publishing, l990).

"Sex Roles in Transition," in Dorothy McGuigan, ed., New Research on Women (Ann Arbor, Mich: University of Michigan, l973), 6-24.

"Feminist Responses to Crimes Against Women, l870-l892," Sign: Journal of Women, Culture. And Society.  v. 8, No. 3 (Spring, l983), 451-470. Reprinted in Eric Monkkonen, ed., Crime, Justice, History (Westport, Ct.: Meckler Press, 2002) and Charles O. Jackson, ed., The Other Americans: Sexual Variance in the National Past (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).

"Wife Beating in Nineteenth Century America," Victimology (Summer, l979), 60-74. Reprinted in Nancy F. Cott, ed., History of Women in the United States (New York: K. G. Saur, 1992).

Elizabeth H. Pleck, Joseph H. Pleck, Marlyn Grossman, and Pauline Bart," The Battered Data Syndrome: A Response to Steinmetz," Victimology (February, l978), 680-683.

"Two Worlds in One: Work and Family," Journal of Social History (Winter, l976), 178-195.  Reprinted in Jeffrey Rosenfeld, Relationships: A Marriage and Family Reader (Glenview, Ill.: Scott Foresman,l980);  in Eileen Boris and Nelson Lichtenstein, eds., Major Problems in the History of American Workers (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, l990); in Nancy F. Cott, ed., History of Women in the United States (New York: K. G. Saur, 1992).

"The Two-Parent Household: Black Family Structure in Late- Nineteenth Century Boston," Journal of Social History (Fall, l972), 3-36; reprinted in Michael Gordon, ed., The American Family in Socio- Historical Perspective (New York: St. Martin's l973);  Frederic Cople Jaher and Leonard Dinnerstein, eds., Uncertain Americans:  A History of Ethnic Minorities in America   (New York: Oxford University Press,l977); Maris Vinovskis, ed., Studies in American Historical Demography (New York: Academic Press, l979); Theodore Kornwiebel, ed., The History of Black Urban America (New York, 1979); Darlene Clark Hine, ed., Black Women in United States History (Brooklyn, New York: Carlson Publishing, l990).

Linda Gordon, Persis Hunt, Elizabeth Pleck, Marcia Scott, and Rochelle Ziegler, "A Review of Sexism in American Historical Writing," Women's Studies (l972), reprinted in Berenice Carroll, ed., Liberating Women's History: Theoretical and Critical Essays (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, l976).

Douglas Jones, Allan Kulikoff, and Elizabeth Pleck, "The Quantitative Study of Family History: A Research Methods Seminar," Family History Newsletter (Fall, l972).

Encyclopedia Entries

“Thanksgiving,” in Gary Cross, ed., Encyclopedia of Recreation and Leisure in America (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2003).

"Kinaalda," in Miriam Forman-Brunnell, ed., Girlhood in America: An Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2001).

"Holidays," in Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001).

"Henry Bergh," Dictionary of American Biography, v. 2 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 635-636.

"Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton," "Woman's Suffrage," "Women's Rights Movement," and "Contemporary Status of Women," Encyclopedia Americana, vols. 7 and 29 (Danbury, Ct.: Grolier, 1993), 103-107, 109-111, 111a-112, 632.

"Jane Addams", "Emma Goldman" "The History of Childhood" in Encyclopedia of American History (l996).

"Gender Roles and Relations," Encyclopedia of American Social History, V. III (New York: Charles Scribner's, l993), 1945-1960.

Recent Book Reviews

Ellen M. Litwicki, Public Holidays in Journal of Social History (June, 2002).

Joseph M. Hawes, ed., The Family in America, 2. vols. In Journal of American Studies, v. 37, No. 2 (2003).

Selected Professional Presentations and Invited Addresses

Stephan Thernstrom and Elizabeth H. Pleck, "The Last of the Immigrants?  A Comparative Analysis of Irish and Black Social Mobility in Late-Nineteenth Century Boston," Organization of American Historians, April, l970.

"Trouble the Spirit: Patterns of Childhood Punishment in American Families, l780-l900," Berkshire Conference on Women's History, August, l978.

"The New Labor History in the United States: Challenger to or Companion of the New Urban History?" unpublished paper presented at the invitational Conference of Scholars of Urban History, Cologne, West Germany, June, l98l.

"The Progressive Era and the Definition of Family Violence," National Conference on Family Violence Research, University of New Hampshire, July, l98l.

"Changes in the Incidence of Family Violence," National Conference on Family Violence Research, University of New Hampshire, July, l98l.

"Who Built This Church? The Social History of the African Meeting House," Conference on the History of Blacks in Boston, Boston College, April, l984.

"Evaluating Policies to Reduce Family Violence," Wellesley College Center for Research on Women Luncheon Seminar Series, April, l984.

"The Family Under Stress in the Victorian Past," American Psychiatric Association annual meeting, Los Angeles, May, l984.

"The Mistreatment of Women in Films of the l930s," Berkshire Conference on Women's History, June, l984.

"Gender, Kinship, and Changes in the Celebration of Thanksgiving," Wellesley College Center for Research on Women Luncheon Seminar Series, January, 1993

Elizabeth H. Pleck and Joseph H. Pleck, "Four Fatherhood Ideals in the U.S.: An Historical Perspective," National Council on Family Relations, Portland, Oregon, November, 1995.

"Fashioning Modern Coming of Age Rituals in Three US Subcultures: The Role of Gender, Ethnicity, and Consumer culture," Carleton Conference on the History of the Family, April, 1997.

"Cakes and Candles: A History of the Child's Birthday Party in the U.S.," History Department, Michigan State University, February, 1999.

"The History of Family Photography," Invited Address, Mesa Community College, San Diego, California, November, 1999.

“Representing the Family Feast: Normal Rockwell’s Freedom from Want,” Pampered Chef Resiliency Program, Chicago, Illinois, October 19, 2000.

"The Labor History Network and the State of Labor History," Social Science History Association, November, 2000.

Cele Otnes and Elizabeth H. Pleck, “From Sandwiches and Ice Cream to Swans and Sculptures: Father of the Bride 1950 versus 1991,” Sixth Conference on Gender, Marketing, and Consumer Behavior, Dublin, Ireland, June 2002.

“Cinderella Dream: The Allure of the Lavish Wedding in Contemporary Consumer Culture,” Marial Center for Myth and Ritual in American Life, March, 2003.

“Immigration to the U.S.,” American History Teachers’ Collaborative, Urbana Middle School, July, 2004. 

“Mentoring the Next Generation: Women Historians and Mentoring Relations,” Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Scripps College, Claremont, Ca., June 2-June 5, 2005

“At Home in History: Writing Second Wave Feminism,” 20th International Congress of Historical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, July 7-July 9, 2005. 

Selected Service as Chair or Discussant for Professional Conference Sessions

Discussant, Session on Family Photographs, Social Science History Association, November, 1998.

Chair, Session on the Canadian Families Project, OAH, April, 1999.

Discussant, Session on Domestic Violence, Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, June, 1999.

Chair, Session on Gender and Ritual, Graduate Symposium, UIUC, March, 2000.

Discussant, Women, Property, and the Law, Organization of American Historians, April, 2000.

Chair, Session on the Lavish Wedding, Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, June, 2002.

Chair, Session on Age and the Working Class, Social Science History Association, November, 2002.

Discussant, Session on Reconfiguring Sexual Abuse, Women’s Sexualities: Historical, Interdisciplinary, and International Perspectives, Indiana University, November 13-15, 2003

Professional Service Activities

Berkshire Conference Prize Committee, 2000
Coordinating Committee of Women in the Historical Profession, Nominating Committee, l970; CCWHP-CGWH Fellowship Officer, l991-2004
American Historical Association, Nominating Committee, l982-l984
Organization of American Historians, Membership Committee, l977; Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Freedom, l979-l980; Integrating Women's History into Undergraduate Surveys, l979-l982
Social Science History Association, Program Committee, l979-l980, l984; Executive Board, l980-l983; Allan Sharlin Prize Committee, 2002; Chair, Allan Sharlin Prize Committee, 2003

Other Professional Activities

Grants and Fellowship Review, NEH: Media Program, l978-l982; Research Fellowships, l979-l982; Public Programs, l98l; General Research Fellowship Review Committee, l98l; Individual Fellowships Review Committee, l984-l985; Bunting Institute, l982; Rockefeller Foundation, l983 
Manuscript Reviewer, Indiana Magazine of History, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Signs: Journal of Women, Culture and Society, Journal of American History, Journal of American Ethnic History, Gender and History, Journal of Women's History, Food and Foodways, Social Politics, Oral History Review, Winterthur Portfolio,  Oxford University Press, Routledge Press, Harvard University Press, McGraw Hill, University of California Press, Rutgers University Press
Advisory Board, Massachusetts Judicial Records Committee, l978-l979
Editor, Series in American Social History, State University of New York Press, l980-l982
Editorial Board, Historical Methods Newsletter, l983-l986
Editorial Board, Journal of Women's History, l987-2004
Associate Editor, Journal of Women’s History, 2004-2006
Consultant, Project on Sexual and Family Violence, University of Massachusetts, Boston, l980
Consultant, Museum of Afro-American History, Boston, Mass., l980-l984
Consultant, Integrating Women into the Liberal Arts Curriculum, Wheaton College, October, l980; Old Dominion University, May, l983; Purdue University, May, l983; Southern Illinois University, l987; Worcester State College, May, l988
Consultant, Lower East Side Historic Conservancy, l987-l989
Advisory Board, Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women, l983-1997
Consultant, Good Housekeeping, l989
Associate Editor, American National Biography, l989-2000
Consultant, Newton Historical Society, 1991
Consultant, Project on Battered Women and Homelessness, 1995
Organizer, Louise Tilly Retirement Conference, l998
Consultant, Millenium Project, Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, 1999-2000
Consultant, Faces of America Project, 1998-2000

Dissertations Advised

“True Sisterhood: The Female Family in Nineteenth-Century Michigan,” Marilyn Ferris Motz, University of Michigan, 1981.
“’In the Name of the Home: Women, Domestic Science, and American Higher Education in the Progressive Era,” Elisa Miller, University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign, 2004.
“Doorway for the Competitions of Life: American Citizenship and Access of Higher Education,”
Saran Donahoo,” University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign, 2004.
“’What I Did is Who I Am”: African American Women and Resistance to Slavery in Colonial and Revolutionary New England,” Catherine Adams, University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign, 2004. 
“Lessons in Black and White: Violence as an Education in Race, Gender, and Southern Identities for Children in the Jim Crow South, 1880-1930,” co-advisor for Kristina Durocher Wilson, University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign, 2005.

Recent Public Service Presentations

"Clara Lemlich," Hadassah of Central Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, November, 1995

Recent Media Interviews

“Immigrants’ holiday rituals changing,” USA Today, December, 1997.
“Family Ritual” on KVOW, Seattle, National Public Radio, June 12, 2003
“Cinderella Dreams” on WILL,  National Public Radio, Urbana, Ill, November 21, 2003
“Hot Type,” Chronicle of Higher Education (November 21, 2003), A13.
“Cinderella Dreams,” on KVON, Napa, California, November 23, 2003.
“Cinderella Dreams,” with Salon magazine, Indiebride.com, December 1, 2003
“Cinderella Dreams,” with Sirius Satellite Radio, New York City, December 3, 2003
“Cinderella Dreams” with Marketplace, National Public Radio, March, 2004.
“Cinderella Dreams,” with Kojo Nnamdi Show, WAMU, April 5, 2004.
“Cinderella Dreams,” Television interview, First Business, June 5, 2004.
“Cinderella Dreams,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 12, 2004.
“Party Pressure,” The Boston Globe, February 3, 2005.
“Cinderella Dreams, Palm Beach Post, April 28, 2005.

Courses Taught

U.S. Urban History
Race, Ethnicity and Migration to the American City
U.S. History, l776-l836
U.S. History Since 1877
U.S. Social History Since l865
History of the American Family
Women, Families and Industrialization in the United States, France and Great Britain
U.S. Women's History, the Colonial Period to 1877
U.S. Women's History, l877 to the Present
Women's Studies: Women in the Contemporary U.S.
Women and Reform in U.S. History
Women and American Politics, 1920-1988
Immigration and the Family in American History
Problems in the Study of U.S. Women's History
The Comparative History of Women and Gender in World History, 1700-1920
The Contemporary American Family
The History of Non-White Families in the U.S.
Festivity and Ritual in American History
The Comparative History of the Family in Europe and the U.S.
The Sexual Revolution and the Women’s Movement in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s