Faculty and Staff

Kathyrn  J.  Oberdeck

Department of History
University of Illinois
309 Gregory Hall
810 S. Wright Street
Urbana, IL  61801

Office:  (217) 244-2088,
(217) 333-4193
e-mail:k-oberd@uiuc.edu

Education:

Ph.D., American Studies, Yale University, 1991
M.A., American Studies, Yale University, 1987
B.A., Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, 1981, with Honors

Teaching Positions

Associate Professor, History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Assistant Professor, History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1993-
Assistant Professor, History, American Culture, University of Michigan, 1991-93, 1994-95
Part-Time Acting Instructor, English Department (Expository Writing Program), Yale University, 1990-1991
Part-Time Acting Instructor, Residential College Seminar Program, Yale University, 1990
Part-Time Acting Instructor, American Studies, Yale University, 1987, 1989

Publications

In Print:

Assistant Professor, History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1993-
"Popular Narrative and Working Class Identity: Alexander Irvine's Early-Twentieth Century Literary Adventures," collection edited by E. Arnesen, J. Greene and B. Laurie, Labor Histories, University of Illinois Press, June, 1998

"Movie Audience," "Atomic Age," "Suburbs," "TV," "Counterculture," Imagining the Twentieth Century, University of Illinois Press, 1997

"Contested Cultures of American Refinement: Theatrical Manager Sylvester Poli, His Audiences, and the Vaudeville Industry, 1890-1920," Radical History Review 66 (Fall 1996): 40-91

"Religion, Culture, and the Politics of Class: Alexander Irvine's Mission to Turn-of-the- Century New Haven," American Quarterly 47:2 (June, 1995): 236-279

"'Not Pink Teas': The Seattle Working-Class Women's Movement, 1905-1918," Labor History 32:2 (Spring 1991): 193-230

Forthcoming:

The Evangelist and the Impressario: Religion, Entertainment, and Cultural Politics in America, 1884-1914, The Johns Hopkins University Press, May 1999

Reviews:

David Nye, Narratives and Spaces, forthcoming, Journal of American History

In Progress:

Review article on books on company towns and town planning for the Journal of Urban History "Class, Space and Gender: Kohler, Wisconsin and Contested Meanings of Domestic, Community, and National Space, 1920-1960"

Review: Steven Ross, Working-Class Hollywood, for Reviews in American History

Conferences, Papers, and Other Presendations

"Class, Space and Gender: Kohler, Wisconsin and Contested Meanings of Domestic, Community, and National Space, 1920-1960" North American Labor History Conference, Detroit, October, 1998

"Model Village and Postmodern Vision," Newberry Fellows Seminar, Newberyr Library, June 1998

"Model Village and Postmodern Vision," Scholl Center Lunch Seminar, Newberry Library, December, 1997

"Kohler Village and the Cultural Politics of Place in Twentieth Century America," Social History Workshop, University of Chicago, November, 1997

"Making a Working-Class Self in the Popular Public Sphere: Alexander Irvine's Literary Adventures," Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, San Francisco, April, 1997

"Socialism, Storytelling, and Selfhood: From Factionalism to Folktales in the Autobiographies of Alexander Irvine," North American Labor History Conference, Detroit, October 1996

Comment, "Articulating Male Identity and the Social Constructions of Race and Class, 1877- 1922," Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Chicago, March 1996

Comment, "Verifying Gender in Postwar America," Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory Colloquium, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, March 25, 1996

"Popular Culture and Working-Class Identity in the Autobiographies of Alexander Irvine," American Studies Association Convention, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 1995

Comment, "'Hearts Uplifted and Minds Refreshed': Women's Challenges to Commercial Culture, 1889-1933," Organization of American Historians, Washington, DC, April 1995

"Class, Ethnicity and the Public Sphere in the United States, 1880-1910," American Studies Association of Southern Africa Symposium, Durban, South Africa, July, 1994

"Vaudeville, Women, and Cultural Hierarchy in Turn-of-the-Century America," 1993 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Vassar College, June, 1993

"Class Hierarchy and Ethnic Rivalry in American Vaudeville, 1890-1920," "Under the Workman's Cap": David Montgomery's Work and Teaching, Conference at University at Pittsburgh at Greensburg, June, 1993

"Theatrical Hierarchy and Urban Rivalry: Negotiations of Ethnicity and Class in Sylvester Poli's Vaudeville Career," Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Anaheim, April, 1993

"Class, Culture, Politics, and the Pulpit in Turn-of-the-Century New Haven, Connecticut," American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, December 1992

"The Vaudeville Syndicate and the New Hierarchy of Female Consumption," Mid-America Theatre Conference, Chicago, March 1992

"Alexander Fitzgerald Irvine: New Haven's Socialist Minister, 1898-1906," Association for the Study of Connecticut History, April, 1991

"Evangelism, Amusement, and the Politics of Class in Turn-of-the-Century America," American Studies Association Convention, New Orleans, November, 1990

"Researching Working-Class Cultural History in New Haven," New Haven History Colloquium, New Haven Colony Historical Society, February, 1989

"American Intellectuals Inventing Culture and Politics," American Studies Association Convention, Miami Beach, October, 1988

Fellowships and Awards

NEH Fellowship, Newberry Library, July-December 1997
Barbara Thom Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Huntington Library, 1997-98 (declined)
University of Illinois Research Board Grants, 1998-1999; 1997, 1995-1996, 1993
Michigan Society of Fellows, University of Michigan, 1991-1993, 1994-1995
Hibernian Research Award, Cushwa Center, University of Notre Dame, 1992
Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities, Yale University, 1988-1989
Dissertation Fellowship, American Association of University Women, 1987-1988
Annette K. Baxter Travel Grant, October 1988 (for paper presented at ASA convention)
Yale University Fellowship, l983-1987
Phi Beta Kappa, University of California, Berkeley, 1981

Professional Organizations

American Historical Association
American Studies Association
Organization of American Historians

Other Scholarly Activities

Manuscript Review: New Mexico Historical Review, 1997; Social Politics, 1997; American Quarterly, 199
Organizing committee, "Under the Workman's Cap": David Montgomery's Work and Teaching, Conference, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, June 4-6, 1993
Coordinator, American Culture Faculty Reading Group, University of Michigan, 1992-93