Dr. Jessamyn Neuhaus

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Who studies, analyzes, and historicizes U.S. popular culture? Why, people who love pop culture of course! I am an avid popular media consumer, and as a scholar and historian I believe that studying popular culture is an essential part of understanding both the past as well as our contemporary society. Knowing how to critique popular culture makes all of us more knowledgeable participants in U.S. politics, education, the marketplace, and home life. I love my work as a teacher scholar, and I’m always exploring new ways to facilitate student learning and intellectual growth in classes such as “The Apocalypse in Pop Culture,” “Race, Ethnicity, and Pop Culture,” “Superheroes in U.S. History,” “The Prom,” “U.S. Youth Culture,” and “Zombies in Pop Culture.” My research has focused on the history of gender, especially prescriptive and normative discourse, and I have authored two monographs in this field: Manly Meals and Mom’s Home Cooking: Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003) and Housework and Housewives in Modern American Advertising: Married to the Mop (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2011). I am also a scholar of teaching and learning, and my book Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to be Effective Teachers was published in 2019 by West Virginia University Press in their Teaching and Learning in Higher Education series. I’ve also published numerous book chapters and articles in anthologies and scholarly journals, including Advertising & Society Review, Journal of American History, The History Teacher, Journal of Popular Culture, Journal of Women’s History, Studies in Popular Culture, Teaching History, and Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy. Follow me on Twitter @GeekyPedagogy.

My most important task as a college instructor is to create a classroom environment where students can learn to take their own ideas seriously. I respect students’ ability to create knowledge and to effectively bring their own experiences and questions to bear on the study of history. I love my work as a teacher and a scholar, and I hope to impart to all my students, no matter what their future career or professional goals, a sense of how truly rewarding and beneficial academic study and intellectual growth can be.

Education

• M.A./Ph.D., Claremont Graduate University, 2001. Specialization: Twentieth Century U.S. History and Cultural Studies
• B.A., The College of Wooster. Specialization: Religious Studies

Teaching Areas

• United States civilization, 1877 to the present
• Gender, race, ethnicity, and popular culture
• United States youth culture
• Religion and popular culture

Research Areas

• U.S. popular culture
• Gender studies
• Pedagogy

Recent Publications

• Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to be Effective Teachers (West Virginia University Press, September 2019)
• “My Big Teaching Mistake: Losing Sight of Pedagogical Success.” Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy 29, no. 2 (July 2019).
• “Cooking at Home: The Cultural Construction of American ’Home Cooking’ in Popular Discourse,” in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Food and Popular Culture, edited by Kathleen LeBesco and Peter Naccarato (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018).

Honors

• SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2013