Department of History
Erika A. Kuhlman, Ph.D. U.S. History, Women's History, U.S. and
the World
(Our son Danil, my primary non-academic interest)
Dr. Erika Kuhlman
joined the faculty at Idaho State University in August 2003. She
teaches
courses in Women's History, U.S. Industrialization and Reform, U.S. and
the World, and survey
courses
in U.S. History. Professor Kuhlman received her Ph.D. in
American Studies from
Washington
State University, where she conducted research on the early
twentieth-century American peace movement that resulted in her first
book Petticoats and White Feathers:
Gender Conformity, Race, the Progressive Peace Movement, and the Debate
Over War, 1895-1919 (Greenwood,
1997). Since then, she has researched and written on post-World War I
reconciliation between the U.S. and Germany, emphasizing women's
efforts at peace-making. Her book Reconstructing
Patriarchy after the Great War: Women, Gender, and Postwar
Reconciliation between Nations is published by Palgrave
Macmillan (2008). Her most recent article, “American
Doughboys and German Fräuleins:
Sexuality, Patriarchy, and Privilege in the American-Occupied
Rhineland,
1918-1923,” was published in the Journal of Military History
71, no. 4 (October 2007):
1077-1106. She has also published a chapter titled “`We Women
Can
Build a Bridge’: Gender, Women Trans-nationals,
and Reconciliation in the Aftermath of the Great War,” in Alison S. Fell and Ingrid
Sharp, eds. The Women's Movement in Wartime:
International Perspectives
1914-1919 (London
and New York: Palgrave
Macmillan) in 2007.
Courses
Taught at Idaho State University
History 118, U.S. History and Culture
The theme of
History 118 is cultural change in American history. (Definition of
culture:
anything that isn’t nature. People and societies create cultures
materially and
ideologically.) In this class we will be examining how cultural trends
become
mainstream –popular—and how subcultures act against the mainstream to
try and
change it. In other words, culture is a source of social conflict that
changes
through time. What is mainstream culture? How can we define subculture?
Who
decides what is mainstream and what is not? The
following will serve as our working
definition of popular culture: Popular
culture refers to the products of mass media such
as television, film, print, and recording, as well as fashion, fads,
celebrations,
and sports. Popular culture will be viewed aesthetically and
historically; that
is, within the social and cultural contexts within which the materials
are
produced, disseminated, and interpreted.
History
308, Industrialization and Reform in the U.S., 1820-1932
History 308 explores the
emergence of a modern,
industrialized society and its many problems, including labor protest
and the
challenges of new ideas in the social, economic and intellectual
realms. Industrialization,
like all social change, was negotiated terrain: some American social
and
political leaders decided to pursue industrialization, but their
pursuit of it
did not go unchallenged by industrialization's detractors. The course
will be broken up
into
four related themes: the process of industrialization, responses to
industrialization (including reform, immigration, and consumerism),
cultural
responses (art, literature, music, film) to industrialization, and
current
trends in the U.S. and our
region. The historiography of each of these
themes will also be discussed.
History 418/518,
U.S. History for Teachers
History 418/518 is a U.S.
history survey designed for prospective or current Idaho
teachers. The course utilizes the Idaho Department of Education’s
Standards for Teaching U.S.
History in Public Schools. History 418/518 will be run primarily as a
workshop and as such it is largely self-directed. The objective is to
allow students to prepare a course that they will teach when they are
employed
in a school district. To that end, students will develop lesson plans
and exams
that they will include in their teaching
portfolios.
History 439,
Women in History
This course provides a
broad overview of women’s experiences in history, from pre-history to
the
present, with focus on the modern world. We will especially explore
women’s
changing roles in societies and the basic literature on women’s
historiography.
We will ponder questions such as: has women’s status generally improved
or
deteriorated over time? What strategies has the women’s rights movement
deployed to improve women’s status in societies? What role has religion
played
in women’s lives? Have women had a common experience, despite
differences of
place, time, class, and race? This course is designed to help you
develop your
skills in critical thinking, reading, writing, oral presentation, and
library
research.
Publications
Books
Petticoats and
White
Feathers: Gender Conformity, Race, the Progressive Peace Movement, and
the
Debate Over War, 1895-1919 . Westport, CT: Greenwood
Press, 1997.
A to Z of Women
in
World History. New York:
Facts on File, Inc., August 2002.
Articles
“`Women’s Ways in War’: The Feminist Pacifism of
the New
York City Woman’s Peace Party,” Frontiers: A Journal of Women
Studies
vol. 18, no.1 (Spring, 1997): 80-92.
“Four Lights,” and “Peace and Freedom,” Women’s
Periodicals in the United States: Political and Social Issues eds.
Endres
and Lueck (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996): 108-114; 274-280.
“On the Move, On Their Own: Finnish American Women’s
Experiences in Red Lodge, Montana,” Siirtolaisuus/Migration 1
(1991):
14-20.
“`Greetings From This Coal Village!’: Red Lodge,
Montana’s
Finnish Immigrants, 1904-1939,” Montana: The Magazine of Western
History
(Spring 1990): 32-45.
University and Community Service
* I.S.U. Faculty Advisor, Phi Alpha Theta, History
Student Honors Organization, 2004-present
* I.S.U. Faculty Advisor, Idaho State University Mortar Board chapter,
October 2003-present
* Commissioner, Historic Preservation Commission, City of
Pocatello, 2004-present
* Member, Pocatello Community Gardening Project, 2005-present