Department of History
Cockefair Hall 203
(816) 235-5220
FAX (816) 235-5723
Miriam Forman-Brunell, Professor of History, (B.A., Sarah Lawrence College, 1977; M.A. Sarah Lawrence College, 1982; Ph.D., Rutgers University, 1990). Cultural and social history (including material culture) of children and youth (especially girls), women and gender in the U.S.
Author of Babysitter: An American History (2009); Made to Play House: Dolls and the Commercialization of American Girlhood, 1830-1930 (1993;1998); co-editor of The Girls' History & Culture Reader: The Nineteenth Century (2011); The Girls' History & Culture Reader: The Twentieth Century (2011); editor of The Story of Rose O’Neill: An Autobiography (1997); editor of Girlhood in America: An Encyclopedia, 2 vols. (2001); series editor of Children & Youth: History and Culture (2003-2008). Guest Editor, Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal (vol. 5, no. 1, Summer 2012); Editor, Deconstructing Dolls: The Many Meanings of Girls' Toys and Play (Peter Lang, 2013; and Co-Editor, Princess Cultures: Mediating Girls' Identities and Imaginations (Peter Lang, 2013). Dr. Forman-Brunell is currently researching and writing, Girls in America: Girlhood in History & Culture, a narrative synthesis.
Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. Fellowships and research awards from National Endowment for the Humanities; the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation; Schlesinger Library; Andrew Mellon Foundation; Smithsonian Institution, and others.
Co-Director (with Kelly Schrum) of “Children and Youth in History," an educational web resource that provides college teachers with the materials and methods for integrating children and youth into history and humanities courses (http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/). The NEH-funded site is produced by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.