Daemen College : Academics & Research : Division of Arts & Sciences : History & Government : Faculty : Penny Messinger, Ph.D.

Penny Messinger, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

235 Duns Scotus Hall
716-839-8280
pmessing@daemen.edu

Education

• Ph.D. - History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, March 1998. Dissertation: “Leading the Field of Mountain Work: A History of the Conference of Southern Mountain Workers, 1912 – 1950,” written under the direction of Leila J. Rupp. My dissertation is a gender study that analyzes reform and the effort to define the regional identity of Southern Appalachia.
• Comprehensive Fields: Women’s, American, and Russian history.
• M. A. - History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, March 1991. M.A. Thesis, “Children of the Past, Women of Time and Change: Women in Mountain Life & Work, 1925-1934.” Directed by Leila J. Rupp and Susan M. Hartmann.
• B. A. - Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia, December 1986. Magna cum laude with a major in History and minors in English and Spanish.

Courses Taught

• HIS 220 U.S. National Period
• HIS 221 U.S. Twentieth Century
• HIS 247 History of American Women
• HIS 247 Introduction to Women's Studies

Presentations

• New York's Appalachia: How New York State became part of the Appalachian Regional Commission. Researching New York History Conference. Forthcoming (November 2003): Albany, NY.
• Nothing to Fear: The Great Depression in Historical Context.” Gallery talk for the exhibition, “The Arts in American Memory: Farm Security Administration Photographs, 1935-1943.” Beltz Gallery, the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, St. Bonaventure University. October 2, 2002.
• The Hope of a Sound Rural Life’: Female Reformers and the Cooperative Movement in the Appalachian South, 1912-1950.” Paper presented at the 12th Berkshire Conference on the History of Women. University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut. June 6-9, 2002.
• Women in American Wars.” Guest lecture for the Cattaraugus County Genealogical Society. Salamanca, New York. June 4, 2002.
• In Search of ‘Northern Appalachia.’” Paper presented at the Great Lakes American Studies Association (GLASA) Conference. Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. April 11-13, 2002.
• Review of John S. Kessler and Donald B. Ball. North from the Mountains: A Folk History of the Carmel Melungeon Settlement, Highland County, Ohio. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2001. H-Net Reviews, June 2002. URL: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=311381027618285.
• Beyond Berea: The Expanding Influence of the Mountain Maternal Health League.” Paper presented at the Duquesne History Forum. Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. October 13, 14, and 15, 1993.
• Organized Birth Control in the Appalachian South: The Emergence of the Mountain Maternal Health League.” Paper presented at the Social History Conference. University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio: November 9, 1991.
• A. Mitchell Palmer and the Palmer Raids.” Paper presented at Phi Alpha Theta Regional Conference. Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia: May 1987.

Publications

• Interdisciplinary and Institutional Change.” A solicited response to the panel, “The Future of Women’s History: Considering the State of U.S. Women’s History.” The Journal of Women’s History. Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring 2003): 172-74.
• Appalachia,” “Allegheny River,” “Abortion,” and “Birth Control,” in Peter Eisenstadt, ed., The Encyclopedia of New York State. Albany, NY: Syracuse University Press, publication scheduled for 2004.
• Review of Pem Davidson Buck. Worked to the Bone: Race, Class, and Privilege in Kentucky. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2001. H-Net Reviews, August 2002. URL: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path= 47501031159480.
• Review of Carl E. Feather. Mountain People in a Flat Land: A Popular History of Appalachian Migration to Northeast Ohio, 1940-1965. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1998. H-Net Reviews, October 2001. URL: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=308071002735046.
• Business and the American Economy, 1980 - 1989,” in Bondi, Victor, ed. American Decades, 1980-1989. Detroit, Washington, D. C., London: Gale Research, Inc., 1996, pp. 139-170. With Phillip G. Payne.