Penny Messinger, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
235 Duns Scotus Hall
839-8280
Email: 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.