2015
ARWEN PALMER MOHUN
Education
1992 Ph.D. History, Case Western Reserve University
1988 M.A. History, University of California, Santa Barbara
1984 B.A. Music, University of California, Santa Cruz
Academic Employment
2013-present Chair, History Department, University of Delaware
2012-present Co-Director, Delaware Public Humanities Institute
2013-present Professor, History Department, University of Delaware
1998-2013 Associate Professor, History Department, University of Delaware
1992-98 Assistant Professor, History Department, University of Delaware
1997-1999 Joint Appointment in Women's Studies, University of Delaware
1989 Instructor, Case Western Reserve University
Honors, Awards, and Fellowships
Ralph Gomery Prize from the Business History Conference for Risk: Negotiating Safety in American Society, 2014.
"Things in Common: Fostering Material Culture Pedagogies” University of Delaware, College of Arts and Science, Multidisciplinary Grant, 2010-11.
National Science Foundation Senior Research Fellowship, 2004-5
Senior Research Fellowship, Smithsonian Institution, 1999
General University Research Fellowship, University of Delaware, 1999
Project Development Grant, University of Delaware, 1994
First Annual Lyman Award for Excellence in History, Case Western Reserve University, 1992
American Association of University Women Predoctoral Fellowship, 1991-2
Robinson Prize for Best Paper by a Young Scholar, Society for the History of Technology, 1990
Newberry Library Short-term Fellowship, 1990
Sigma Psi Prize for Excellence in History, Case Western Reserve University, 1990
Eva L. Pancoast Memorial Fellowship, 1990
Smithsonian Institution Ten-week Graduate Fellowship, 1989
Publications
Books
Risk: Negotiating Safety in American Society (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013).
Gender and Technology: A Reader, co-edited with Nina Lerman and Ruth Oldenziel (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003).
Steam Laundries: Gender, Technology and Work in Great Britain and the United States, 1880-1940 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999).
His and Hers: Gender, Technology, and Consumption, co-edited volume with Roger Horowitz (Charlotte: University of Virginia Press, 1998).
Selected Articles
“Gender and Technology,” in the Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine and Technology, 2014.
"Amusement Parks for the World: The Export of American Technology and Know-How, 1900-1939,” Icon 19 (2014):100-12.
“Lightning Rods and the Commodification of Risk in Nineteenth-Century America” in Taming the Electric Fire, edited by Oliver Hochadel and Peter Heering (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2009).
“On the Frontier of the Empire of Chance: Statistics, Accidents, and Risk in Industrializing America” Science in Context 8(September 2005): 337-357. “Designed for Thrills and Safety: Gender, Technology, and the Commodification of Risk in the Amusement Park Industry,” Journal of Design History 14 (Fall 2001): 291-306.
"Laundrymen Construct Their World," Technology and Culture 38(January 1997): 97-120.
"Versatile Tools: Gender Analysis and the History of Technology," with Nina Lerman and Ruth Oldenziel, Technology and Culture 38(January 1997): 1-8.
"The Shoulders We Stand On, The View from Here: Historiography and Directions for Research," with Nina Lerman and Ruth Oldenziel, Technology and Culture 38(January 1997): 9-30.
"Why Mrs. Harisson Never Learned to Iron: Gender, Skill, and Mechanization in the Steam Laundry Industry," Gender and History 8(Spring 1996): 231-251.
“Labor and Technology” in A Companion to American Technology, Carroll Pursell, ed. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 212-230.
Translations and Reprints
Nina Lerman, Arwen Mohun and Ruth Oldenziel, "L'Histoire des techniques et
la question du genre," in Danielle Chabaud Rychter and Delphine Gardey,
eds., L'Engendrement des Choses : Des Hommes, des Femmes et des
Techniques (Paris: Editions des Archives Contemporaines, 2002).
Recent Professional Presentations
“American Vernacular Risk Cultures,” invited lecture, Wagnisse Research Group, Essen University, Germany, 2015.
“Constructing the History of Risk: STS and Beyond,” PACHS Workshop for the History of
Technology, April 21, 2015.
“The History of Risk and the Nature of Modernity,” Keynote address, Risks in the 20th Century: Hazards as a Topic of Historical Research, FRIAS Workshop, Freiburg, Germany, July 19-20, 2014.
Comment, “The U.S. 1880-1920: Turning Point or More of the Same?" American Historical Association, January 2014.
“Seamanship and the Management of Risk in the Age of Sail,” Risques et accidents industriels (fin XVIIe - fin XIXe siècle)/Industrial hazards and accidents (late 17th – late 19th century), Conservatoire Nationale des Arts and Metiers, December 18-20, 2013.
Keynote Address, Accidents and Emergencies: Risk, Welfare and Safety in Europe and North America, c. 1750–2000 (9–11 September 2013), Oxford Brookes University.
Co-organizer and Presenter, “Cultures of Use: Histories of Technology Beyond Invention and Innovation,” President’s Roundtable, Society for the History of Technology Annual Meeting, 10-13 October, 2013.
Presenter, “How Should We Teach the History of Technology?” Roundtable, SHOT, 2013.
Teaching Experience and Fields of Specialization
Research and Teaching Interests
Risk, comparative 19th and 20th-century British and American industrialization, history of technology, gender, food history, history of the body, Americans in the world.
Courses Taught
United States History, 1865-Present (History 206)
Americans in the World (History 268– Sophomore Research and Writing Seminar)
Anonymous Americans (History 268– Sophomore Research and Writing Seminar)
American Industrial Society, 1790-Present (History 328)
Food in History--200-level survey
Do It Yourself America (History 411- Senior Seminar)
Time, Space, and Technology (senior/graduate seminar)
Gender and Technology (senior/graduate seminar cross-listed with Women’s Studies)
Technology in American Culture (graduate seminar)
Historiography of Technology (History 603--graduate seminar)
American Science and Technology (graduate seminar)
20th Century America (graduate seminar)
Research and Writing Seminar: American since 1865 (History 805)
Seminar: Hagley Museum and Library
Cultures of Consumption (grad seminar)
Independent graduate reading tutorials
Advising
Dissertations Directed/Placements
Jennifer Armiger, “The Gender of Industrial Decline” (2010). Jennifer is currently a visiting associate professor at SUNY Albany.
Kevin Borg, “From the Village Blacksmith to Mr. Good Wrench: Creating Auto Mechanics in Technology’s Middle Ground” (2000). Published as Auto Mechanics: Technology and Expertise in Twentieth-Century America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007). Kevin is currently Associate Professor of History at James Madison University.
Andrew Bozanic, “The Acoustic Guitar in American Culture, 1880-1970.”
Douglas Jerolimov, “Between Passengers and Shipowners: A Technological and Commercial Transformation of Transatlantic Travel, 1818-1895” (2007). Upon graduation, Doug was appointed Visiting Assistant Professor of History at the University of Virginia.
Douglas Lantry, “From Moon to Museum: A Material History of Apollo Spacesuits” (2010). Doug is a museum curator at the National Museum of the United States Airforce.
Katina Manko, “Ding Dong! Avon Calling!: Gender, Business, and Door-to-Door Selling, 1890-1955,” (2001). Site Director, Young Adult College Access and Preparedness Program Southern Queens Park Association, Jamaica, Queens and Assistant Professor of History, Bard Masters in Teaching Program.
Mark Mapes, “Losing Steam: The Decision Making Process in the Dieselization of the Pennsylvania Railroad” (2000). Mark currently works in the computer industry as a technical writer.
Alan Meyer, “Why Fly?: A Social and Cultural History of Private Aviation in Post-WWII America” (2009). Alan is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of History at Auburn University.
Gabriella Petrick, “The Arbiters of Taste: Producers, Consumers, and the Industrialization of Taste in America, 1900-1960” (2007). Upon graduation, Gabriella was appointed a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Food Studies Program at New York University. A book based on her dissertation is under contract with Johns Hopkins University Press.
William Thiesen, “From Practical to Theoretical Shipbuilding: The Rationalization of an American Craft, 1820-1920” (2000). Published as Industrializing American Shipbuilding: The Transformation of Ship Design and Construction, 1820-1920 (University of Florida Press, 2006). Bill is now the Atlantic Area Historian for the United States Coast Guard.
Cristina Turdean, “Betting on Computers: Digital Technology and the Rise of the Casino Industry in the United States, 1960-2000” (2012). Cristina is a tenure-track professor in Preservation Studies at Mary Washington College.
Laura Walikainen, “Private Spaces in Public Places: Restrooms, Dressing Rooms, Locker Rooms, and Public Baths, 1880-1930.” Lecturer, Michigan Technological University.
Jamin Wells, The Shipwreck Shore: Maritime Disasters and the Creation of the Modern American Littoral." Jamin is a postdoctoral researcher in maritime history at the University of South Florida.
Bess Williamson, “The Right to Design: Disability and Access in the United States” (2011). Bess is a tenure-track assistant professor at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Daniel Winer, “The Development and Meaning of Firefighting, 1650-1850” (2009). Daniel has taught at Auburn University and Tuskegee Institute.
Dissertations in Progress
Christopher Chenier is writing a dissertation on commercial photography in postwar America. He is a non-tenure track professor of art at Wesleyan university.
Anastasia Day is writing a dissertation on the victory garden movement during World War II.
Alison Kreitzer is currently drafting a dissertation on dirt-track auto racing in the United States.
ARWEN PALMER MOHUN
Education
1992 Ph.D. History, Case Western Reserve University
1988 M.A. History, University of California, Santa Barbara
1984 B.A. Music, University of California, Santa Cruz
Academic Employment
2013-present Chair, History Department, University of Delaware
2012-present Co-Director, Delaware Public Humanities Institute
2013-present Professor, History Department, University of Delaware
1998-2013 Associate Professor, History Department, University of Delaware
1992-98 Assistant Professor, History Department, University of Delaware
1997-1999 Joint Appointment in Women's Studies, University of Delaware
1989 Instructor, Case Western Reserve University
Honors, Awards, and Fellowships
Ralph Gomery Prize from the Business History Conference for Risk: Negotiating Safety in American Society, 2014.
"Things in Common: Fostering Material Culture Pedagogies” University of Delaware, College of Arts and Science, Multidisciplinary Grant, 2010-11.
National Science Foundation Senior Research Fellowship, 2004-5
Senior Research Fellowship, Smithsonian Institution, 1999
General University Research Fellowship, University of Delaware, 1999
Project Development Grant, University of Delaware, 1994
First Annual Lyman Award for Excellence in History, Case Western Reserve University, 1992
American Association of University Women Predoctoral Fellowship, 1991-2
Robinson Prize for Best Paper by a Young Scholar, Society for the History of Technology, 1990
Newberry Library Short-term Fellowship, 1990
Sigma Psi Prize for Excellence in History, Case Western Reserve University, 1990
Eva L. Pancoast Memorial Fellowship, 1990
Smithsonian Institution Ten-week Graduate Fellowship, 1989
Publications
Books
Risk: Negotiating Safety in American Society (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013).
Gender and Technology: A Reader, co-edited with Nina Lerman and Ruth Oldenziel (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003).
Steam Laundries: Gender, Technology and Work in Great Britain and the United States, 1880-1940 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999).
His and Hers: Gender, Technology, and Consumption, co-edited volume with Roger Horowitz (Charlotte: University of Virginia Press, 1998).
Selected Articles
“Gender and Technology,” in the Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine and Technology, 2014.
"Amusement Parks for the World: The Export of American Technology and Know-How, 1900-1939,” Icon 19 (2014):100-12.
“Lightning Rods and the Commodification of Risk in Nineteenth-Century America” in Taming the Electric Fire, edited by Oliver Hochadel and Peter Heering (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2009).
“On the Frontier of the Empire of Chance: Statistics, Accidents, and Risk in Industrializing America” Science in Context 8(September 2005): 337-357. “Designed for Thrills and Safety: Gender, Technology, and the Commodification of Risk in the Amusement Park Industry,” Journal of Design History 14 (Fall 2001): 291-306.
"Laundrymen Construct Their World," Technology and Culture 38(January 1997): 97-120.
"Versatile Tools: Gender Analysis and the History of Technology," with Nina Lerman and Ruth Oldenziel, Technology and Culture 38(January 1997): 1-8.
"The Shoulders We Stand On, The View from Here: Historiography and Directions for Research," with Nina Lerman and Ruth Oldenziel, Technology and Culture 38(January 1997): 9-30.
"Why Mrs. Harisson Never Learned to Iron: Gender, Skill, and Mechanization in the Steam Laundry Industry," Gender and History 8(Spring 1996): 231-251.
“Labor and Technology” in A Companion to American Technology, Carroll Pursell, ed. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 212-230.
Translations and Reprints
Nina Lerman, Arwen Mohun and Ruth Oldenziel, "L'Histoire des techniques et
la question du genre," in Danielle Chabaud Rychter and Delphine Gardey,
eds., L'Engendrement des Choses : Des Hommes, des Femmes et des
Techniques (Paris: Editions des Archives Contemporaines, 2002).
Recent Professional Presentations
“American Vernacular Risk Cultures,” invited lecture, Wagnisse Research Group, Essen University, Germany, 2015.
“Constructing the History of Risk: STS and Beyond,” PACHS Workshop for the History of
Technology, April 21, 2015.
“The History of Risk and the Nature of Modernity,” Keynote address, Risks in the 20th Century: Hazards as a Topic of Historical Research, FRIAS Workshop, Freiburg, Germany, July 19-20, 2014.
Comment, “The U.S. 1880-1920: Turning Point or More of the Same?" American Historical Association, January 2014.
“Seamanship and the Management of Risk in the Age of Sail,” Risques et accidents industriels (fin XVIIe - fin XIXe siècle)/Industrial hazards and accidents (late 17th – late 19th century), Conservatoire Nationale des Arts and Metiers, December 18-20, 2013.
Keynote Address, Accidents and Emergencies: Risk, Welfare and Safety in Europe and North America, c. 1750–2000 (9–11 September 2013), Oxford Brookes University.
Co-organizer and Presenter, “Cultures of Use: Histories of Technology Beyond Invention and Innovation,” President’s Roundtable, Society for the History of Technology Annual Meeting, 10-13 October, 2013.
Presenter, “How Should We Teach the History of Technology?” Roundtable, SHOT, 2013.
Teaching Experience and Fields of Specialization
Research and Teaching Interests
Risk, comparative 19th and 20th-century British and American industrialization, history of technology, gender, food history, history of the body, Americans in the world.
Courses Taught
United States History, 1865-Present (History 206)
Americans in the World (History 268– Sophomore Research and Writing Seminar)
Anonymous Americans (History 268– Sophomore Research and Writing Seminar)
American Industrial Society, 1790-Present (History 328)
Food in History--200-level survey
Do It Yourself America (History 411- Senior Seminar)
Time, Space, and Technology (senior/graduate seminar)
Gender and Technology (senior/graduate seminar cross-listed with Women’s Studies)
Technology in American Culture (graduate seminar)
Historiography of Technology (History 603--graduate seminar)
American Science and Technology (graduate seminar)
20th Century America (graduate seminar)
Research and Writing Seminar: American since 1865 (History 805)
Seminar: Hagley Museum and Library
Cultures of Consumption (grad seminar)
Independent graduate reading tutorials
Advising
Dissertations Directed/Placements
Jennifer Armiger, “The Gender of Industrial Decline” (2010). Jennifer is currently a visiting associate professor at SUNY Albany.
Kevin Borg, “From the Village Blacksmith to Mr. Good Wrench: Creating Auto Mechanics in Technology’s Middle Ground” (2000). Published as Auto Mechanics: Technology and Expertise in Twentieth-Century America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007). Kevin is currently Associate Professor of History at James Madison University.
Andrew Bozanic, “The Acoustic Guitar in American Culture, 1880-1970.”
Douglas Jerolimov, “Between Passengers and Shipowners: A Technological and Commercial Transformation of Transatlantic Travel, 1818-1895” (2007). Upon graduation, Doug was appointed Visiting Assistant Professor of History at the University of Virginia.
Douglas Lantry, “From Moon to Museum: A Material History of Apollo Spacesuits” (2010). Doug is a museum curator at the National Museum of the United States Airforce.
Katina Manko, “Ding Dong! Avon Calling!: Gender, Business, and Door-to-Door Selling, 1890-1955,” (2001). Site Director, Young Adult College Access and Preparedness Program Southern Queens Park Association, Jamaica, Queens and Assistant Professor of History, Bard Masters in Teaching Program.
Mark Mapes, “Losing Steam: The Decision Making Process in the Dieselization of the Pennsylvania Railroad” (2000). Mark currently works in the computer industry as a technical writer.
Alan Meyer, “Why Fly?: A Social and Cultural History of Private Aviation in Post-WWII America” (2009). Alan is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of History at Auburn University.
Gabriella Petrick, “The Arbiters of Taste: Producers, Consumers, and the Industrialization of Taste in America, 1900-1960” (2007). Upon graduation, Gabriella was appointed a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Food Studies Program at New York University. A book based on her dissertation is under contract with Johns Hopkins University Press.
William Thiesen, “From Practical to Theoretical Shipbuilding: The Rationalization of an American Craft, 1820-1920” (2000). Published as Industrializing American Shipbuilding: The Transformation of Ship Design and Construction, 1820-1920 (University of Florida Press, 2006). Bill is now the Atlantic Area Historian for the United States Coast Guard.
Cristina Turdean, “Betting on Computers: Digital Technology and the Rise of the Casino Industry in the United States, 1960-2000” (2012). Cristina is a tenure-track professor in Preservation Studies at Mary Washington College.
Laura Walikainen, “Private Spaces in Public Places: Restrooms, Dressing Rooms, Locker Rooms, and Public Baths, 1880-1930.” Lecturer, Michigan Technological University.
Jamin Wells, The Shipwreck Shore: Maritime Disasters and the Creation of the Modern American Littoral." Jamin is a postdoctoral researcher in maritime history at the University of South Florida.
Bess Williamson, “The Right to Design: Disability and Access in the United States” (2011). Bess is a tenure-track assistant professor at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Daniel Winer, “The Development and Meaning of Firefighting, 1650-1850” (2009). Daniel has taught at Auburn University and Tuskegee Institute.
Dissertations in Progress
Christopher Chenier is writing a dissertation on commercial photography in postwar America. He is a non-tenure track professor of art at Wesleyan university.
Anastasia Day is writing a dissertation on the victory garden movement during World War II.
Alison Kreitzer is currently drafting a dissertation on dirt-track auto racing in the United States.
