• Catherine Stewart

    Catherine Stewart

    Professor of History


Biographical Sketch

Catherine A. Stewart is Professor of History at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, where she teaches courses in late nineteenth and twentieth-century U.S. social and cultural history, such as the Documentary Imagination during the Great Depression, Public Memory and Public History, Work and Leisure in Modern America, Reel History: The Cold War and American Film, and African American Autobiography and Film. Her research interests include the New Deal, African American writers, public memory, and the politics of textual and visual representation. She received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1999. She has presented her work at the annual meetings of the Organization of American Historians, the Northeast Modern Languages Association, the American Association for the History of Medicine, and the University of Houston’s Black History Workshop. Her work on African Americans’ blues narratives, psychoanalysis, and the Lafargue Clinic appeared in American Quarterly. Her first book, Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writers’ Project (University of North Carolina Press, 2016) was selected as an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice magazine. It examines how 1930s debates over race and the legacy of slavery shaped representations of African American identity in the ex-slave narratives collected under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration. She is currently working on her next book on African Americans and household labor during the Great Depression, for which she was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship.

Link to Curriculum Vitae

Catherine A. Stewart - CV 2025

Academic History

  • Ph.D. in History, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1999. Dissertation Advisors: William R. Taylor, Matthew Jacobson, Nancy Tomes, and Lawrence W. Levine.
  • M.A. in History, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1992.
  • B.A. in History, Lawrence University, Magna cum laude, 1989.

Publications

Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writers' Project (University of North Carolina Press, 2016).

Book Review and Author's Response, Institute of Historical Research University of London, November 2016.

Books

Manuscript in progress: “The New Maid: Black Domestic Workers and Reform in the South, 1920-1945” (under option with the University of North Carolina Press).

Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writers' Project  (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016).

 Articles

“Household Accounts: Black Domestic Workers in Southern White Spaces During the Great Depression,” Journal of American History 108, no. 3 (December 2021): 492-520.

“‘This Bitter Earth, What Fruit It Bears’: Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo,’” Labor: Studies in Working-Class History 17, no. 3 (September 2020): 101-06.

“‘The Birth of a Nation’: A Roundtable,” Civil War History 64, no. 1 (March 2018): 56-91.

“‘Crazy for This Democracy’: Postwar Psychoanalysis, African American Blues Narratives, and the Lafargue Clinic,” American Quarterly 65, no. 2 (June 2013): 371-95.

Book Chapter

“‘The Mirror of Our Consciousness’: Psychoanalysis and Visual Culture in the Non-Fiction Essays of Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Ann Petry, and Zora Neale Hurston, 1940-1949,” in African American Literature in Transition, 1940-1950, Lena M. Hill and Michael D. Hill, eds. In series African American Literature: In Transition, 1750-2015, Joycelyn Moody and Cassander Smith, eds. (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

 Book Reviews

Dennis A. Doyle, Psychiatry and Racial Liberalism in Harlem, 1936-1968 (University of Rochester Press, 2016), Journal of Social History 52, no. 3 (Spring 2019): 980-82.

Lorraine Elena Roses, Black Bostonians and the Politics of Culture, 1920-1940 (University of Massachusetts Press, 2017), The New England Quarterly 91, no. 3 (September 2018): 537-40.

Eric Bennett, Workshops of Empire: Stegner, Engle and American Creative Writing during the Cold War (University of Iowa Press, 2017), The Annals of Iowa 76, no. 1 (Winter 2017): 150-52.

Micki McElya, Clinging to Mammy: The Faithful Slave in Twentieth-Century America (Harvard University Press, 2007), The Historian 71, no. 3 (Fall 2009): 614-16.

Jerrold Hirsch, Portrait of America: A Cultural History of the Federal Writers’ Project (University of North Carolina Press, 2003), American Communist History 3, no. 2 (2004): 292-94.

 

Courses Taught

  • Introduction to Ethnic Studies (EST 123)
  • The Making of Modern America (HIS 154)
  • Public Memory and Public History (HIS 240)
  • American Lives: African American Autobiography (HIS 255)
  • Reel History: African Americans and Film (HIS 257)
  • Reel History: The Cold War and American Film (HIS 257)
  • Slavery and the Environment in a Comparative Context in the Bahamas (HIS/ENV 260)
  • U.S. Social History since 1940 (HIS 354)
  • African Americans in U.S. History (HIS 356)
  • Work and Leisure in Modern America (HIS 358)
  • The Documentary Imagination during the Great Depression (HIS 364)
  • Newberry Library Seminar, Chicago: The Transformation of America’s Second City, 1880-1940, in Chicago  (HIS 369)

Grants

  • Fellow-in-Residence, Obermann Center for Advanced Study, University of Iowa, 2019.
  • National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship ($50,400), 2017.
  • Richard and Norma Small Distinguished Professor, Cornell College, 2015-17.
  • Campbell McConnell Research Grant, Cornell College, 2013-14.
  • Sabbatical Grant, Cornell College, 2012-13.
  • Dimensions’ Center for the Science and Culture of Healthcare Research Grant, Cornell, 2009.
  • Environmental Studies Travel Grant for Course Development, Cornell Mellon Workshop, Gerace Research Centre, San Salvador, Bahamas, July 2009.

Talks/Lectures

  • Invited Scholar, “The Federal Writers’ Project: New Directions for Research, Teaching, and Public Engagement,” National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., June 29-July 18, 2026.
  • Session Organizer, “The N-Word and Black Resistance, Past and Present: Three Ways of Looking–Through Memoir, History, and Literature,” Moderator Dr. Tera Hunter, Organization of American Historians, Philadelphia, April 16-19, 2026.
  • Paper, “From the Balcony: Black Moviegoing and Political Protest in the Jim Crow South,” Organization of American Historians, Philadelphia, April 16-19, 2026.
  • Invited Scholar, “Rewriting America: Reconsidering the Federal Writers’ Project 80 Years Later,” Roundtable I: Politics, Vision, Purpose: Rewriting American Identity, Public Symposium, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., June 16, 2023.
  • Paper, “‘The Ways of Her Household’: African American Women as Domestic Service Reformers, Employers, and Workers during the 1920s and 30s,” Panel Commentator: Dr. Tera Hunter, the Southern Historical Association, Charlotte, N.C., Nov. 9-12, 2023.
  • Paper, “‘The Maid Speaks’: The Voices of Black Domestic Workers in the South During the Great Depression,” Newberry Library Labor History Seminar, Chicago, Illinois, November 4, 2022.
  • Presenter, “Home/Work: Race, Gender, and Domestic Work in the South During the Great Depression,” Tuesday Virtual Colloquium Series, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, March 16, 2021.
  • Panelist, “Iowa Women of the Great Migration: The Maid Narratives,” Iowa Women’s Archives, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City Public Library, March 3, 2020.
  • Panelist, Obermann Conversations, “Domestic Stories: Care Work and Social Justice Issues, Past and Present,” Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, University of Iowa, Iowa City Public Library, November 14, 2019.
  • Session Organizer, “Laboring for Freedom: African American Women Workers in Public Places and Domestic Spaces,” Moderator Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson, Organization of American Historians, Philadelphia, April 4-6, 2019.
  • Paper, “Black Lives in White Households: Race, Gender, and Domestic Work in the South during the Great Depression,” Organization of American Historians, Philadelphia, April 4-6, 2019.
  • Invited Speaker, National Endowment for the Humanities: Humanities Initiatives at Community Colleges Faculty Development Workshop, “Collective Memory of Historical Traumas and the Transformative Power of the Humanities: Slavery and Public Memory,” Everett Community College, Everett, WA, October 11, 2018.
  • Keynote Speaker, Research and Creativity Symposium, Simpson College, Indianola, IA, April 20, 2017.
  • Book Talk, Long Past Slavery, Newberry Library, Chicago, IL, March 15, 2017.
  • Book Talk, Long Past Slavery, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL, Jan. 26, 2017.
  • Book Talk, Long Past Slavery, Iowa City Book Festival, Iowa City, IA, Oct. 8, 2016.
  • Panel Chair, “Erasures,” Global Perspectives on Gender and the History of Slavery, Obermann Humanities Symposium, University of Iowa, October 13-15, 2010.
  • “‘Crazy for This Democracy’: Psychoanalytic Theory and African American Autopathography,” American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM), Cleveland, OH, April 2009.
  • Keynote Speaker, National Endowment for the Humanities’ Big Read Iowa, “Feast, Flood, and Famine: Zora Neale Hurston’s Search for African American Folk Culture,” Public Libraries of Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Des Moines, Fort Dodge, Keokuk, Mount Pleasant, and Waterloo, IA, and African American Museum of Iowa, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, January and February, 2009.
  • “‘Crazy for This Democracy’: Psychoanalytic Theory and African American Autopathography,” Northeast Modern Language Association (NEMLA), Boston, MA, February 2009.

Author Blogs

Author Blog, ­Looking Backward: On Memory and the Challenges of Oral History University of North Carolina Press, posted May 25, 2016.

Author Blog, Having an Honest Conversation about Slavery: Now and Then University of North Carolina Press, posted April 20, 2016. 

 

Media Coverage

Interview with C-Span 3 American History TV Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, April 5, 2019

Panelist, “Documenting Slavery: The Impact and Import of the Federal Writers’ Project’s Slave Narratives,” with Peabody Award Journalist Brian Palmer, Atlantic Staff Writer Clint Smith, and Professor John Edgar Tidwell, (Zoom), Center for Brooklyn History, July 26, 2021.

Interview with Clint Smith, “Stories of Slavery, From Those Who Survived It,” The Atlantic 327, no. 2 (March 2021): 28-41.

Interview with Jon Allsop, “The Enduring Lessons of a New Deal Writers Project,” Columbia Journalism Review, December 22, 2020.

Interview with Derek Litvack, New Books Network (podcast), https://newbooksnetwork.com/catherine-a-stewart-long-past-slavery-representing-race-in-the-federal-writers-project-unc-press-2016/, January 30, 2020.

Interview with Rebecca Onion, “Is the Greatest Collection of Slavery Narratives Tainted…?” Slate Magazine, Slate.com, July 6, 2016.

 

 

Service to the Cornell Community

Faculty Advisor, Cornell Fellows Program, Berry Career Institute, 2016-23.

Humanities Representative, Divisional Council, Cornell College, 2020-23.

Faculty Advisor, Dimensions Programs for Health Professions, 2023.

Faculty Advisor, Richard H. Thomas History Scholar Awards for Off-Campus Research, History Department, Cornell College, 2013-present.

Strategic Planning Advisory Committee, (Divisional Council), 2021.

Faculty Advisor, Sci Fi/Fantasy Club, Student Organization, Cornell College, 2018-21.

Chair, Ethnic Studies Program, Cornell College, 2004-05; 2006-09; 2011; 2017-18.

Member, Advisory Committee, Center for Teaching and Learning, 2017-18.

Faculty Sponsor, “Stepping into the Past, Making Local History Come Alive”: Website and Audio Walking Tour for Ash Park and Cornell’s Historic Campus,” Cornell Summer Research Institute (CSRI), with Dani Grandinetti ’21, Summer 2018, Cornell College.

Member, Academic Affairs, 2016-19.

Faculty Sponsor, “Digital Map and Visual-Audio Tour of Cornell’s Historic Campus: Public History and the Digital Humanities, One Historic Campus Building at a Time,” Cornell Summer Research Institute (CSRI), with Hannah Robertson ’18, and Brad Kane, ’18, Summer 2016, Cornell College.

Chair, History Department, Cornell College, 2006-09; 2014-15.

Member, Writing Committee, 2014-15.

Member, Dean’s Ad Hoc Advisory Committee, 2014.

Member, Diversity Committee, Cornell College, 2013-14.

Chair, Lecture, Artist, Cultural Events Committee (LACE), Cornell College, 2011-12.

Member, Literary Arts Center Advisory Council, 2011-12.

Member, Academic Regulations Committee, 2007-10.

Member, Academic Affairs Committee, 2007-10.

Executive Member, Associated Colleges of the Midwest Minority Concerns Committee, 2001-04.

Faculty Advisor, Sister 4 Sister, Student Organization for Women of Color, Cornell College, 2000-03.

Member, Academic Regulations, 2000-01.

Faculty Planning and Development Committee, Writing Across the Disciplines Program, Cornell College, 2000-01.

Service to the Profession

Scholarly Advisor, Exhibit “Racist Things: Hateful Imagery in the American Home,” African American Museum of Iowa, 2023-24.

Scholarly Advisor, “The People’s Recorder” podcast, season 2, NEH and Spark Media, 2022-23.

Invited Reader and Responder, Faculty Book Manuscript Workshop, History Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, May 12-13, 2022.

Book Manuscript Reviews: Duke University Press, Rutgers University Press, Louisiana State University Press, 2020-21.

Article Referee: Journal of Musicological Research (2024); Harvard University Business History Review (2022); Journal of American Studies (2020); Popular Culture Review (2020), The Public Historian (2016); Journal of Social History (2016); Symposium on the Natural History of the Bahamas (2012).

Member, Exhibit Advisory Committee, Driven by Hope: The Great Migration, African American Museum of Iowa, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 2018.

External Reviewer for Promotion, Tenure, and Reappointment Decision, Department of History, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, 2017.

Humanities Evaluator, Iowa City Book Festival, Humanities Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, July, 2012.

Member, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Association’s Book Award and Travel Grant Committee, 2007-08.

Memberships

  • American Historical Association
  • Association for the Study of African American Life and History
  • Organization of American Historians
  • Labor and Working-Class History Association