History Department
Armstrong Atlantic State University
11935 Abercorn Street, Savannah, GA 31419
(912) 344-3349 / (912) 344-3451 (Fax)
ella.howard@armstrong.edu

Current Research: Savannah History Bibliography Zotero Group

Position

2008-present Assistant Professor of History, Armstrong Atlantic State University

2007-2008 Adjunct Instructor, History Department, Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus

2006-2007 Adjunct Instructor, History Department, Fairleigh Dickinson University


Education

2007 Ph.D., American and New England Studies, Boston University
Dissertation: “Skid Row: Homelessness on the Bowery in the Twentieth Century”
Dissertation Advisor: Bruce Schulman, History Department

1998 M.A., History of the Decorative Arts, Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, New York City

1995 B.A., Art History and French Civilization, Scripps College, Claremont, CA


Publications (in print and under contract)

Homeless: Poverty, Policy, and Place in the Era of Skid Row. Forthcoming from University of Pennsylvania Press.

“Pink Truck Ads: Second-Wave Feminism and Gendered Marketing,” Journal of Women’s History. Publication scheduled for vol. 22, no. 4, Winter 2010.

“New York Liberalism and the Fight against Homelessness,” in Making Change in America: Liberal Politics and Social Reform in the Twentieth Century, edited by Jonathan Bell and Tim Stanley, forthcoming from University of Illinois Press.

“The New Deal and New York City’s Homeless,” in New York at 400, eds. Mike Wallace and John Thorn, sponsored by the Museum of the City of New York, Running Press, division of the Perseus Books Group, 2009.

“From Fasting to Self-Acceptance: Body Image, Weight Loss and American Culture,” The Oprah Phenomenon, eds. Jennifer Harris and Elwood Watson, University Press of Kentucky, 2007.

"Feminist Writings on Twentieth-Century Design History, 1970-1995: Furniture, Interiors, Fashion," Studies in the Decorative Arts, Fall-Winter 2000-2001, Vol. 8, No. 1.

“`In A Man’s World,’ Women Industrial Designers,” co-authored with Eric Setliff, in Women Designers in the U.S.A., 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference, Bard Graduate Center and Yale University Press, 2000.


Presentations

"Selling Savannah," Converse College Southern Culture Conference, [April 2012].

“Homelessness in American Culture,” invited presentation, House and Home in American Culture, American Conversation Series 2010-2011, American and New England Studies Program, Boston University, March 2011.

“Using Material Culture Analysis to Enhance Student Learning in the College Classroom,” Popular Culture Association in the South, Savannah, October 2010.

"Regulating the Homeless on Skid Row," Cityscapes in History: Creating the Urban Experience, Center of Advanced Studies at Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany, July 2010.

“A Material Culture Analysis of Ouija Boards: Games or Ritual Objects?” Joint Meeting of the American Culture Association and the Popular Culture Association, St. Louis, MO, April 2010.

“Reading Savannah’s Cemeteries as Material Culture,” ACA/PCA, New Orleans, LA, April 2009.

“Occupation—Housewife: Women, Consumerism, and Gender Roles in Postwar America,” Price Tower Arts Center, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, June 2008.

“Excluded by Design: Contemporary Urban Homelessness in Los Angeles,” Joint Meeting of the American Culture Association and the Popular Culture Association, Boston, April 2007.

“Forgotten on Skid Row: Postwar Bowery Homelessness,” Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, April 2006.

“Knitting for Survivors: Charitable Handicrafts and Hurricane Katrina,” Joint Meeting of the American Culture Association and the Popular Culture Association, Atlanta, April 2006.

“Oscar Lewis and the Material Culture of Poverty,” ACA/PCA, San Diego, April 2005.

“Razing the Bowery: New York City’s Slum Clearance Plan for Cooper Square,” Urban History Association Second Biennial Meeting, Milwaukee, October 2004.

“The Muni and the Mission: Homelessness on the Postwar Bowery,” CUNY Graduate Center Gotham Institute Postwar New York City History Seminar, April 2004.

“The Material Culture of Male Ambition in 1950s New York,” ACA/PCA, San Antonio, April 2004.

“The Automotive Industry Discovers and Defines the American Woman Consumer,” ACA/PCA, New Orleans, April 2003.

“Queer Visions: Picturing Gay Liberation, 1969-1971,” Gotham Public History Conference, CUNY Graduate Center, October 2001.

“If You Find a Better Car, Buy It!: Lee Iacocca’s Advertisements for Chrysler Corporation,” ACA/PCA, April 2001.

“The Motormaniacs: Early Motoring and the Birth of the New York Auto Show, 1900-1915,” ACA/PCA, April 2000.

“Shifting Interpretations of Gender in the Work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald,” National Feminist Graduate Student Association Conference, Austin, March 1999.


Book Reviews and Encyclopedia Entries

Review of Daniel Kerr, Derelict Paradise, Socialist History, forthcoming.

“The Grapes of Wrath,” “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” and “Sullivan’s Travels,” in Movies and American Culture, edited by Philip DiMare, ABC-CLIO, 2011.

“Homelessness,” in the Encyclopedia of African-American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century, edited by Paul Finkelman, Oxford University Press, 2008.

“Salvation Army,” and “Flophouses,” in the Encyclopedia of American Urban History, edited by David Goldfield, Sage Publications, 2006.

“Recognition, Redistribution, Rhetoric,” review of Leonard C. Feldman, Citizens Without Shelter: Homelessness, Democracy, and Political Exclusion, H-Urban, June 2005.


Courses Taught

Armstrong Atlantic State University
7580. Seminar in American History: Savannah and Comparative Southern Urban History
5770. American Material Culture
3920. Modern American Popular Culture
3800. Introduction to Public History
3780. Political Parties and Political Culture in Twentieth-Century America
3760. U.S. History 1877-1917
3740. Women in American History
1100. Political History of the United States and Georgia

Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus
Modern American Women’s History
American Popular Culture in the Twentieth Century
American Civilization Since 1877

Fairleigh Dickinson University
American Cities and Suburbs
Civil War and Reconstruction

Boston University
U.S. History Since 1968 (teaching fellow)
History of International Relations, 1900-1945 (teaching fellow)


Armstrong Atlantic Commitments

University Strategic Planning and Resources Committee (SPARC & SPARC II), 2010-present

University Research and Scholarship Committee, 2010-2011

University Representative, Technical Advisory Committee to the Historic Site and Monument Commission, Chatham County-Savannah Metro Planning Commission, 2009-present

History Department Graduate Committee, 2008-present

History Department Strategic Planning Committee, 2010

Gender and Women’s Studies Program Committee, 2008-present

Faculty Co-Advisor, AASU Phi Alpha Theta, 2010-present

Faculty Co-Advisor, AASU Gay-Straight Alliance, 2009-present

Faculty Lecture Series Committee, 2009-2010

Faculty Advisor, AASU History Club, 2008-2009


Consulting with K-12 Educators

Instructor, travel course on American history for area K-12 teachers through the Massie Heritage Center, funded by Teaching American History federal grant program. Itinerary: Williamsburg, Richmond and Monticello in 2011, Boston and Philadelphia in 2012, and Tennessee and North Georgia in 2013.

Consultant, Center for Civic Education, Massie Heritage Center, Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools (May 2010); led workshop for elementary school teachers on American government .

Consultant, Northwest History Consortium Teaching American History Grant (February 2010); assisted in setting the theme, readings and leading discussions for one week during online ten-week course delivering content and pedagogy to high school Teacher-Leaders.

Presentation to students: “Women and the Power of the Ballot,” City of Savannah Teen Leadership Summit, October 2008.

Professional Experience

Co-edited with Pat Kirkham, special issue of Studies in the Decorative Arts (Fall-Winter 2000-2001, Vol. 8, No. 1), focusing on American women designers

Research Assistant to Prof. Bruce Schulman, Boston University (2002-2004)

Adjunct Instructor, Click On @ The Library computer instruction program, New York Public Library (2002)

Research Assistant to Prof. Pat Kirkham, Bard Graduate Center (1998-2000)


Awards

College of Liberal Arts Undergraduate Research Grant, Armstrong Atlantic, 2010

Faculty Research and Scholarship Grant, Armstrong Atlantic, 2009

Boston University Graduate Student Organization Travel Award, 2006

Larry J. Hackman Research Residency Award, New York State Archives, 2005
Angela J. and James J. Rallis Memorial Award, Boston University Humanities Foundation, 2004

Boston University Presidential University Graduate Fellowship, 2000-2004

Graduate Fellowship, Bard Graduate Center, 1995-1997

Alumni Award, Phi Beta Kappa of Southern California, 1995

James E. Scripps Scholarship, Scripps College, 1991-1995


Professional Affiliations

Editorial Board, Journal of American Culture, 2004-present

Material Culture Area Chair, American Culture Association/Popular Culture Association, National Conference, 2004-2010

Urban History Association

Organization of American Historians