2018 S-USIH Exec. Comm. Elections: CANDIDATE BIOS/VISIONS

CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT

SARAH E. GARDNER, PhD

Sarah Gardner is Distinguished University Professor of History at Mercer University, where she teaches courses on nineteenth-century America. Her research interests include print culture, the literary marketplace, and the intellectual history of the Civil War era. She is the author of Blood and Irony: Southern White Women’s Narratives of the Civil War, 1861-1937 and Reviewing the South: The Literary Marketplace and the Southern Renaissance, 1920-1941. She is currently finishing a study of reading during the American Civil War. With Steven M. Stowe, she is co-editing a volume of essays, titled “Insiders, Outsiders: New Directions in the Intellectual History of the American South” for the University of North Carolina Press. With Natalie J. Ring, she is co-editing “The Lost Lectures of C. Vann Woodward” for Oxford University Press.

Few can deny the role S-USIH has played in reinvigorating the field of American intellectual history. Its annual meeting, perhaps the most humane in the profession, attracts an array of scholars interested in the history of ideas. Its leadership is creative, energetic, and entrepreneurial. For nearly a decade S-USIH has demonstrated that the worlds of American intellectual history, to borrow from the title of a recently published collection of essays, are capacious. One of most visible manifestations of this expansiveness is relationship with other academic societies. We need to foster existing relationships and to cultivate new ones. We’d do well, too, to broaden our scope by including approaches to American intellectual history that have been underrepresented in the organization and by widening our chronological range. We are well positioned to undertake these initiatives.

CANDIDATE FOR TREASURER
ANDREW KLUMPP, ABD
Andrew Klumpp is a PhD candidate in American Religious History at Southern Methodist University. His research investigates the implications of rising rural-urban tensions in the nineteenth-century Midwest, giving particular attention to rural understandings of religious liberty, racial strife and reform movements. His work has been supported by grants from the State Historical Society of Iowa, the Van Raalte Institute, and the Joint Archives of Holland and has appeared in Methodist History and the 2016 volume The Bible in Political Debate. He also currently serves as the associate general editor of the Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America.

I hope to contribute to the collaborative and collegial ethos that already exists within the S-USIH. Vigorous discussions on blogs, podcasts, and at our annual conference help to make this a vibrant community, and I see this as an opportunity to serve and support broad and engaged community of scholars. I also aspire to continue to expand the group of scholars who are taking part in the conversations at both the annual conference and throughout the year. Whether that be through working to include more rural and agricultural perspectives in our discussions or drawing on my involvement with LGBTQ historians, I want to continue broaden not only the topics of our conversations but also the individuals who are participating in them.

INCUMBENT FOR SECRETARY

REBECCA BRENNER, ABD

Rebecca Brenner is a PhD candidate in history at American University in Washington, DC. Her dissertation analyzes Sunday mail delivery from 1810 through 1912, focusing on the experiences of disenfranchised persons and religious minorities with their governmental institutions. Rebecca earned her masters with a concentration in public history from American University in 2017. Most recently, she has written an exhibit entitled “Breaking News: Alexander Hamilton” for the George Washington University Museum. Rebecca’s public writings have appeared in The Activist History Review, Black Perspectives, The Oral History Review, and the esteemed USIH blog.

As Secretary of the Society for US Intellectual History from June 2017 through the present, Rebecca has collaborated with the executive committee, recorded minutes during meetings, corresponded with members, and assisted maintenance of the website. To S-USIH, Rebecca brings expertise in early American history and public history, plus a passion for networking with fellow graduate students, as well as more senior intellectual historians. Rebecca has enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to serve as Secretary of the Society for US Intellectual History, and looks forward to continuing to take part in this amazing scholarly community.

INCUMBENT FOR PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE CHAIR

RICHARD CANDIDA SMITH, PhD

Richard Cándida Smith is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Berkeley. He has published seven books, most recently Improvised Continent: Pan-Americanism and Cultural Exchange (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017) and over forty essays in publications from the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Britain. His work has explored arts and literary networks, movements, and institutions in the United States, with an emphasis on international connections and exchange. Long active in oral history, for the last six years he has been working with Voices of Contemporary Art offering two-day workshops on the artist interview. He sits on several editorial boards and committees. He has been helping organize U.S. participation in the Trans@tlantic Cultures: A Digital Platform for Transatlantic Cultural History (1700 to Now) an international project under the direction of historians from France and Brazil bringing together scholars from every part of the world. He is a contributor to Ekphrasis, an interdisciplinary, international project based in the Netherlands exploring the poetics of text and image. Richard Cándida Smith is the incumbent chair of the S-USIH publications committee.