Faculty/Staff Directory
Dr. Susan Asbury
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| Office Hours: | Spring 2023: In-person office hours: Mondays 11:00 a.m. -- 12:00 p.m.; Wednesdays 2:00 p.m. -- 3:00 p.m. Virtual office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:00 p.m. -- 3:00 p.m. (check your syllabus for the Microsoft Teams link) |
| Biography: | I have a Ph.D. in American Studies from The Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg. I completed a B.A. in History from Berry College and a M.A. in Public History and a Certificate in Museum Management from the University of South Carolina. For over ten years, I worked in the museum field, gaining a variety of experience in state museums, college museums and archives, historic house museums, and a large history center. I have worked as both a curator, museum educator, and administrator. In 2009, I moved to Pennsylvania and began working in student life at Elizabethtown College and as a lecturer at Penn State Harrisburg. At Elizabethtown College and Penn State Harrisburg, I taught first-year seminar courses on the history of childhood and play as well as public heritage courses on museum studies, museum management, and the history of daily life in America. My research interests are in US history, public history, material culture, consumerism, and social history. My dissertation focused on the early decades of the American board game industry, particularly the origin and evolution of messages of progress and abundance conveyed by the games’ images and instructions. At present, I am revising my dissertation into a book and working on an article on the evolution of artifacts related to the "Little Red Riding Hood" fairy tale. I am delighted to be at MGA! |
| Courses: | HIST 2111 -- US Survey to 1865 HIST 2112 -- US Survey 1865-present HIST 3010 -- Introduction to Public History HIST 3011 -- Museum Studies HIST 4100 -- Material Culture Studies |
| Education: | Ph.D., American Studies, Penn State University, Harrisburg M.A. Public History, University of South Carolina McKissick Museum Certificate in Museum Management, University of South Carolina B.A., History, Berry College |
| Awards and Honors: | Georgia College and State University “Thank-a-teacher” award recipient, fall 2021 G. Rollie Adams Research Fellowship and Mary Valentine and Andrew Cosman Research Fellowships, The Strong, summer 2017 Penn State Harrisburg American Studies Dissertation Research Travel Fund recipient, summer 2017 Student Life Division Award, “Positively Restless,” Elizabethtown College, 2015-2016 Emerging Scholars Mentor, Elizabethtown College, 2015 Carole Isaac Nexus Award for the Student Development Learning Communities, Student Life Division Award, Elizabethtown College, 2011-2012 National Council on Public History (NCPH) Student Project Award, 2000 |
| Publications: | “A Plethora of Games for a Splendid Little War: Parker Brothers Invade the Parlor,” blog for The Strong, spring 2018. https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/play-stuff/2018/03/a-plethora-of-games-for-a-splendid-little-war-parker-brothers-invades-the. Book review of It’s All a Game: The History of Board Games from Monopoly to Settlers of Catan, by Tristan Donovan. New York: Alfred Dunne Books, 2017, American Journal of Play, Vol. 10, No. 2, winter 2018: 230-232. “Serious Fun: A ‘Strong’ Model for Play and Folklore in Children’s Museums,” chapter in Folklife and Museums: 21st Century Perspectives. C. Kurt Dewhurst, Patricia Hall, Charlie Seemann, editors. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2017. Educational Program document for Threads exhibit, Governor’s Mansion, Harrisburg, February 2016-May 2016. “The Checkered Game of Life: Depictions of the Life Cycle in Board Games,” Midwestern Folklore Vol. 41, No. 2, fall 2015: 3-19. “Children’s Museums,” and “Dolls” entries for Encyclopedia of Youth Cultures in America. Simon Bronner and Cindy Dell Clark, editors. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2016. Book review of Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her, by Robin Gerber. New York: Collins Business, 2009, American Journal of Play, Vol. 2, No. 3, winter 2010: 380-382. “Calling All Barbie Playsets!,” “So Many Careers, So Little Time,” and “OMG! It’s NKOTB!,” blogs for The Strong (written between December 2008 and June 2009). “‘Simple Colonial Furniture:’ Franklin H. Gottshall’s Influence on Interior Design at Berry College,” with Laura Caldwell Anderson, in Georgia Inside & Out: Architecture, Landscape, and Decorative Arts. Athens: Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, 2003. Foreword to Miracle in the Mountains by Harnett T. Kane with Inez Henry. Garden City, New York: Double Day and Co., 1956, fall 2002. Preface to The Weaving Room: The History of Weaving at Berry College. Catalog for the exhibit held at The Martha Berry Museum, October 2002-January 2003. Mt. Berry, GA: Berry College, 2002. Book Review of A Bluestocking in Charleston: The Life and Career of Laura Bragg, by Louise Anderson Allen. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001, Georgia Historical Quarterly, winter 2002. “Oak Hill” Section of Berry Trails: an Historic and Contemporary Guide to Berry College. Mount Berry, GA: Berry College, 2001. |
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