Education
Ph.D. History and Women’s Studies joint program, University of Michigan, 2020
Dissertation: “Watching the Girls Go By: Sexual Harassment in the American Street, 1850-1980”
M.A. Cultural Heritage Studies, University College London, 2011
B.A. History, Macalester College, 2009
Professional Appointments
Assistant Professor, History and Women’s & Gender Studies (joint appointment), The University of the South, 2020-present
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Brookfield, Molly. “From American Girls into American Women: A Discussion of American Girl Doll Nostalgia.” Girlhood Studies 5, no. 1 (Summer 2012): 57-75.
Book Chapters
Brookfield, Molly. “From American Girls into American Women: A Discussion of American Girl Doll Nostalgia.” In Deconstructing Dolls: Girlhoods and the Meanings of Play, edited by Miriam Forman-Brunell, 55-73. New York: Berghahn Books, 2021.
Book Reviews
Brookfield, Molly. Review of The Wages of History: Emotional Labor on Public History’s Front Lines by Amy M. Tyson. Public Archaeology 14, no. 1 (February 2015): 75-77.
Awards
| 2020 | ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award, University of Michigan |
| 2020 | Rackham Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, University of Michigan |
| 2016 | Dorothy McGuigan Prize for Best Graduate Essay on Women, University of Michigan |
Grants and Fellowships
| 2021 | Faculty Summer Research Stipend, University of the South |
| 2020 | Samuel and Marion Merrill Travel Grant, Organization of American Historians (awarded, not used – OAH canceled due to COVID-19) |
| 2019-20 | Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan |
| 2019 | Community of Scholars Fellowship, Institute for Research on Women & Gender and Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan |
| 2018 | Margaret Storrs Grierson Fellowship, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College |
| 2018 | Newberry Library Short-Term Fellowship, Newberry Library in Chicago |
| 2018 | Mary Lily Research Grant, Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, Duke University |
| 2017-18 | Rackham Humanities Research Dissertation Fellowship, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan |
| 2017-18 | Research/Study/Travel Grant, History Department, University of Michigan |
| 2016 | Rackham Doctoral Pre-Candidate Research Grant, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan |
| 2015 | Mellon Public Humanities Fellowship, University of Michigan |
| 2014-16 | J. Frederick Hoffman Award, History Department, University of Michigan |
| 2010 | Institute of Archaeology Masters Award, University College London |
Conference Participation
Panels Organized
| 2022 | “Making and Policing Masculinity in Public Space,” Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, March 31-April 3 |
| 2020 | “Historicizing Sexual Harassment in the Age of #MeToo: Emerging Scholarship and Methodological Questions,” Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities, May 28-31* |
| 2020 | “Women and Public Space in the Urban United States,” Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, April 2-5† (Endorsed by Women and Social Movements in the U.S., 1600-2000 journal and digital archive) |
Papers Presented
| 2021 | “‘Girl-Watching’ as Street Harassment in Mid-Twentieth-Century California,” Western History Association Annual Conference, October 27-30 |
| 2021 | “‘I Was Obliged to Walk All the Way Home’: Sexual Harassment and Women’s Mobility in the Urban United States, 1860-1880,” Urban History Association Conference, October 21-24* |
| 2020 | Roundtable panelist, “Whither the Spinster? Sexuality, Labor, and Race in Defining and Locating Women Alone,” Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History affiliate session, American Historical Association Annual Meeting, January 3-6 |
| 2019 | “The Stranger in the Street: Street Harassment in Feminist Anti-Rape Activism, 1968-1980,” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, November 14-17 |
| 2019 | “Watching the Girls Go By,” Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, April 4-6 |
| 2017 | “Goo-Goo Eyes Not Permitted: Discourses of Street Harassment and Unwanted Looking in 20th-Century United States,” Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities, June 1-4 |
| 2017 | “Street Harassment as Surveillance: From Mashers to YouTube,” University of Michigan Graduate Student Conference in United States History, May 5-6 |
| 2016 | “Furtive Leers: Girl Watching as Pastime, Sport, and Site of Gendered Power in Cold War America,” Midwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association Conference, October 6-9 |
| 2016 | “Bold Glances: Etiquette and Harassment in the Twentieth-Century American Street,” University of Illinois Women’s and Gender History Symposium, March 11-12 |
| 2015 | “Ogling the Girls: Street Harassment and Unwanted Looking in Detroit, 1910-1946,” Upstate New York Women’s History Organization Conference, September 19 |
* canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic
† virtual conference due to COVID-19 pandemic
Campus Talks
| 2021 | “From the Streets to the Sheets” event on the history of rape culture, Bairnwick Women’s Center, University of the South, April 9 |
| 2019 | “Wolves, Sailors, and the Normalization of Street Harassment, 1930-1950,” Community of Scholars Symposium, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, University of Michigan, October 25 |
Teaching
The University of the South
Before #MeToo: Sex, Power, and Work in the Modern U.S. (Fall 2020 [online], Spring 2021 [online])
Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies (Spring 2021 [online], Fall 2021)
U.S. History II, since 1865 (Fall 2021)
Women in U.S. History, 1870 to the Present (Fall 2020 [online])
Certifications and Awards
Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, University of Michigan, 2020
Graduate Teacher Certificate, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan, 2019
Teaching Interests
United States post-1865
U.S. Women’s and Gender History
Cultural History
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Selected Service
- Member, Coordinated Community Response Team for Campus Sexual Assault Prevention, University of the South, 2021-present
- Organizer, Anita S. Goodstein Lectureship in Women’s History, History Department, University of the South, 2021-present
- Member, VAP faculty search committee, University of the South, 2021
- Bargaining Team Coordinator, Graduate Employees’ Organization, AFT-MI Local 3550, 2019-2020
- Vice President, Graduate Employees’ Organization, AFT-MI Local 3550, 2017-2019
- Peer reviewer, Public Archaeology, 2019
- Workshop facilitator, Graduate Student Instructor Orientation, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan, 2019
- Member, faculty search committee, Departments of History and Women’s Studies, University of Michigan, 2018-19
- Member, graduate admissions committee, Department of Women’s Studies, University of Michigan, 2017-18
- Mentor to incoming graduate students, Department of Women’s Studies, University of Michigan, 2017-18
- Co-Coordinator, Historical Approaches to Gender and Sexuality, Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop, University of Michigan, 2015-16
Professional Affiliations
American Historical Association
Berkshire Conference of Women Historians
National Women’s Studies Association
Organization of American Historians
