History

Education

  • PHD, Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill
  • MA, Univ of North Carolina Chapel Hill
  • BS, Carnegie Mellon University

Professor of History

Program Director of GO Czech Republic

Department Head of History

Contact Information

As a professor of history, I am interested in how subgroups in the United States have attempted to support, defeat, outmaneuver and influence each other over time. I am fascinated by the ways in which the powerful attempt to legitimize themselves to the less powerful. Finally, I pursue the meanings that people invest in middle-of-nowhere places.

At Susquehanna, I teach courses on the history of the United States since 1860, including The Civil War in the American Experience, Making a Multicultural America, Work and Play in the USA, African-American History, and Pennsylvania’s Pasts and Publics.

Education

BA, Carnegie Mellon University, 1996.
Ph D, University of North Carolina, 2002.

Publications

Proving Ground: Expertise and Appalachian Landscapes. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018.

Bodies of Work: Civic Display and Labor in Industrial Pittsburgh. Duke University Press, 2008.

“Expert Vision: J. Horace McFarland in the Woods,” 139 (April 2015) PA Magazine of History and Biography.

“Three Miles, Two Creeks: Local Pennsylvania History in the Classroom,” 82 (Winter 2015) PA Magazine of History and Biography and Pennsylvania History (joint issue).

“The Logical Place to Take a Picture: William Gedney in Bethlehem,” 81 (Fall 2015) PA History.

“Loveliness, but with an Edge: Looking at the Smokies, 1915-1945,” 45 (Summer 2012) Journal of Social History.

“Made by the Work: A Century of Laboring Bodies in the United State,” in Kosut and Moore, eds., The Body Reader: Essential Social and Cultural Readings. New York University Press. 2010.

“The Ten Year Club: Artificial Limbs and Testimonials in the Early Twentieth Century,” in Schweitzer and Moskowitz, eds., Testimonials in the American Marketplace: Emulation, Identity, Community. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

“From Nation to Family: Two Careers in the Recasting of Eugenics,” 34 (January 2009) Journal of Family History.

“Working-Class Muscle: Homestead and Bodily Disorder in the Gilded Age,” 3 (October 2004) Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

“Civic Physiques: Public Images of Workers in Pittsburgh, 1880-1910,” 127 PA Magazine of History and Biography.

“Artificial Limbs and Industrial Workers’ Bodies in Turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh,” 36 (Winter 2003) Journal of Social History.

Book reviews of Ian Hartman, In the Shadow of Boone and Crockett; Kelly Enright, The Maximum of Wilderness; Aaron Anderson, Builders of a New South; Brian C. Black and Michael J. Chiarappa, eds., Nature’s Entrepot; Matthew Wolf-Meyer, The Slumbering Masses; Barry Reay, New York Hustlers; James L. Flannery, The Glass House Boys of Pittsburgh; Amy L. Blair, Reading Up; Paul Lombardo, Three Generations, No Imbeciles; Karen Morin, Frontiers of Femininity; Kim Marra, Strange Duets; Rina C. Youngner, Industry in Art: Pittsburgh, 1812 to 1920; Gary S. Cross and John K. Walton, The Playful Crowd; Anne E. Mosher, Capital’s Utopia; and Sam Stephenson, Dream Street.

Review essay: “The Ten Millionth Person to Think It,” H-Net.

Film reviews of The Homestead Strike and Tupperware!.

Presentations

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Pennsylvania Historical Association, “Turned Turtle: Auto Accidents in the Central Susquehanna Valley, 1910-1930,” Scranton, PA. (October 13, 2017).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Labor and Working-Class History Association, “The Labor of Unemployment: William Gedney’s Form and Content.”,” Seattle, WA. (June 25, 2017).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Pennsylvania Historical Association, “Acting, Yet Acted Upon,” Shippensburg, PA. (October 7, 2016).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Agricultural History Society, “Patterns Not at First Apparent: Outsiders in 1960s Kentucky,” Agricultural History Society, New York. (June 24, 2016).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Southern Forum on Agricultural, Rural, and Environmental History, “”To Be Leaned Against, To Be Felt”: Moving Mountains,” Center for the History of Agriculture, Science, and the Environment of the South, Samford University, Birmingham, AL. (April 15, 2016).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Bucknell Digital Scholarship Conference, “Small Places Contain Worlds of their Own,” Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA. (November 8, 2015).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Pennsylvania Historical Association, “Pennsylvania History and Social Media,” Pennsylvania Historical Association, Harrisburg, PA. (October 15, 2015).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Thinking Mountains 2015, “Blind Curves: Crashing Cars in 1950s Appalachia,” Canadian Mountain Studies Initiative, Jasper, Alberta. (May 7, 2015).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Pennsylvania Historical Association, “The Walking Expert: Horace McFarland in the Woods,” Pennsylvania Historical Association, Gettysburg, PA. (October 20, 2013).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Rust, Regeneration, and Romance, “The Logical Place to Take a Picture From: William Gedney and Bethlehem Steel,” Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage, University of Birmingham, Ironbridge, UK. (July 14, 2013).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Society of Appalachian Historians, “Making it “Wild and Wonderful”: Picturing West Virginia in the 1970s,” Society of Appalachian Historians, UVA-Wise. (May 20, 2013).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Affective Landscapes, “Embedded: William Gedney and the Feel of Big Rock,” Identity, Conflict and Representation Research Centre, University of Derby, Derby, UK. (May 25, 2012).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), American Society for Environmental History, “Largely Inaccessible: Belonging in West Virginia Whitewater, 1965-1975,” Madison, WI. (March 31, 2012).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Appalachian Studies Association, “Control of the Approach: Hiking and Belonging,” Indiana, PA. (March 24, 2012).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Pennsylvania Historical Association, “Nowhere: The Look of Landscapes after Coal,” Johnstown, PA. (October 14, 2011).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Ohio Academy of History meeting, “Largely Inaccessible: (Not) Belonging in West Virginia Whitewater, 1965-197,” Granville, OH. (April 8, 2011).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Gendered Bodies, “Brawn and Bruises: Imagining Pittsburgh’s Bodies of Work,” Departments of Anthropology and Women’s Studies, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. (November 11, 2009).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Pennsylvania Historical Association conference, “Photo Ops: Centralia and the Flattening of History,” Pennsylvania Historical Association, Bethlehem, PA. (October 18, 2008).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Cheiron conference, “The Discouraging Uphill Struggle: Roswell Hill Johnson’s Career in Eugenics,” Cheiron, Ryerson University, Toronto. (June 28, 2008).

Research Activity

“Central Susquehanna Valley History Project website” (On-Going). http://omeka.5675n.com/HIST324/csvhp

“Turned Turtle” (On-Going). A project on cars and car crashes in the rural United States between 1900 and 1940.

  • ARTH-403: Senior Thesis
  • ENST-117: American Environmental History
  • HIST-099: Intro to Historical Studies
  • HIST-112: U.S. History From Frontier to Space
  • HIST-115: African-American History
  • HIST-201: Public History
  • HIST-206: American Dream$
  • HIST-209: History of Crime in the United States
  • HIST-215: The Civil War in American Experience
  • HIST-222: Ends of Earth:Cent of Polar Exploration
  • HIST-300: History Methods
  • HIST-324: Pennsylvania’s Pasts & Their Publics
  • HIST-410: Seminar in History
  • HIST-420: Internship in History
  • HIST-501: Independent Study
  • HONS-301: 300-Level Honors Seminar
  • MSUM-400: Museum Studies Internship
  • MSUM-500: Final Research & Exhibition Project
  • OFFP-PRAGUE: Filming in Prague
  • OFFR-PRAGUE: Filming in Prague
  • OFFS-PRAGUE: Filming in Prague
  • PRDV-104: Perspectives

About Me

As a professor of history, I am interested in how subgroups in the United States have attempted to support, defeat, outmaneuver and influence each other over time. I am fascinated by the ways in which the powerful attempt to legitimize themselves to the less powerful. Finally, I pursue the meanings that people invest in middle-of-nowhere places.

At Susquehanna, I teach courses on the history of the United States since 1860, including The Civil War in the American Experience, Making a Multicultural America, Work and Play in the USA, African-American History, and Pennsylvania’s Pasts and Publics.

Professional Experience

Education

BA, Carnegie Mellon University, 1996.
Ph D, University of North Carolina, 2002.

Publications

Proving Ground: Expertise and Appalachian Landscapes. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018.

Bodies of Work: Civic Display and Labor in Industrial Pittsburgh. Duke University Press, 2008.

“Expert Vision: J. Horace McFarland in the Woods,” 139 (April 2015) PA Magazine of History and Biography.

“Three Miles, Two Creeks: Local Pennsylvania History in the Classroom,” 82 (Winter 2015) PA Magazine of History and Biography and Pennsylvania History (joint issue).

“The Logical Place to Take a Picture: William Gedney in Bethlehem,” 81 (Fall 2015) PA History.

“Loveliness, but with an Edge: Looking at the Smokies, 1915-1945,” 45 (Summer 2012) Journal of Social History.

“Made by the Work: A Century of Laboring Bodies in the United State,” in Kosut and Moore, eds., The Body Reader: Essential Social and Cultural Readings. New York University Press. 2010.

“The Ten Year Club: Artificial Limbs and Testimonials in the Early Twentieth Century,” in Schweitzer and Moskowitz, eds., Testimonials in the American Marketplace: Emulation, Identity, Community. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

“From Nation to Family: Two Careers in the Recasting of Eugenics,” 34 (January 2009) Journal of Family History.

“Working-Class Muscle: Homestead and Bodily Disorder in the Gilded Age,” 3 (October 2004) Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

“Civic Physiques: Public Images of Workers in Pittsburgh, 1880-1910,” 127 PA Magazine of History and Biography.

“Artificial Limbs and Industrial Workers’ Bodies in Turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh,” 36 (Winter 2003) Journal of Social History.

Book reviews of Ian Hartman, In the Shadow of Boone and Crockett; Kelly Enright, The Maximum of Wilderness; Aaron Anderson, Builders of a New South; Brian C. Black and Michael J. Chiarappa, eds., Nature’s Entrepot; Matthew Wolf-Meyer, The Slumbering Masses; Barry Reay, New York Hustlers; James L. Flannery, The Glass House Boys of Pittsburgh; Amy L. Blair, Reading Up; Paul Lombardo, Three Generations, No Imbeciles; Karen Morin, Frontiers of Femininity; Kim Marra, Strange Duets; Rina C. Youngner, Industry in Art: Pittsburgh, 1812 to 1920; Gary S. Cross and John K. Walton, The Playful Crowd; Anne E. Mosher, Capital’s Utopia; and Sam Stephenson, Dream Street.

Review essay: “The Ten Millionth Person to Think It,” H-Net.

Film reviews of The Homestead Strike and Tupperware!.

Presentations

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Pennsylvania Historical Association, “Turned Turtle: Auto Accidents in the Central Susquehanna Valley, 1910-1930,” Scranton, PA. (October 13, 2017).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Labor and Working-Class History Association, “The Labor of Unemployment: William Gedney’s Form and Content.”,” Seattle, WA. (June 25, 2017).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Pennsylvania Historical Association, “Acting, Yet Acted Upon,” Shippensburg, PA. (October 7, 2016).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Agricultural History Society, “Patterns Not at First Apparent: Outsiders in 1960s Kentucky,” Agricultural History Society, New York. (June 24, 2016).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Southern Forum on Agricultural, Rural, and Environmental History, “”To Be Leaned Against, To Be Felt”: Moving Mountains,” Center for the History of Agriculture, Science, and the Environment of the South, Samford University, Birmingham, AL. (April 15, 2016).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Bucknell Digital Scholarship Conference, “Small Places Contain Worlds of their Own,” Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA. (November 8, 2015).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Pennsylvania Historical Association, “Pennsylvania History and Social Media,” Pennsylvania Historical Association, Harrisburg, PA. (October 15, 2015).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Thinking Mountains 2015, “Blind Curves: Crashing Cars in 1950s Appalachia,” Canadian Mountain Studies Initiative, Jasper, Alberta. (May 7, 2015).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Pennsylvania Historical Association, “The Walking Expert: Horace McFarland in the Woods,” Pennsylvania Historical Association, Gettysburg, PA. (October 20, 2013).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Rust, Regeneration, and Romance, “The Logical Place to Take a Picture From: William Gedney and Bethlehem Steel,” Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage, University of Birmingham, Ironbridge, UK. (July 14, 2013).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Society of Appalachian Historians, “Making it “Wild and Wonderful”: Picturing West Virginia in the 1970s,” Society of Appalachian Historians, UVA-Wise. (May 20, 2013).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Affective Landscapes, “Embedded: William Gedney and the Feel of Big Rock,” Identity, Conflict and Representation Research Centre, University of Derby, Derby, UK. (May 25, 2012).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), American Society for Environmental History, “Largely Inaccessible: Belonging in West Virginia Whitewater, 1965-1975,” Madison, WI. (March 31, 2012).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Appalachian Studies Association, “Control of the Approach: Hiking and Belonging,” Indiana, PA. (March 24, 2012).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Pennsylvania Historical Association, “Nowhere: The Look of Landscapes after Coal,” Johnstown, PA. (October 14, 2011).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Ohio Academy of History meeting, “Largely Inaccessible: (Not) Belonging in West Virginia Whitewater, 1965-197,” Granville, OH. (April 8, 2011).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Gendered Bodies, “Brawn and Bruises: Imagining Pittsburgh’s Bodies of Work,” Departments of Anthropology and Women’s Studies, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. (November 11, 2009).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Pennsylvania Historical Association conference, “Photo Ops: Centralia and the Flattening of History,” Pennsylvania Historical Association, Bethlehem, PA. (October 18, 2008).

Slavishak, E. S. (Presenter & Author), Cheiron conference, “The Discouraging Uphill Struggle: Roswell Hill Johnson’s Career in Eugenics,” Cheiron, Ryerson University, Toronto. (June 28, 2008).

Research Activity

“Central Susquehanna Valley History Project website” (On-Going). http://omeka.5675n.com/HIST324/csvhp

“Turned Turtle” (On-Going). A project on cars and car crashes in the rural United States between 1900 and 1940.

Courses Taught

  • ARTH-403: Senior Thesis
  • ENST-117: American Environmental History
  • HIST-099: Intro to Historical Studies
  • HIST-112: U.S. History From Frontier to Space
  • HIST-115: African-American History
  • HIST-201: Public History
  • HIST-206: American Dream$
  • HIST-209: History of Crime in the United States
  • HIST-215: The Civil War in American Experience
  • HIST-222: Ends of Earth:Cent of Polar Exploration
  • HIST-300: History Methods
  • HIST-324: Pennsylvania’s Pasts & Their Publics
  • HIST-410: Seminar in History
  • HIST-420: Internship in History
  • HIST-501: Independent Study
  • HONS-301: 300-Level Honors Seminar
  • MSUM-400: Museum Studies Internship
  • MSUM-500: Final Research & Exhibition Project
  • OFFP-PRAGUE: Filming in Prague
  • OFFR-PRAGUE: Filming in Prague
  • OFFS-PRAGUE: Filming in Prague
  • PRDV-104: Perspectives