Susan Smulyan

Last updated
Susan Smulyan
Alma mater Yale University
Employer Brown University
Notable workSelling Radio (1994)
Popular Ideologies (2007)
Major Problems in American Popular Culture (2011)
Doing Public Humanities (2020)
TitleProfessor

Susan Smulyan is professor of American Studies and former director of the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage at Brown University. [1] [2] A graduate of Yale University, Smulyan's research focuses on U.S. popular culture in the 20th century.

Contents

Early life and education

Smulyan attended Yale University, where she earned a BA (1975), MA (1980), and PhD (1985). [3]

Career

Smulyan taught at University of Texas at San Antonio from 1985 until 1988, when she joined the Department of American Civilization (later renamed American Studies) at Brown University. [4] She is professor of American Studies and director of the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage at Brown. [5]

Smulyan's work focuses on popular culture in the United States in the 20th century. Her first book, Selling Radio: The Commercialization of American Broadcasting, 1920-1934, described the rise of advertising on the medium of radio. [6] [7] Reviewing the book for the journal American Journalism, William James Ryan suggested that Smulyan made an important contribution in documenting the historical contingency (rather than inevitability) of this development: that, per Ryan, "American radio did not need to become what it became." [8] In The Business History Review, Regina Lee Blaszczyk emphasized Smulyan's "savvy borrowing of research methods and theories from several fields" to develop this investigation. [9]

Smulyan has also served as chair of the board of directors of New Urban Arts, a youth mentoring program in Rhode Island. [10]

Doing Public Humanities (2020)

In July 2020, Routledge published Smulyan’s Doing Public Humanities, an edited collection of essays, which "explores the cultural landscape from disruptive events to websites, from tours to exhibits, from after school arts programs to archives," providing a broad perspective of the work of public humanities. [11]  This work builds on Smulyan’s tenure as the director of the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage at Brown University and features case studies written by other scholars affiliated with the Center. [12]

Like Smulyan’s earlier work, Doing Public Humanities is interdisciplinary and combines a practitioner’s focus on case studies with the scholar’s more abstract and theoretical approach. Smulyan’s own essay, “What Can the Public Arts Teach the Public Humanities,” draws on her work with an after school arts program in Providence, RI—New Urban Arts. [2] Other contributors present a public humanities practice that encourages social justice and explores the intersectionalities of race, class, gender, and sexualities. [12]

Works

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ "Smulyan, Susan". vivo.brown.edu. Retrieved 2020-08-01.
  2. 1 2 "Susan Smulyan - Routledge & CRC Press Author Profile". www.routledge.com. Retrieved 2020-08-01.
  3. ↑ "Smulyan, Susan". vivo.brown.edu. Brown University. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  4. ↑ "SUSAN SMULYAN" (PDF). Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  5. ↑ "Smulyan, Susan". vivo.brown.edu. Brown University. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  6. ↑ Benjamin, Louise (1 July 1994). "Susan Smulyan, Selling Radio: The Commercialization of American Broadcasting, 1920-1934. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994". American Journalism. 11 (3): 293–294. doi:10.1080/08821127.1994.10731655. ISSN   0882-1127.
  7. ↑ B., Kielbowicz, Richard (1 October 1995). "Susan Smulyan. Selling Radio: The Commercialization of American Broadcasting, 1920–1934. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. 1994. Pp. viii, 223. $24.95". The American Historical Review. 100 (4). doi:10.1086/ahr/100.4.1318-a. ISSN   0002-8762 . Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  8. ↑ Ryan, William James (1 October 2000). "Selling Radio: The Commercialization of American Broadcasting 1920 - 1934". American Journalism. 17 (4): 145–147. doi:10.1080/08821127.2000.10739285. ISSN   0882-1127. S2CID   220315243.
  9. ↑ Blaszczyk, Regina Lee (1996). "Review of Selling Radio: The Commercialization of American Broadcasting, 1920-1934". The Business History Review. 70 (4): 602–604. doi:10.2307/3117322. JSTOR   3117322. S2CID   154969912.
  10. ↑ "Prior Board Members - New Urban Arts". newurbanarts.org. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  11. 1 2 "Doing Public Humanities". Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  12. 1 2 "Doing Public Humanities | Public Humanities | Brown University". www.brown.edu. Retrieved 2020-08-01.
  13. ↑ Wall, Wendy L. (1 October 2009). "Susan Smulyan . Popular Ideologies: Mass Culture at Mid‐Century . Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press . 2007 . Pp. 202. $35.00". The American Historical Review. 114 (4): 1109–1110. doi:10.1086/ahr.114.4.1109. ISSN   0002-8762 . Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  14. ↑ Kammen, Michael (2008). "Popular Ideologies: Mass Culture at Mid-Century (review)". Journal of Social History. 42 (2): 529–531. doi:10.1353/jsh.0.0107. ISSN   1527-1897. S2CID   142506507 . Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  15. ↑ Scanlon, Jennifer (17 December 2008). "Popular Ideologies: Mass Culture at Mid-Century (review)". Technology and Culture. 49 (4): 1077–1079. doi:10.1353/tech.0.0178. ISSN   1097-3729. S2CID   144129569.
  16. ↑ Neal, Arthur G. (1 June 2008). "Popular Ideologies: Mass Culture at Mid-Century by Susan Smulyan". The Journal of American Culture. 31 (2): 243–244. doi:10.1111/j.1542-734X.2008.00674_39.x. ISSN   1542-734X.
  17. ↑ Benjamin, Louise (1 July 1994). "Susan Smulyan, Selling Radio: The Commercialization of American Broadcasting, 1920-1934. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994". American Journalism. 11 (3): 293–294. doi:10.1080/08821127.1994.10731655. ISSN   0882-1127.
  18. ↑ Heffernan, Nick (December 2008). "Smulyan Susan, Popular Ideologies: Mass Culture at Mid-century (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007, £23.00). Pp. 202. isbn9780 0 8122 4020 7". Journal of American Studies. 42 (3): 607–608. doi:10.1017/S0021875808005793. ISSN   1469-5154. S2CID   144066031 . Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  19. ↑ Grassy, Elsa (2012). "Kathleen Franz and Susan Smulyan (eds), Major Problems in American Popular Culture Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011, 496 p." InMedia: The French Journal of Media Studies (2). Retrieved 31 December 2017.
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