Chair, Department of History
PRESIDENTIAL DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF HISTORY
Contact Dr. Matt for graduation clearance: office hours as posted or email for appointment
Office -Social Science 234
Phone - (801)626-7325
Fax - (801)626-7613
Email - smatt@weber.edu
Research and Teaching Areas: Gilded Age and Progressive Era, consumerism, women, cultural and social, history of emotions
Degrees: B.A., University of Chicago (1989); M.A., Ph.D., Cornell University (1992, 1996)
Courses:
- HIST 1700 American Civilization
- HIST 3070 Women in American History: 1600-Present
- HIST 3090 American Social History
- HIST 3110 American Ideas & Culture
- HIST 3130 U.S. Urban History
- HIST 4050 Gilded Age & Progressive Era 1877-1919
- HIST 4060 20th Century U.S. 1919-1945
Books
- Homesickness: An American History (Oxford University Press, 2011)
- Keeping Up With the Joneses: Envy in American Consumer Society, 1890-1930 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003).
Edited Works:
Susan J. Matt and Peter N. Stearns, series editors, Emotions in History (University of Illinois Press)
First Volume: Doing Emotions History, ed. Matt and Stearns (forthcoming in 2012)
Dreams, Myths, Reality: Utah and the American West-The Critchlow Lectures at Weber State University, ed. Susan Matt and William Allison (Signature Books, 2008)
Articles & Essays
- "Current Emotion Research in History Or, Doing History from the Inside Out," Emotion Review, January 2011
- "You Can't Go Home Again: Homesickness and Nostalgia in U.S. History,"
Journal of American History, September 2007.
"A Hunger for Home: Homesickness and Food in a Global Consumer Society," Journal of American Culture (Spring 2007). - "Why the Old Fashioned is in Fashion in American Houses," in Producing Fashion: Commerce, Culture, and Consumers, Regina Lee Blaszczyk, editor (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007).
- "There's No Place Like Home: Homesickness and Homemaking in America," in American Behavioral History, Peter Stearns, editor (New York: New York University Press, 2005).
- "Envy and Jealousy," in Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood: In History and Society, Paula Fass, editor, (New York: MacMillan, 2003).
- "Children's Envy and the Emergence of the Modern Consumer Ethic, 1890-1930," Journal of Social History (December 2002).
- "The Biography of Juliet Corson," American National Biography (Oxford University Press, 1999)
- "Constance Rourke: A Biographical Sketch," in Women in World History (Yorkin Publications, Waterford CT., 1999)
- Mary Richmond: A Biographical Sketch," in Women in World History (Yorkin Publications, Waterford CT., 1999)
- "Frocks, Finery and Feelings: Rural and Urban Women's Envy, 1890-1930," in An Emotional History of the United States , Peter Stearns and Jan Lewis, eds. (New York: New York University Press, 1998)
Reviews
- Friendship: A History, ed. Barbara Caine, Journal of Social History (at press)
- The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950, by Avner Offer, Journal of Social History (Fall 2009)
- Consumers’ Imperium: The Global Production of American Domesticity, 1865-1920 by Kristin L. Hoganson, Journal of Social History (Winter 2009)
- Sold American: Consumption and Citizenship, 1890-1945 by Charles McGovern, Enterprise and Society (2007)
- Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Idea of the Consumer by Kathleen G. Donohue, American Historical Review, (June 2007)
- Born Losers: A History of Failure in America by Scott A. Sandage, American Historical Review (October 2006)
- Raising Consumers: Children and the American Mass Market in the Early Twentieth Century by Lisa Jacobson, Journal of Social History (Summer 2006)
- Birth of a Salesman: The Transformation of Selling in America by Walter A. Friedman, American Historical Review (February 2005)
- The Cute and the Cool: Wondrous Innocence and Modern American Children's Culture by Gary Cross and Some Wore Bobby Sox: The Emergence of Teenage Girls' Culture, 1920-1945 by Kelly Schrum, Journal of American History (June 2005)
- Talk of Love: Why Culture Matters by Ann Swidler, Journal of Social History (Fall 2004)
- Refined Tastes: Sugar, Confectionery, and Consumers in Nineteenth-Century America by Wendy A. Woloson, Journal of Social History (Summer 2004)
- Sowing the American Dream: How Consumer Culture Took Root in the Rural Midwest by David Blanke, in Journal of Social History (Fall 2002)
- 1898: The Birth of the American Century by David Traxel, in New York History (Winter 2001).
MANUSCRIPT REFEREE
Journal of American History
Journal of Social History
Business History Review
Journal of Women's History
Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Journal of American Culture
Civil War History
Awards and Affiliations
- Chair, Department of History 2008-Present
- Presidential Distinguished Professor of History 2009
- Visiting Fellow, Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection, 2007
- Endowed professor, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2005-2008
- Research Travel Award, John Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History, Duke University Library, March 2000
- Jeanne Humphrey Block Dissertation Award, The Henry Murray Center, Radcliffe College, June 1993
- Cornell University Women's Studies/President's Council of Cornell Women Summer Research Grant, Summer 1993
- Mellon Fellowship, 1994-95, 1992
- University of Chicago College Honor Scholarship, 1985-1989
- University of Chicago Student Body President, 1988-1989
