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Biography:
I am a Detroit native and spent much of my past life in advertising writing car commercials. This life experience led to my research interest of the relationship between women and cars, a subject that has not received much attention in scholarship. I pursued this interest as a master's student in Women's and Gender Studies at Eastern Michigan University, as a doctoral student in American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University, and as a 2015-2016 BGSU Center for Popular Culture Studies Research Fellow. I have had a number of papers published and am currently working on other projects which include a book manuscript. Since I am currently 70 years of age, I am not pursuing an employment opportunity; rather, my goal is to continue my research on the subject of woman and cars as long as my faculties remain intact. My hope is that NCIS membership will provide access to the resources - digital and human - that will make that goal a reality.
Current research areas:
The central focus of my research is women’s relationship with the automobile, a subject that has received very little attention in scholarship. My interest is in the investigation of non-hegemonic car cultures in general and alternative constructions of the “woman driver” in particular.
Subject areas include: automobiles, gender, American studies, cultural studies, women's studies, technology, transportation, material culture
Recent scholarly activity:
2015 - 2016: Center for Popular Culture Studies Research Fellow, Bowling Green State University
May 2015: PhD in American Culture Studies, Bowling Green State University
May 2009: Master's of Liberal Studies in Women's and Gender Studies, Eastern Michigan University
Recent publications:
"Born to Drive: Elderly Women's Recollections of Early Automotive Experiences." The Journal of Transport History 40.3 (December 2019).
"A Woman and Her Truck: Pickups, the Woman Driver, and Cowgirl Feminism." European Journal of American Culture 38.2 (June 2019): 135-153.
"Where on the Web is Dorothy Haener? Recovering Dorothy Haener from Labor, Automotive, and Women's Histories." Automotive History Review 59 (2019): 34-49.
Power Under Her Foot: Women Enthusiasts of American Muscle Cars. Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2018.
“Out on the Highway: Cars, Community, and the Gay Driver.” Culture, Society, and Masculinities 7.2 (2015): 121-139.
“Women Auto Know: Automotive Knowledge, Auto Activism, and Women’s Online Car Advice.” Feminist Media Studies (2014): 1-17.
“Born to Take the Highway: Women, the Automobile, and Rock ‘n’ Roll.” The Journal of American Culture 36.3 (2013): 161-176.
“Women with Muscle: Contemporary Women and the Classic Muscle Car.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 34.2 (2013): 83-113.
“The Evolution of the Chick Car, or What Came First, the Chick or the Car?” The Journal of Popular Culture 45.3 (2012): 216-231.
Forthcoming research:
My current project is "What Would Miss Daisy Drive? The Road Trip Film, the Automobile, and the Woman Behind the Wheel." This paper in progress examines the relationship between a woman and her automobile in a variety of road trip films. Focusing on the car rather than the journey, the project encourages us to reassess the roll of the automobile in film, to expand our understanding of the road trip genre to include the female ddriver, as well as to broaden our notion of women's car choice to include considerations of identity, agency, friendship, family, and empowerment.
I also have a number of other projects in the development stage. The first - "Woman's Car to Chick Car: A Social History of the Woman Driver" - is a book-sized project that calls upon the vehicle category "chick car" to examine the evolution of the woman's car from a gendered domestic tool to a symbol of women's empowerment. Relying on historical accounts, my past work on the chick car phenomenon, as well as the contributions of over 50 chick-car-driving-women, this project brings attention to longstanding auto industry efforts to constrain women's car choice through reliance on "innate" biological natures, and the ways in which female motorists have persistently challenged such directives and in the process, reimagined what it means to be a woman driver.
A second project focuses on three accomplished female auto journalists who work in a variety of media. Through interviews, as well as an examination of their collected body of work, I hope to uncover not only the strategies women employ to overcome obstacles in a male dominated field, but also how the writers call upon their own automotive experiences as women to add an important and often missing point of view to auto journalism.
A third -"This is Not My Husband's Jeep" - is a qualitative research project focused on female Jeep owners.
Other activities:
Media events include:
Featured on The Bart Hawley Show 21 March 2019. https://jtv.tv/category/bart-hawley-show-guests/page/2/
Featured on Autoline After Hours “Power Under Her Foot: Drive, She Said.” 5 Oct 2018. http://www.autoline.tv/journal/?p=57629
Book review in Against the Grain (September 2018): 70.
Book review in Choice Connect 56.4 December 2018.
Book review in Hemmings Muscle Machines by Mark McCourt. September 2018, 12.
Featured in the Book Beat blog “What’s So Underground About Detroit?” 2 August 2018. http://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/2018/07/30/whats-so-underground-abou...
Featured in DBusiness “Detroit Native and Scholar Writes Book about Women and Muscle Cars.” 6 July 2018. http://www.dbusiness.com/daily-news/Annual-2018/Detroit-Native-and-Schol...
Featured in “Car Sellers Refine Pitch to Women” by A.J. Baime. Wall Street Journal 21 August 2014: D1, 3.
Featured in “Local Women’s Club Represents Shift in Classic Car Culture” by Will Rubin. The Bulletin 8 August 2015 http://www.bendbulletin.com/lifestyle/3399087-151/not-their-husbands-cars
Interviewed on Titanium Outdoors Radio 15 August 2015.
Presentations/book signings include:
April 2019
Points and Condensers Restoration Society, Ypsilanti MI
“Power Under Her Foot: Women Enthusiasts of American Muscle Cars”
January 2019
Hackett Museum Speaker Series, Jackson MI
“A Discussion with Chris Lezotte”
August 2018
Motor City Muscle, Detroit MI
“Power Under Her Foot: Women Enthusiasts of American Muscle Cars”
June 2018
Motor Muster, The Henry Ford, Dearborn MI
“Power Under Her Foot: Women Enthusiasts of American Muscle Cars”
April 2018
Second International Drive History Conference, Allentown PA
“Power Under Her Foot: Women Enthusiasts of American Muscle Cars”