Elaine Tyler May

Professor, American Studies
mayxx002@umn.edu

Elaine Tyler May is a historian of the United States in the twentieth century whose work centers on the intersections of gender, sexuality, domestic culture and politics. Her scholarship explores the ways in which issues normally considered part of private life -- such as family, consumerism, and leisure pursuits - reflect, express and influence American political, cultural, and social values. Her books and articles examine changing expectations for marriage in the early 20th century, family and sexuality in the cold war era, the history of women, and the history of childlessness and reproduction in America.

Education:

Ph.D., U.S. History, University of California at Los Angeles, 1975
M.A., U.S. History, University of California at Los Angeles, 1970
A.B., cum laude History, University of California at Los Angeles, 1969

Scholarly Works:

Created Equal: A Social and Political History of the United States,( with Peter Wood, Jacqueline Jones, Vicki Ruiz, and Tim Borstelmann), Longman, 2002.

Here, There, and Everywhere: The Foreign Politics of American Popular Culture, (co-edited with Reinhold Wagnleitner), University Press of New England, 2000.

Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, Basic Books, revised and updated edition, 1999 (first edition 1988, first paperback, 1989).

Barren in the Promised Land: Childless Americans and the Pursuit of Happiness, Basic Books, 1995, paperback edition, Harvard University Press, 1997.

Award -- 1996 American Sociological Association Family Section, William J. Goode Book Award, Runner-Up.

Pushing the Limits: American Women, 1940-1961, Oxford University Press, 1994, paperback edition, 1998.

Great Expectations: Marriage and Divorce in Post-Victorian America, University of Chicago Press, 1980, paperback edition, 1983.

Awards:

National

• American Philosophical Society Sabbatical Fellowship, 2000-2001
• Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Ireland: 1996-97 Mary Ball Washington Professor of American History, University College Dublin
• American Council of Learned Societies, Research Fellowship, 1993-94, and 1983-84
• Henry Murray Center Research Grant, Radcliffe College, 1990-91
• Rockefeller Foundation Research Grant, 1985-87
• National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Research Stipend, 1983
• National Endowment for the Humanities, Travel to Collections Grant, 1984
• Radcliffe Research Scholar, Radcliffe College, Summer 1982 and Fall 1984
• Harvard University Mellon Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities, 1981-82
• Newberry Library Summer Institute in Family and Quantitative History, Scholarship, 1973

University of Minnesota

• 2001 College of Liberal Arts Dean's Medal, for excellence in scholarship and creativity
• Distinguished Mentor Award, President's Distinguished Minority Student
• Faculty Mentor Program, April, 2000
• Scholar of the College, College of Liberal Arts, 1996-1999
• McKnight Research Award, 1993-96
• Bush Sabbatical Supplement Award, 1993-94
• Grant-in-Aid of Research, Univ. of Mn. Graduate School, 1988-89, 1987-88, 1984-85, 1983-84
• Summer Research Grant, Univ. of Minnesota Graduate School, 1985, 1993, 1996, 1998
• McKnight Summer Research Grant, 1992, 1996, 1998

Recent Courses:

AmSt 1907W Honors Freshman Seminar: Legacy of Cold War in the United States
AmSt 8239 section 2/History 8910 section 1 Cultural Fallout: The Cold War at Home and Abroad

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