School of
Humanities and Social Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Miriam Forman-Brunell

Miriam Forman-Brunell
Professor Emerita of History and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Humanities and Social Sciences

Contact Info
forman-brunellm@umkc.edu

About

Dr. Forman-Brunell is a native New Yorker who earned her M.A. in Women's History from Sarah Lawrence College (1982) and a Ph.D. in U.S. History from Rutgers University (1990). Before joining the UMKC History Department, she taught at Princeton University and Wellesley College. Her research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the NEH, Woodrow Wilson Foundation, Smithsonian, Schlesinger Library, etc. She is Co-Director of Children & Youth in History, an NEH-funded online resource co-produced by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for New Media at George Mason University where she is also Affiliated Faculty. Forman-Brunell is on the editorial board of five journals, the executive board of Girl Museum, and is co-chair of The Girls' History and Culture Network.


Academic Credentials
B.A., Sarah Lawrence College (1977) M.A., Sarah Lawrence College (1982) Ph.D., History, Rutgers University (1990)

Current Research
Girlhood in America is a girl-focused narrative synthesis that shifts girls from the historical margins to the center of analysis. Tracing the history of American girlhood from colonialism to consumerism, immigration to industrialization, settlement to slavery, popular culture to political movements, and modernity to globalization sets into motion new lines of inquiry and understandings about girls' agency from the colonial era to contemporary times.

Major Publications

Deconstructing Dolls: Girlhoods and the Meanings of Play (2021) “Girling of Work,” a Special Issue of The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth (Fall 2019 12.3) Dolls Studies: The Many Meanings of Girls’ Toys and Play (2015) Princess Cultures: Mediating Girls’ Imaginations & Identities (2015) The Girls’ History & Culture Reader: The Twentieth Century (2011) The Girls’ History & Culture Reader: The Nineteenth Century (2011) Babysitter: An American History (2009) Series editor, Childhood and Youth: History & Culture (2003-2008) Girlhood in America: An Encyclopedia (2001) Made to Play House: Dolls and the Commercialization of Girlhood (1998)