Heidi Kolk's book, Taking Possession: Life, Death, and the Politics of Memory in a St. Louis Town House, will be published in 2019 by the University of Massachusetts Press in its "Public History in Historical Perspective" series; the book makes signal contributions to the fields of American material culture, urban history, collective memory studies, and the history of preservation. In her new Sam Fox School role, Heidi will continue to exercise the intellectual leadership that has been the hallmark of her work in the American Culture Studies Program, ranging from co-convening the "The Material World of Modern Segregation: St. Louis in the Long Era of Ferguson" Symposium and the linked AMCS undergraduate course of the same name in spring 2017, and co-editing the Material World of Modern Segregation book project-in-progress; co-convening the AMCS-Center for the Humanities one-day conference, "ARCHIVE: Interdisciplinary methods of understanding the archive: violence, suppression and restoration," April 2017; to co-convening the American Culture Studies Visual and Material Culture Faculty Program Initiative (VIZMAT). At Sam Fox, in addition to teaching in the graduate and undergraduate programs in art and design, Heidi will be involved in the development of the new MA Program in Visual Culture; in Arts & Sciences, she will contribute some teaching and advising to American Culture Studies. In summer 2017, Heidi served as Fellow in the NEH Summer Institute on "American Material Culture: 19th-Century New York," at the Bard Graduate Center, New York City.
As Assistant Vice Provost of Academic Assessment, Heidi will continue to work with the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs on accreditation and assessment strategies for the university.
Congratulations to Heidi Kolk on her exciting new roles!
From the Sam Fox School announcement:
A literary historian by training, Heidi Kolk started her career as a student of art and poetry and has long gravitated to cross-disciplinary research. Her book Taking Possession: Life, Death and the Politics of Memory in a St. Louis Town House will be published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2019. Before joining the American Culture Studies program, Kolk was director of Writing Courses in the Department of English, and she has served in a variety of other administrative roles within Washington University. She earned an MA in English and American Literature, a PhD Certificate in American Culture Studies, and a PhD in English and American Literature, all from Washington University, in addition to a BA in English and Fine Arts from Hope College.
