University Assistant

Rebecca Onion/CV

Rebecca Stiles Onion

Curriculum Vitae

Current Address: Phone: 646-***-****

**** ********* **************@*****.***

Austin, TX 78757

www.rebeccaonion.com

On Twitter: @rebeccaonion

Education

Doctoral Candidate, American Studies, University of Texas at Austin

Expected defense date Summer 2012

Dissertation: How Science Became Child s Play: Science, Technology, and the

Culture of American Childhood, 1890-1970?

Committee: Janet Davis (co-supervisor); Julia Mickenberg (co-supervisor); Jeffrey

Meikle; Bruce Hunt; John Hartigan

Comprehensive Exam Fields: American Civilization (Julia Mickenberg);

Environmental and Animal Studies (Janet Davis); Technology and Culture (Jeffrey

Meikle); Cultural Anthropology (John Hartigan)

M.A., American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, May 2007

Thesis: Sled Dog Stories: Discourses of Domestication, Race, and Work in Alaska,

1867-1925

Thesis Director: Janet Davis; Thesis Reader: Julia Mickenberg

B.A., American Studies, Yale University, cum laude, with distinction, May 2000

Thesis: Pain, Fear, and Transcendence: Narrative Constructions in the National

Media Reaction to the Columbine High School Shootings

Thesis Director: Jean-Christophe Agnew

Research Interests

Twentieth-century American history, history of childhood and youth,

history of science and technology, animal studies, environmental studies, material

culture, visual culture, history of education, museum studies, digital humanities

Publications

Review Publications:

2010 Robert A. Heinlein Online Archives Research Grant

2010 Chemical Heritage Foundation Travel Grant

2010 Hannah Beiter Graduate Student Research Grant, Children s Literature

Association

2007 Liberal Arts Graduate Research Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin

2007 Stott Travel Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin

2005-2006 Harrington Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin

Scholarly Honors and Prizes

2011 Winner, Graduate Research Award, University Co-Op, University of Texas at

Austin

2011 BootCamp Fellowship, to attend THATCamp (digital humanities

conference), awarded by Mellon and Kress Foundations

2008 Winner, Outstanding Thesis Award, University Co-Op, University of Texas

at Austin

2008 Invited to speak at the Material Culture Symposium for Emerging Scholars,

University of Delaware/Winterthur Museum

2008 Travel Award to attend University College Dublin Clinton Institute Summer

School, given by University of Texas at Austin Department of American

Studies

2007 Graduate Participant, University of Texas at Austin Humanities Institute

Faculty Seminar, The Human and its Others

Research Experience

2009-2010Research Assistant to Dr. Penne Restad, History Department, University of

Texas at Austin

Assisted with curriculum development for survey course;

created course website:

http://sites.la.utexas.edu/history2point0/, password

oldschool

2007-2008Research Assistant to Dr. Janet Davis, American Studies Department,

University of Texas at Austin

Assisted with research for book project, including archival

work and Spanish-to-English translations

Teaching Interests

American history survey, Introduction to American Studies, popular culture, gender

studies,

technology and culture, popular science, science fiction, culture and climate change,

history

of the American West, environmental history, animal studies, history of

childhood/childhood studies, material culture, food studies, digital humanities

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Rebecca Onion/CV

Teaching Experience

2011Assistant Instructor, Department of American Studies,

University of Texas at

Austin

Course Title: Popular Culture and American Childhood

Course Websites: americanchildhoods.com (F 11),

popcultureandamericanchildhood.com (S 12)

Syllabus: http://americanchildhoods.com/syllabus/ (F 11),

http://popcultureandamericanchildhood.com/syllabus/ (S

12)

2008-2009 Assistant Instructor, Department of Rhetoric and Writing, University of

Texas at Austin

Course Title: Introduction to Rhetoric and Composition

2008-2009 Consultant, University Writing Center, University of Texas at Austin

Assisted students with writing projects

2007 Supplemental Instruction Leader, University of Texas at Austin Learning

Center

Led discussion sections attached to large lecture class;

provided instruction in study skills & written communication

2006-2007 Teaching Assistant, American Studies Department, University of Texas at

Austin

Course Titles: Introduction to American Studies: Femininity

and Masculinity in America (Dr. Elizabeth Engelhardt); Main

Currents in American Culture through 1865 (Dr. Shirley

Thompson)

Professional Presentations

March 2012 Making Science Fun: Critical Intersections of Science and

th

Childhood in 20 -Century American Culture, University of Texas at

Austin History of Science Colloquium, Austin, TX

October 2011 Reality in the Basement: Science Sets, Home Laboratories, & the

Market for the Modern Mind. American Studies Association Annual

Meeting, Baltimore, MD

July 2011 The Story of a Wonder World: Science, Industry, and the Romance

of Reality in American Kids Books of the 1920s and 1930s. Brown-

bag talk for the Friends of the Princeton University Library,

Princeton, NJ

June 2011 Science, Childhood, and the Informational Book: Knowing the

Modern World in the 1920s and 1930s. Children s Literature

Association annual meeting, Hollins, VA

November 2010 Varieties of Scientific Experience: The American Museum of

Natural History, the Brooklyn Children s Museum, and the

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Rebecca Onion/CV

Production of Wonder, 1900-1930. American Studies Association

annual meeting, San Antonio, TX

April 2010 Melding Childhood Studies, Science Studies, and the History of

Education. Exploring Childhood Studies Conference, Childhood

Studies Graduate Program, Rutgers-Camden, Camden, NJ

March 2010 Doing history with Team-Based Learning in a large survey U.S.

history course. With Penne Restad and Michael Sweet. Poster

session presented at the annual meeting of the Team Based Learning

Collaborative, New Orleans, Louisiana

April 2008 Reclaiming the Machine: Steampunk Practice and the Humanization

of the Technological Object, Material Culture Symposium for

Emerging Scholars, Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, Delaware

November 2007 Re-articulating the Native, Claiming the Human: Man-Dog

Relationships in the New American North, Society for Literature,

Science, and the Arts, Portland, ME

June 2007 Colonial Narratives, Written on The Animal Body: The Watercolors

of Walton Ford, Association for the Study of Literature and the

Environment, Spartanburg, SC

March 2007 Gender and the Frontier in Alaska. Guest lecture, Intro to

American Studies undergraduate class (for Dr. Elizabeth Engelhardt)

November 2006 Visions of Carnivore Ecology in Children s Culture: Dinotopia and

Jurassic Park, Carnivores 2006 (Defenders of Wildlife conference),

Tampa, FL

October 2006 Lead Dogs and Heroic Masculinity in the New Age of Celebrity,

Western Literature Association, Boise, ID

February 2006 The Endless Quest for Authenticity: The Lord of the Rings and

Teenage Girls, SW/TX Popular Culture Association/American

Culture Association, Albuquerque, NM

Service to Department, University, Profession

2011 Gave professional development presentation for fellow graduate students:

Beyond Citation Management: Using Zotero to Shape Your Graduate

Research

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Rebecca Onion/CV

2011 Blogger for University of Texas Department of American Studies website,

AMS :: ATX (http://amstudies.wordpress.com/)

2011 Organized two panels for the American Studies Association annual meeting,

Baltimore, MD

Objects of Learning: Material Culture, Imaginative

Pedagogy, and the Transformation of American Childhood,

1880-1980 (co-organized with Sarah Carter; sponsored by

Material Culture Caucus)

From Decay to Deterioration: Questioning the Aesthetics of

Abandonment (sponsored by Visual Culture Caucus)

2011 Wrote column for Society for the History of Childhood and Youth

newsletter ( Songbirds and Satellites: Blogging the History of Childhood )

-present Maintained research blog, Songbirds

and Satellites (www.rebeccaonion.com)

2010 Co-edited and wrote column for Paperweight: A Newspaper of Visual and

Material Culture, Summer 2010-present

2009 Organized visit of guest speaker Cindi Katz, Childhood Studies Graduate

Research Cluster, University of Texas at Austin

2008 Mentor, Intellectual Entrepreneurship Program, University of Texas at

Austin

Acted as advisor to undergraduate American Studies major

interested in attending graduate school

2008 Member of committee to organize MEPHISTOS graduate conference in the

history, anthropology, and sociology of science

2007-2008 Maintained orals reading blog, La Biblioteca de Babel

(http://bifurcan.blogspot.com/)

2007 Member of committee to organize UT American Studies Graduate

Conference

2006 Co-organized UT American Studies Graduate Conference

2006 Organizer and facilitator, faculty roundtable, Pushing Interdisciplinary To

The Limit, UT American Studies Graduate Conference, Austin, TX

Additional Work Experience

2002-present Freelance writer, multiple popular publications (including Nylon, Venus,

Bitch,

Tribeza, ELLEgirl, Teen People, Austinist, Time Out New York, Slate.com, Budget

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Rebecca Onion/CV

Living, Cosmopolitan, The New Republic s website, Backpacker, the New Haven

Advocate). See www.rebeccaonion.com/publications/freelance for clips.

2001-2003 Staff writer, ym magazine

Languages

Fluent in Spanish

Intermediate Proficiency in Italian

Professional Affiliations

Since 2005 American Studies Association member

Since 2007 Society for the History of Childhood and Youth member

Since 2010 History of Science Society Member

Since 2010 Children s Literature Association member

References

Janet Davis

Associate Professor

Department of American Studies/Department of History

University of Texas at Austin

1 University Station B7100

Austin, TX 78712

Office Phone: 512-***-**** or 512-***-****

Email: ***********@******.******.***

Julia Mickenberg

Associate Professor

Department of American Studies

University of Texas at Austin

1 University Station B7100

Austin, TX 78712

Office Phone: 512-***-**** or 512-***-****

Email: **********@****.******.***

Jeffrey Meikle

Professor

Department of American Studies/Department of Art and Art History

University of Texas at Austin

1 University Station B7100

Austin, TX 78712

Office Phone: 512-***-**** or 512-***-****

Email: ******@****.******.***

Bruce Hunt

Associate Professor

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Rebecca Onion/CV

Department of History

University of Texas at Austin

1 University Station B7000

Austin, TX 78712

Office Phone: 512-***-****

Email: ******@****.******.***

Penne L. Restad (Teaching Reference)

Distinguished Senior Lecturer

Department of History

University of Texas at Austin

1 University Station B7000

Austin, TX 78712

Office Phone: 512-***-****

Email: ******@****.******.***

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