LAURA A. BELMONTE

501 Life Sciences West

Department of History

Oklahoma State University

Stillwater, OK  74078-0611

work (405) 744-8198

fax (405) 744-5400

labelmonte@hotmail.com

______________________________________________________________________

 

Education 

 

The University of Virginia, Ph.D. 1996.  “Defending a Way of Life: American Propaganda and the Cold War, 1945-1959.”

           

The University of Virginia, M.A. 1991.  “Anglo-American Relations and the Dismissal of MacArthur.”

 

The University of Georgia, A.B., 1989, cum laude with High Honors with Honors in History.  Phi Beta Kappa.

 

Professional Experience

 

Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK

 

Fall 1996 - present 

Assistant Professor of U.S. History

 

Graduate Faculty

 

Core Faculty, Women’s Studies Program

 

Executive Committee, American Studies Program

 

University of Virginia Academic Center, Fairfax, VA

 

Fall 1995

Instructor, “Women in American History,” graduate colloquium.

 

Fall 1994

Instructor, “Gender in American Culture,” graduate seminar.

 

University of Virginia Department of History, Charlottesville, VA

 

Spring 1996

Teaching Assistant, History of the Civil Rights Movement course

 

Fall 1992

Instructor,  “Americans and the Cold War,” undergraduate thesis seminar.

 

1991-92

Teaching Assistant, U.S. History Survey course, discussion leader.

 

1990-92

Research Assistant to Olivier Zunz and Melvyn P Leffler, Professors of History.

 

1990-91

Reader, U.S. Women’s History, Civil War and Reconstruction, U.S. Foreign Relations.

 

Current Graduate and Undergraduate Course Offerings

 

History of Gender in the United States

U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1917

Post-1945 U.S. history

History of Sexuality in the United States

20th Century United States History

U.S. History Survey from the Colonial Era to the Present

Americans Abroad

Americans and the Cold War

America as a Foreign Country

 

Books in Progress

 

Defending the American Way: National Identity, Propaganda, and the Cold War, 1945-1959.  Manuscript in revision.

 

Editor, Speaking of America: Readings in U.S. History, 2 vols. Contracted with Harcourt College Publishing.  David C. Tatom, Executive Editor.  Forthcoming 2003.

 

Articles

 

“Selling Capitalism: Modernization and U.S. Overseas Propaganda, 1945-1959.” in Modernization, Development, and the Globalization of the Cold War. eds, Michael Latham, Nils Gilman, Mark Haefele, and David Engerman, eds.  Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, forthcoming.

 

“A Family Affair? Gender, USIA, and Cold War Ideology, 1945-1960.”  in Culture and International Relations. eds. Jessica Gienow-Hecht and Frank Schumacher.  Oxford, UK: Berghahn Press, Ltd., forthcoming.

 

“Exporting America: The U.S. Propaganda Offensive, 1945-1959.”  In The Arts of Democracy: Art, Public Culture, and the State ed. Casey N. Blake. Wilson Center Press, forthcoming.

 

“No Substitute for Virility: Douglas MacArthur, Gender, and the Culture of Militarism.” in MacArthur and the American Century ed. William M. Leary. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001, pp. 436-465.

 

“Harvey Milk, San Francisco, and Gay Migration.” in The Human Tradition in the American West eds. Reagan Lutz and Benson Tong. Wilmington, DE:  Scholarly Resources, Inc, 2001, pp. 209-225.

 

“United States Information Agency” and “Voice of America.” in The Oxford Companion to United States History. Paul S. Boyer and Melvyn Dubovsky, eds. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

 

“Anglo-American Relations and the Dismissal of MacArthur.” Diplomatic History 19 (Fall          1995): 641-68.

 

Reviews

 

Review of Kenneth D. Rose, One Nation Underground: The Fallout Shelter in American Culture in American Historical Review, forthcoming.

 

Review of Andrea Slane, A Not So Foreign Affair: Fascism, and the Cultural Rhetoric of American Democracy in Journal of American History, forthcoming.

 

Review of Mary Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights, in Journal of Cold War Studies, forthcoming.

 

Referee, “The Cuban Missile Crisis,” History Pack.  Solicited by XanEdu Publishing with ProQuest.  July 2001.

 

Review of Dennis Merrill, “Negotiating Cold War Paradise: U.S. Tourism, Economic Planning, and Cultural Modernity in Twentieth-Century Puerto Rico,” Diplomatic History, (Spring 2001), posted on H-DIPLO, April 27, 2001.

 

Referee, Peter Hoffer and N.E.H. Hull, eds. The Abortion Controversy. Solicited by Copley Publishing Group.  March 2001.

 

Review of Allison Gilmore, You Can’t Fight Guns with Bayonets: Psychological Warfare against the Japanese Army in the Southwest Pacific in American Historical Review 105 (December 2000): 1764.

 

“Reassessing Roosevelt.”  Review of Dennis Dunn, Caught between Roosevelt and Stalin: America’s Ambassadors to Moscow posted on H-POL on March 31, 1999.

 

Review of Tom Engelhardt, The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation in Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 58, No. 1

(February 1999): 138-39.

 

“No Fighting in the War Room and Other Cold War Ironies.” Review of Margot Henriksen, Dr. Strangelove’s America: American Society and Culture in the Atomic Age in History Reviews On-Line, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Summer/Fall 1998).

 

Referee for Robert Griffith, Major Problems in American History Since 1945, 2nd edition, solicited by Houghton Mifflin Company.  April 1998.

 

“Personal, Political, and Powerful.” Review of Nancy Hewitt, Jean O’Barr, and Nancy Rosenbaugh, eds. Talking Gender: Public Images, Personal Journeys, and Political Critiques. Posted on H-WOMEN on January 22, 1998.  

 

“A Time for Reflection.” Review of Robert Schulzinger, A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975, posted on H-USA on January 31, 1998.

 

“Heated Issues,” Review of Nicole Keddie, ed. Debating Gender, Debating Sexuality, posted on H-WOMEN, 19 November 1997.

 

“Images of the Past.” Review of OSSHE Historical and Cultural Atlas Resource, posted on H-SURVEY, 29 October 1997.

 

Visiting Lectureships

 

“Postwar America,” “Fighting for the Family,” and “Erasing Racism,” in “Defining the American Way of Life,” American Studies Teaching and English Language Seminar, Center for U.S. Studies, Leucorea Foundation, Martin Luther University, Wittenberg, Germany, June 8-11, 1998.

 

Public Lectures/Presentations

 

“History Isn’t Boring Anymore: Teaching History in the 21st Century.” New Techniques for a New Millennium: A Seminar on Pedagogy and Technology, Sponsored by OSU Arts & Sciences Curricular Affairs, General Education, and Extension Committee, April 5, 1999.

 

“Defining the American Way of Life.” American Studies Lecture Series, The Center for U.S. Studies, Leucorea Foundation, Martin Luther University, Wittenberg, Germany, June 9, 1998.

 

Conference Papers/Presentations

 

“The Politics of Passion, or the American Love-Hate Relationship with Gary Condit, Jerry Falwell, Britney Spears, Bill Clinton, Lorena Bobbitt, etc., etc. . . .” The History of Sexuality: Explorations, A Roundtable Discussion, 23rd Annual Mid-America Conference on History Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, September 20-22, 2001.

 

“A Family Affair? Gender, USIA, and Cold War Ideology, 1945-1959.” International Symposium on Culture and International Relations, The Center for U.S. Studies, Leucorea Foundation, Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, December 17-19, 1999.

 

Co-Commentator for panel, “Contesting Images at Home and Abroad: Culture and American International Relations at Mid-Century.” 1999 Annual Conference Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Princeton University, June 24-26, 1999.

 

“Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Cultural: A Young Scholar Looks at Our (Mine) Field.” 1999 American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., January 7-10, 1999.  Panel entitled “Old Borders, New Boundaries: Doing American Diplomatic History in the Twenty-First Century.”

 

Commentator for panel “Imperial Fantasies: Sex, Empire, and the Construction of the Other in Cold War Foreign Policy.”  1998 American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington, November 19-22, 1998.

 

“A Rich, Tawdry, Gun-Toting, Jazz-Loving, Unscrupulous Lot: Anti-Americanism in the Early Cold War.”  1998 German American Studies Workshop on “The American Century”, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, June 2-5, 1998.

 

“Getting ‘Em to Talk: How to Teach Discussion Sections.” 1997 Mid-America Conference,         Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, September 17-21, 1997.

 

“Defining Democracy: Images of Politics in U.S. Propaganda, 1945-1959.” 1997 Society for Historians of American Relations Conference, Georgetown University, June 19-22 1997.

 

“Defining Democracy: Images of Politics in U.S. Propaganda, 1945-1959,” 1997 British Association for American Studies, “Reconstructing America,” University of Birmingham, U.K., April 4-7, 1997.

 

“Mr. and Mrs. America: Images of Gender and the Family in Cold War Propaganda.”  1996 Berkshires Conference on Women's History, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, June 6-9, 1996.

 

“William B. Benton and the Postwar Information Program, 1945-47,” Annual Meeting of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, United States Naval Academy,    June 21-24, 1995.

 

“Almost Everyone is a Capitalist: The USIA Presents the American Economy, 1953-1959.” Annual Meeting of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Bentley College, June 23-25, 1994.

 

Grants, Fellowships, and Honors

 

1999            Nominee, Phoenix Graduate Teaching Award

1999            Oklahoma Humanities Council Grant

1998            OSU College of Arts and Sciences Travel Grant

1998            Dean’s Incentive Grant               

1997            OSU Innovative Teaching Grant

1997            OSU College of Arts and Sciences Summer Research Award

1997            Oklahoma Foundation for the Humanities Grant

1997            OSU College of Arts and Sciences Matching Grant for OFH award

1997            Harry S. Truman Institute Travel Grant

1996-97       Research Travel Fellowship - OSU Department of History

1994-95       Dupont Fellowship

1993-94       Dupont Fellowship

1991-92       Academic Enhancement Fellowship

1990-91       Academic Enhancement Fellowship                          

1991            Summer Foreign Language Study Grant             

1991            Graduate Travel Grant from Harry S. Truman Institute         

1991            Department Liaison, Teaching Resource Center

1990            Travel Grant, Douglas MacArthur Memorial Foundation

 

Service

 

2001-present Department of History, Graduate Studies Committee.

 

2001-present College of Arts and Science On-Line and Distance Education Policy Committee

 

2000-present Founder and Chairperson, OSU Women’s Film Festival

 

2000-2001    College of Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee

 

2000-2001    ALPHA Faculty Liaison

 

2000-2001    Department of History, Curriculum Committee

 

1999            Department of History, Search Committee, Middle Eastern History

 

1998-present OSU Women’s Faculty Council

 

1998            Department of History, Personnel Committee

 

1998-2000    Technology 2000 Committee, statewide body, appointed by OSU President James Halligan

 

1998-1999    Department of History, Scholarship Committee

 

1997-1998    Department of History, Graduate Studies Committee

 

1997            Program Committee, Mid-America Conference  

 

1996-1997    Co-advisor, Phi Alpha Theta

 

1996-97       Department of History, Library Committee                

 

1996-1999    College of Arts and Sciences Rules and Procedures Committee       

 

Professional Memberships

 

American Historical Association

American Studies Association

Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations

Organization of American Historians