Karen W. Mahar

Born in Washington, D.C., I attended mostly Catholic schools and graduated with a B.A. from the George Washington University in American Studies, combining coursework in history, literature, art history, historic preservation, material culture, and museum studies.  The next few years included a graduate semester at Trinity College, Dublin and a stint as a paralegal.  I started my serious graduate work at Columbia University, where I received an M.A. in U.S. history, and was then recruited to the University of Southern California by Dr. Lois Banner, a pioneer in women’s history, where I received a Ph.D. in U.S. history and a Certificate in Gender Studies.  My dissertation asked why there were so many female film producers and directors in the silent era, and why they all seemed to disappear after World War I (hint:  Wall Street).  My teaching career began in Southern California as an adjunct, and my first full-time position was at Texas A&M: Corpus Christi. My family moved to the Capital District when I began teaching at Siena in 1998. I feel very fortunate to live in a historically rich area, and I have been involved in local museums and historic sites since we arrived.  Personal interests include running and, of course, visiting museums.

My Siena Experience

My Teaching Philosophy

It is my job to meet students where they are in terms of skills, to help students to develop those skills, to help students get the most value from their academic experience at Siena, and to help students find their way to the next phase, whether it is a career or graduate school.  It is my job to stay on top of my field, and to keep my door and my mind open.  It is the student’s job to do the work, to be engaged inside and outside of the classroom, and to seize the many opportunities that Siena offers, from internships, to study abroad, to innovative programs. The great advantage of Siena is its size: I know students by name, and even if they are not history or American Studies majors, I am interested in helping them get to where they want to go. My favorite teaching moment is when a student suddenly recognizes the personal significance of something previously dismissed as unimportant, whether “trivial”  (advertising, film, art, fashion) or “irrelevant “ (academic theories, the experiences of peoples from another time, place, or social identity). I love the light bulb moment.

What I Love About Siena

I love the students at Siena, who are known for their courtesy.  I particularly like teaching first year students, who range from “I am not sure about this” to “I know exactly what I want and I am willing to work hard to get it.” I love the flexibility and breadth of courses that I can offer at Siena.  In addition to my position in the history department, I began directing the American Studies Program in 2001, and have served as co-director with Dr. Christiane Farnan (English) since 2007. American Studies allows me to teach in an interdisciplinary way, which is a good thing because my teaching interests include everything I studied since I entered college:  American culture, public history, business history, gender, film, and the workplace. American Studies allows me to incorporate literature, art, and public history, and draw from sociology, economics, and political science to consider the American experience from all angles.  

My Favorite Courses to Teach

Since I have the joy of teaching what I wish, my favorite courses are whatever I am teaching that semester.

My Professional Experience

Current Research

I am interested in the intersection of gender, work, and culture.  Right now I am working on a book manuscript tentatively entitled “Corner Office.” It considers the role of masculinity as the corporate form and its human representative, the business executive, emerged and developed in the twentieth century.  In particular, I am trying to untangle the intellectual and cultural fusion of masculinity and capitalism that is evident in the tremendous difficulties still faced by women in the highest corporate ranks. To do so I am looking at corporate archives, business education, industrial psychology, health manuals for businessmen, etiquette books, and representations of business executives in film, fiction, and advertising.  Thus far two Siena students have conducted archival research with me on this project, and each has delivered part of a co-written academic paper, one at a national conference and one at an international conference.

Articles & Book Reviews

• True Womanhood in Hollywood: Gendered Business Strategies and the Rise and Fall of the Woman Filmmaker, 1896 -1928
  Enterprise & Society
  2001

Awards & Distinctions

• The award is given annually to the faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in teaching. Recipients of the Jerome Walton Award are recognized for their record of outstanding and passionate teaching, for their creativity and willingness to experiment, and for their ability to engage students with rigorous and intellectually challenging subject matter.
  
  Category: Teaching
  Siena College, 2022
•  A four-week interdisciplinary NEH summer institute for twenty-five college and university faculty to explore the changing definitions of property, June, 2014, in Poughkeepsie, New York, located in the Hudson River Valley.
  Category: Teaching
  National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute, 2014
• Finalist, Professor Jerome Walton Award for Excellence in Teaching
  Category: Teaching
  Finalist, Professor Jerome Walton Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2011
• Finalist, Professor Jerome Walton Award for Excellence in Teaching
  Category: Teaching
  Finalist, Professor Jerome Walton Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2010
• 2008-2009: Finalist, Professor Jerome Walton Award for Excellence in Teaching
  Category: Teaching
  Finalist, Professor Jerome Walton Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2009
• 2007 History Professor of the Year, Siena College History Club
  Category: Teaching
  Siena College History Club, 2007
• 2004 Committee on Teaching Summer Pedagogy Fellowship and Pedagogy Assistant Grant for 'War Stories: The Siena College Veterans Oral History Project'
  Category: Other
  Committee on Teaching Summer Pedagogy Fellowship and Pedagogy Assistant Grant, 2004
• 2002-2003: Finalist, Professor Jerome Walton Award for Excellence in Teaching
  Category: Teaching
  Finalist, Professor Jerome Walton Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2003
• 2001-2002: Finalist, Professor Jerome Walton Award for Excellence in Teaching
  Category: Teaching
  Finalist, Professor Jerome Walton Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2002
• 1999-2000 Students with Disabilities Teaching Award (4/28/00)
  Category: Teaching
  Students with Disabilities Teaching Award, 2000
• 2000 Committee on Teaching, Summer Research Fellowship
  Category: Teaching
  Committee on Teaching, 2000
• 2000                   Committee on Teaching Summer Pedagogy Grant for 'The Meanings of
              American Patriotism,' with Paul Murray.
  Category: Teaching
  Committee on Teaching Summer Pedagogy Grant, 2000
• 1996-1997 J. Franklin Jameson Fellowship in American History.
  Category: Other
  J. Franklin Jameson Fellowship in American History, 1997
• 1997 Co-recipient, Lerner-Scott Prize (awarded by the Organization of
  American Historians for the best dissertation in U.S. Women's History.)
  Category: Other
  Organization of American Historians for the best dissertation in U.S. Women's History, 1997

Books & Book Chapters

• Doing History An Introduction to the Historian's Craft, with Workbook Activities
  Oxford University Press
  2015
• Doing History: An Introduction to the Historian's Craft, with Workbook Activities
  Oxford University Press
  2015
• Doing History: An introduction to the HIstorian's Craft, with Workbook Activities
  Oxford University Press
  2015
• The History Student's Handbook: A Guide to Historical Thinking, Research and Writing
  Oxford University Press
  2015
• Women Film Pioneers Project
  Center for Digital Research and Scholarship
  2013
• Women Film Pioneers Project
  Columbia University Press
  2013
• Women Film Pioneers Project
  Columbia University Press
  2013
• Classical Hollywood Reader
  Routledge
  2012
• Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood
  Johns Hopkins University Press
  2006
• Notable American Women
  Harvard University Press
  2004
• Women in Business, ed. Mary Yeager
  Edward Elgar
  1999

Presentations

• '"A New Race of Businessmen": Scientific Racism, Eugenical Assumptions, and Executive Potential, 1910-1925'
  2023
  Business History Conference, Detroit, Michigan
• The Nineteenth Amendment Turns One Hundred: Its Impact and Legacy
  2019
  Organization of American Historians, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• "Masculinity as a Business Strategy: The Growth of the Collar Industry in Troy, NY"
  March, 2016
  Business History Conference, Portland, Oregon
• Tailor-Made: Menswear, Masculinity, and the Rise of the American Business Executive
  2014
  Capital District Feminist Studies Faculty Consortium, Loudonville, New York
• I am Strong for the Fraternal Spirit': Masculinity and the Creation of an Executive Class
  May, 2013
  Economic & Business Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland
• Definitely a Man's Man': Executive Culture at General Electric, 1945-1960
  March, 2013
  Business History Conference, Columbus, Ohio
• 'The Fullback is a Lady: Sports, Gender, and Post-War Welfare Capitalism
  March, 2012
  Business History Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Business History Conference Annual Meeting
  January, 2012
  American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois
• Gender & the American Executive
  2011
  Association of Business Historians, Reading, United Kingdom
• The American Cold War Executive: Gender & Corporate Culture at Mid-Century
  2011
  American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois
• The Cold War Hero in the Gray Flannel Suit: Masculinity & the Organization Man
  2011
  New York State Sociological Association Meeting, Loudonville, New York
• Working Girls: The Masculinization of American Business in Film and Advice Literature in the 1920s
  2008
  Women & Silent Screen, Stockholm, Sweden
• Questioning Patriotism and Other Taboos: Teaching Controversial Topics in the Post 9/11 Classroom (co-authored wtith Dr. Paul Murray)
  2006
  American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Oakland, California
• Chair, Scholars Panel at 'Upstate New York Goes to War: War and the Home Front, 1775-2004
  2005
  Symposium at the Rensselaer County Historical Society, N/A, New York
• Images And Film, 2
  2005
  Siena College WWII Conference, Loudonville, New York
• Memory, Place, and Public Spaces
  2005
  Researching New York Conference, Albany, New York
• Presenter, 'Bearing it All: Nudity, Censorship, and Privilege in Lois Weber's Hypocrites
  2004
  Organization of American Historians, Boston, Massachusetts
• Presenter, 'Women Film Pioneers Workshop: Analytical Research' (by invitation)
  2004
  Women and the Silent Screen III Conference, Montreal, Canada
• Women and Wartime I--Angels of Mercy and Allotment Annies
  2003
  Siena College WWII Conference, Loudonville, New York
• American Women & World War II: Growth, Change, Anxiety
  2002
  WWII Conference, Siena College, Loudonville, New York
• Cultural Politics
  2002
  Researching New York, 2002, Albany, New York
• Presenter, 'Why Mary Pickford Wasn't Andrew Carnegie: Masculine Corporate Culture and the Female Star Producer, 1916-1923
  2002
  American Studies Association, Houston, Texas
• The American Nexus: 'Realpolitik' and Literature
  2002
  WWII Conference, Siena College, Loudonville, New York
• Visual Matters
  2002
  Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• 'I Really Want to Direct...': Hollywood and the First Wave of Movie Star/Producers
  2001
  Economic & Business Historical Society, N/A, Unknown
• The Politics of Contemporary Commemoration: The World War II Memorial
  2001
  WWII Conference, Siena College, Loudonville, New York
• 'The Homefront: From Salvage to Salvation', 'The Second Great Fire of London: The Middle American Response'
  2000
  World War II Conference, Siena College, Loudonville, New York
• American History Panel 'Defining Dreams: Popular Media and American Ideals, 1840-2000'
  2000
  Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Studies Association, N/A, Unknown
• Exhibiting Women:   Gender, Showmanship, & the Professionalization of Film Exhibition in the United States, 1900-1930
  2000
  Society for Cinema Studies, N/A, Unknown
• Revising the Neutrality Laws: Opinion, Public and Ethnic
  1999
  World War II Conference, Siena College, Loudonville, New York
• 'Linked in True Fraternity': Associational Life in Early Hollywood and the Masculinization of American Filmmaking
  1997
  American Historical Association, N/A, Unknown
• Media, Fashion, and Womanhood
  1996
  Western Association Of Women Historians, N/A, Unknown
• Gendering the Studio: Women and Work in the American Film Industry, 1916-1928
  1995
  Western Association Of Women Historians, N/A, Unknown
• When the Heroine Came to the Rescue: The First Serials and the Woman Filmmaker, 1912-1922
  1995
  Organization of American Historians, N/A, Unknown
• Censoring Women: Censorship, Gender, And Control before the Motion Picture Code
  1994
  American Historical Association ( Pacific Coast Branch), N/A, Unknown