Shelly McKenzie

I completed field exams in social and public history, cultural history, American religious history, and visual studies, and am currently writing my dissertation. My work examines the history of physical fitness and exercise in the United States between 1950 and 1990. I have presented material from my dissertation at conferences sponsored by the American Studies Association, the Society for the History of Children and Youth and the Joint Atlantic Seminar for the History of Medicine.

Over the past several years I have been fortunate to work as a teaching assistant for Introduction to American Studies I, II, The American Cinema, and US Media and Cultural History, courses in the department's undergraduate program. I was also editor of American Studies International, a journal published by our department, for two years.

In May 1999 I completed my MA in the department with a thesis on America Eats, a Federal Writers' Project manuscript on American eating habits and cooking traditions. I have given talks on my foodways research at meetings of the Culinary Historians of Washington and the Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Association.

Before coming to graduate school I taught English and American studies through the Fulbright program at high schools in Lyon, France, and as a lecturer at the University of Savoie, in Chambéry, France.

shelly@gwu.edu