Vita | Julia M Gossard

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ABOUT JULIA

As a social historian and digital humanist, Julia M Gossard researches the history of childhood, especially how children, education, state formation, social reform, gender, and global expansion were intertwined and affected one another during the early modern period in France and her colonies. Julia is an Assistant Professor in the History Department at Utah State University and a Distinguished Professor of Honors Education in the Honors Program at USU.

Several organizations and institutions have sponsored Julia’s work. The Society for French Historical Studies awarded Julia the Marjorie M and Lancelot L. Farrar Memorial Award for the best dissertation in progress at a North American university. The American Historical Association’s Bernadotte E Schmitt Research Grant, The American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, The Newberry Library, the History Department and College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Utah State University, the History Department, and The Graduate School at The University of Texas at Austin have also underwritten her research.

In 2015-2016 Julia was an Institute for Historical Studies Postdoctoral Research Fellow. During this year she wrote the book manuscript (“Coercing Children”) of her dissertation “Reforming Children: The Pedagogy, Commerce, and Politics of Childhood in the Early Modern French World.” Her pioneering investigation in the use of childhood as a central category for historical analysis reconfigures the history of childhood in early modern France by considering children as actors as well as subjects. Visit her Research page to learn more about her research and publications.

Dr. Gossard teaches early modern and modern European, Atlantic, and world history at Utah State University. She offers undergraduate survey courses as well as upper division and graduate courses with a special focus on social history, especially childhood, gender, family history, education, and social reform. In Fall 2016, Julia is teaching The Foundations of Western Civilization: Modern, 1500-1990 (undergraduate survey course) and Europe and the French Revolution, 1700-1815 (upper-division undergraduate course). In Spring 2017, she will again teach The Foundations of Western Civilization: Modern, 1500-1990 and Witches, Workers, and Wives (upper-division undergraduate course). To find out more about these courses, her innovations in pedagogy (especially digital humanities), and her teaching philosophy, please visit her Teaching page.

Julia attended Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas where she earned a Bachelor’s of Arts in History with Honors in the Liberal Arts and Departmental Distinction in History. During her time at SMU she studied abroad at their campus in Paris, France for a year to perfect her French, hone her history knowledge, and embark on archival research. Since graduating in 2008 she has served as SMU-in-Paris’s Assistant Director and Program Assistant, making her a study abroad specialist. Entering The University of Texas at Austin’s History Department in Fall 2009 with a fully funded recruitment package she earned her Master’s of Arts Degree in History in 2011. With the enthusiastic endorsement of all committee members, in August 2015 Julia was awarded her PhD in History.

List of Research Fields (Broadly Defined): Early Modern Europe; Early Modern France; Childhood, Children, and Youth; Education; Gender; Social Reform; Colonization and Empire(s); Commerce and Economics; Labor; State-Building; Subjecthood; Catholic Reformation

Teaching Fields: Early Modern Europe & World (proficient in Medieval & Modern as well); French History; Social History; History of Childhood, Children, & Youth; Gender & Sexuality; History of Education; History of Social Reform; Early Modern European State-Building; History of Commodities & Exchanges; Economic History; Labor History; Renaissance/Reformation; Tudor & Stuart England; Age of Revolutions; Atlantic History. She is also capable and prepared to teach on many other topics of cultural, political, and economic history in the early modern era. Julia is committed to incorporating and experimenting with pedagogical innovations in her teaching, especially digital humanities.

CURRICULUM VITAE

CURRENT APPOINTMENTS

Assistant Professor, History Department, Utah State University, 2016-Present
Distinguished Assistant Professor of Honors Education, Honors Program, Utah State University, 2017-Present

EDUCATION

Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2015

- Early Modern European History (France; Supervisor: Julie Hardwick); GPA 4.000
- Dissertation: Reforming Children: The Pedagogy, Commerce, and Politics of Childhood in the Early Modern French World
  - Committee Members: Julie Hardwick (Supervisor); Brian Levack; Alison Frazier; Robert Olwell; Neil Kamil; Marc Bizer
- Qualifying Exams (April 2012) – Achieved “Exceptional Knowledge” in all fields

M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2011

B.A. Southern Methodist University, 2008 (Major: History; Minor: French)

PREVIOUS ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The Institute for Historical Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, 2015-2016
Lecturer, History Department, The University of Texas at Austin, 2015-16
Named/Endowed Fellow, The Graduate School, 2014-2015
Assistant Director and Program Assistant, SMU-in-Paris Summer Program, 2009-2015
Supplemental Instructor Supervisor, Sanger Learning Center, School of Undergraduate Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, 2013-2014
Supplemental Instructor, History Department and The Thomas Jefferson Center for Core Texts & Ideas, The University of Texas at Austin, 2011-2012
Teaching Assistant, History Department, The University of Texas at Austin, 2013-2014; 2010-2011
Graduate Mentor, Intellectual Entrepreneurship Pre-Graduate School Internship, The University of Texas at Austin, 2011-2012
Research Assistant to Professor Julie Hardwick, The University of Texas at Austin, Fall 2011; Summer 2010
Education Abroad Intern, Southern Methodist University, December 2008-June 2009

AWARDS & HONORS

External Awards:

Bernadotte E Schmitt Grant for Research in European, African, or Asian History, The American Historical Association, Summer 2017
Newberry Library Short Term Research Fellowship, June 2017
American Historical Association’s Undergraduate Teaching Workshop “Assignments Charrette,” Denver, Colorado
The Society for French Historical Studies Marjorie M. and Lancelot L. Farrar Memorial Award for the Best Dissertation in Progress at a North American University, 2012
American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Robert R. Palmer Research Travel Award, 2012
The Mellon Summer Institute in French Paleography at the Newberry Library, Summer 2012
Presidential Graduate Scholarship, American Catholic Historical Association, Spring 2012
Newberry Renaissance Consortium Grant, Spring 2012
Newberry Library/École Nationale des Chartes Exchange Fellowship, 2011 (declined)

Internal Awards & Grants – Utah State University:

Open Education Resources CHaSS Grant, Western Civilization Course ($500.00)
Summer Undergraduate Mentorship Grant, College of Humanities and Social Sciences ($1000 Faculty; $2000 Student)
Travel Grant, College of Humanities and Social Sciences ($1350)
Exploratory Seed Grant for DH@USU, College of Humanities and Social Sciences ($1875 Group; $315 Faculty Member)
Honors Course Development Award, Honors Program ($1000)
Research Assignment Design Workshop, Merrill-Cazier Library ($500)

Internal (UT) Awards:

The University of Texas Graduate School Named/Endowed Fellowship, The Graduate School, The University of Texas at Austin, 2014-2015
Departmental Research Fellowship, History Department, The University of Texas at Austin, 2012-2013
Professional Development Grant, The Graduate School, The University of Texas at Austin, Fall 2013
Research Travel Grant, History Department, The University of Texas at Austin, Summer 2012
Travel Grant, Dorothy and John B. Pope Excellence Fund, The University of Texas at Austin, Fall 2011
Research Travel Grant, History Department, The University of Texas at Austin, Summer 2011
Departmental Recruitment Fellowship, History Department, The University of Texas at Austin, 2009 – 2010
Recruitment Package (5 years fully funded), History Department, The University of Texas at Austin, 2009-2015

Undergraduate:

Departmental Distinction in History, Southern Methodist University, 2008
Honors in the Liberal Arts, Southern Methodist University, 2008
SMU Distinguished Scholar Scholarship, Southern Methodist University, 2005 – 2008
Paul Pigott Scholarship Foundation Recipient, 2005
Summa cum laude in History, Southern Methodist University, 2008

PUBLICATIONS

Book Manuscript

Coercing Children: State-Building and Social Reform in the 18^th-Century French World (revised dissertation; in preparation)

Articles in Peer Reviewed Journals

Public & Digital History Peer Reviewed Articles

2017 “Child Gangs and Motherly Duty at the Onset of Revolution,” Age of Revolutions, posted August 8, 2017
2017 “Prix de Moralité: The Inculcation of Young French Citizens,” Age of Revolutions, posted June 19, 2017

Reviews in Peer Reviewed Journals

2016 “Review: The Government of Childhood: Discourse, Power, and Subjectivity,” Journal for the History of Childhood and Youth, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Winter 2016)
2014 “Review: Ritual and Conflict: The Social Relations of Childbirth in Early Modern England,” The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. XLV, No. 4 (Winter 2014)

Works in Progress

2017 “Breaking a Child’s Will: Eighteenth-Century Parisian Juvenile Detention Centers,” French Historical Studies (submitted for revisions May 2017)
2017/8 “Casket Girls: Vampires or the Mothers of French Louisiana?” – article in research stage; intended publication in Journal of Women’s History

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Panelist, “Gendering Childhood Definitions: Age, Gender, and Change in Early Modern France,” Society for the History of Childhood and Youth Conference, Camden, New Jersey, June 2017
Organizer and Panelist, “Roundtable: Fashioning French Identities,” Society for French Historical Studies, Washington, D.C., April 2017
Organizer and Panelist, “Jeunes de Langues: French Children in the Ottoman Empire,” Western Society for French History’s 43^rd Annual Conference, Chicago, IL
Panelist, “Policing the Family: Childhood & Authority in Early Modern France,” Western Society for French History’s 42^nd Annual Conference, San Antonio, TX, November 2014
Panelist, “Correcting Children: Education and Rehabilitation in Parisian Maisons de Correction,” Western Society for French History’s 41^st Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, October 2013
Organizer and Panelist, “Reforming the Poor: Lyonnais Charity Schools and the Catholic Reformation,” American Catholic Historical Association Spring Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 2012
Organizer and Panelist, “The Crown’s Catholic Subjects: Lyon’s Écoles de Charité and the French State, 1660-1689,” Western Society for French History Thirty-Ninth Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon, November 2011
Organizer, Chair, and Panelist, “Inculcating the Poor: Seventeenth-Century Lyonnais Charity Schools,” Sixteenth-Century Society and Conference, Fort Worth, Texas, October 2011
Panelist, “Children, Charity, and the Consolidation of Power: Lyon’s Écoles de Charité, 1660-1750,” The Center for Renaissance Studies Multidisciplinary Graduate Student Conference, The Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois, January 2012
Panelist, “State, School, and Subject: Children, Charity and the Consolidation of State and Local Power in 17^th century Lyon,” The Lived Experience of the State Conference, Duke University, March 2011
Panelist, “Children, Charity, Commerce, and the Consolidation of Power: The State and Community’s Interests in Lyon’s École Charitable de Saint Charles” 2^nd Annual Texas A&M Graduate History Conference, Texas A&M University, February 2011

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE & SKILLS

Archives:

Lyon, France: Archives Départementales du Rhône, Archives Municipales de Lyon
Paris, France: Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Site Mitterrand & Site Richelieu), Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Archives Nationales, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Archives d’Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris
Rouen, France: Archives Départementales de la Seine Maritime
United States: Harry Ransom Center, The Newberry Library

Research Skills:

11^th-19^th-century French paleography
Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe, FileMaker Pro, Evernote, and Pages
Experience with digitizing archival documents with cameras and scanners
Extensive experience creating databases for analytic inquiry
HTML proficient

Language Skills

English – Native fluency
French – Fluent reading, writing, and speaking
Latin – Reading and writing proficient
Spanish- Reading proficient

UT PRESENTATIONS & MEDIA

Presentations:

Invited Panelist, “How Historians ‘Do’ Gender History,” The Department of History’s Graduate Symposium on Gender, History, and Sexuality, September 4, 2015
Invited Speaker, “Digital Workflow & Research Organization,” Presentation for the Graduate Program’s First-Year Research & Methodology Course, History Department, The University of Texas at Austin, September 2015
Invited Presenter, “Colonial Children: Crux of French Imperial Strategy,” New Works in Progress Series, The Institute for Historical Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Invited Host & Speaker, History Department’s Annual Visiting Committee, 2014
Guest Lecturer, “Children in Early Modern Europe,” Dr. Julie Hardwick’s course, Witches, Workers, and Wives, The University of Texas at Austin, September 9, 2014
Guest Lecturer, “Building an Empire: The French Atlantic, 1524-1763,” Dr. Neil Kamil’s course, The US in the 17^th-Century Atlantic World, The University of Texas at Austin, April 4, 2014
Guest Lecturer, “Slave Codes: Britain and France,” Dr. Neil Kamil’s course, The US in the 17^th-Century Atlantic World, The University of Texas at Austin, March 2014
Invited Presenter, “Correcting Children: Education and Rehabilitation in Parisian Maisons de Correction,” The Department of History’s Graduate Symposium on Gender, History, and Sexuality, October 2013
Invited Speaker, “Adventures in the Archives,” History Department, The University of Texas at Austin, September 2013
Invited Commentator, “Talk: New Theoretical Developments in Gender and History: A Re/examination of Joan W. Scott,” The Department of History’s Graduate Symposium on Gender, History and Sexuality, February 17, 2012

Book and Film Reviews for UT Media:

“Review: A Tale of Two Murders: Passion and Power in Seventeenth-Century France,” Not Even Past, October 2010, http://www.notevenpast.org/read/tale-two-murders-passion-and-power-seventeenth-century-france-2005
“Death and Decadence: Vatel,” Not Even Past, May 9, 2011, http://www.notevenpast.org/watch/death-and-decadence-vatel
“Review: Sarah’s Key,” Not Even Past, September 7, 2011, http://www.notevenpast.org/read/sarahs-key
“Why is Anne Hathaway So Sad? The History Behind Les Misérables,” Not Even Past, January 14, 2013, http://www.notevenpast.org/watch/why-anne-hathaway-so-sad-history-behind-les-miserables
“Les Misérables: A Historian’s Review,” The Alcalde, January 16, 2013, http://alcalde.texasexes.org/2013/01/les-miserables-a-historians-review/
“Review: State of Virginity: Gender, Religion, and Politics in an Early Modern Catholic State,” Not Even Past, February 17, 2013, http://www.notevenpast.org/read/state-virginity-gender-religion-and-politics-early-modern-catholic-state-2004

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & SERVICE:

Co-Coordinator, Symposium on Gender, History, and Sexuality, History Department, The University of Texas at Austin, 2013-14
Program Assistant, Western Society for French History Thirty-Ninth Annual Conference, 2011
ASPECTS Certificate Program & Grad Student Colloquium Participant, Center for Teaching & Learning, The University of Texas at Austin, 2010-2011

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

American Historical Association
American Catholic Historical Association
American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Phi Alpha Theta
Society for the History of Childhood and Youth
The Society for French Historical Studies
The Western Society for French History