Position:

Director, Dr. William M. Scholl Center for Family and Community History, The Newberry Library
Affiliated Faculty, Department of History, University of Illinois at Chicago

Address:

Dr. William M. Scholl Center for Family and Community History
The Newberry Library
60 W. Walton St.
Chicago, IL 60610-3380

Phone: (312) 255-3568
E-Mail: higbiet@newberry.org

Education:



• Ph.D., History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, January 2000
• M.A., History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, May 1993
• B.A., with distinction in History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, April 1988
   

• Labor and Social History
• Agricultural History
• History of the Midwest

Publications: 

• Book
  
  
  • Indispensable Outcasts: Hobo Workers and Community in the American Midwest, 1880-1930 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003. The Working Class in American History Series)
    
    
• Articles
  
  • "Rural Work, Household Subsistence, and the North American Working Class: A View from the Midwest," International Labor and Working Class History
    "'This man appears to be on the verge of falling into the hobo class': Life Stories, State Investigation, and Seasonal Migrant Workers, 1880-1930," Repositioning North American Migration History: New Directions in Modern Continental Migration and Citizenship, edited by Marc Rodriquez, Rochester University Press, in process
    "Crossing Class Boundaries: Tramp Ethnographers and Narratives of Class in Progressive Era America," Social Science History 21:4 (Winter 1997): 559-592
    "Indispensable Outcasts: Harvest Laborers in the Wheat Belt of the Middle West, 1890-1925," Labor History 38(Fall 1997): 393-412
    "Wage Labor in Midwest Agriculture," Encyclopedia of the Midwest (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, forthcoming)
    "Women's Trade Union League," Encyclopedia of Chicago History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004)
    
    
• Reviews
  
  
  • Review of Making of America Web site <moa.umdl.umich.edu> in the Journal of American History 89 (September 2002)
  • Review of David O. Stowell, Streets, Railroads, and the Great Strike of 1877 in Labor History
  • Review of Slim Brundage, From Bughouse Square to the Beat Generation, Selected Ravings, edited and introduced by Franklin Rosemont in the Journal of Illinois History 2 (Spring 1999), 71-72
  • Review of Mary MacLane, The Story of Mary MacLane and Other Writings, with Texts by Henry B. Fuller, Clarence Darrow and Harriet Monroe, edited and introduced by Penelope Rosemont in the Journal of Illinois History 2 (Spring 1999), 72

Employment: 

• Director, Dr. William M. Scholl Center for Family and Community History, The Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois, 2000 to present
• Organizer: American Federation of Teachers, 2000
• Visiting Assistant Professor: University of Illinois Department of History, 1998-1999
• William C. Widenor Teaching Fellow: University of Illinois Department of History, 1997
• Network Administrator: University of Illinois Department of History, 1994-1996
• Teaching Assistant: University of Illinois Department of History, 1992-94
• Research Associate: Technology Assessment Group, San Francisco, CA, 1990-1991
• Educational Staff: State YMCA of Michigan, Central Lake, MI, 1988-1989
  

On-Going Projects: 

• Curator, Outspoken: Chicago's Free Speech Tradition, Exhibit at the Newberry Library, Falll 2004
• "Women and Chicago's Open Forum Scene, 1910-1940" (article in research)
• "The Transnational Midwest: Regional Cultures, Nations, and North American Working People" (book project in research).

Public and Teacher Education Programs: 

• Academic Director, Chicago History Project: A Model Professional Development Program, U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History Grant awarded to the Chicago Public Schools, 2002-2005
• Project Director, "The Souls of Black Folk:" A Centennial Lecture Series at the Newberry Library on the Legacy of W. E. B. DuBois, January to April 2003. Funded by the Illinois Humanities Council
• Project Director, National History Project, Chicago Summer Institute for Teaching Faculty. A joint program of the National Council on Education in the Disciplines (Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation) and the Newberry Library to create a research-oriented professional development project for high school and college faculty
• Project Director, Work and Community History Workshop, National Endowment for the Humanities Focus Grant awarded July 2001.
  "Dill Pickles, Soapboxers, and Hobo Collegians: Revealing Episodes in Bughouse Square History," Public lecture at the Newberry Library, September 2001
• "Chicago Realism: Work, Morality, and Urban Spaces in Sister Carrie and The Jungle." Panel filmed for C-SPAN American Writers: a Journey Through History, August 4, 2001
• "Reform, Reaction, Revolution: the 2002 National History Day Theme." Presentation to Chicago Metro History Education Center 2000-2001 Teacher Awards Banquet, May 2001
• "A Biography of America: Chicago's History, America's History." Chair and organizer for a public program and workshop for school teachers and librarians, Walter Payton College Preparatory High School, March 24, 2001. Sponsored by Annenberg/CPB

Conference Participation: 

• "'This man appears to be on the verge of falling into the hobo class': Life Stories, State Investigation, and Seasonal Migrant Workers, 1880-1930," Repositioning North American Migration History: New Directions in Modern Continental Migration and Citizenship, Princeton University, March 2003
• Chair, "Wartime Workers, Western Communities, and the Federal State," Western Historical Association Conference, Colorado Springs, October 2002
• "Seeing Class in the Midwestern Countryside," Southern Labor Studies Conference, Miami, April 2002
• "Hired Hands and Hiring Out: Exploring Class Relations in the Rural North, 1880-1930," North American Labor History Conference, Detroit, October 2001
• "Teaching the U.S. History Survey in Grades 6-16: A Panel Discussion," Illinois Council for Social Studies Annual Conference, September 2001
• "The Mysteries of a Hobo's Life: Rough Culture, Transient Mutuality and the Focusing of Experience," Newberry Library Fellows Seminar, June 2001
• Chair, "Labor Conflict in the American West, 1865-1950," American Historical Association Annual Meeting, January 2001.
  Commentator, "Doing Local History: A Teaching Tool for Community Development," History at the Grassroots Conference, Eastern Illinois University, October 2000
• Commentator, "Masculinity and Social Consensus in Post-War Germany and the United States," Graduate Symposium on Women's and Gender History, University of Illinois, Spring 2000
• "Appealing to the Manhood in a Man: Violence, Mutual Aid and Organization among Laboring Men during the Early 20th Century," North American Labor History Conference, Detroit, October 1999
• "Reassessing the 'Floating Laborer': Young Men and the Structure of Job Opportunity in the Upper Midwestern US, 1890-1930," Social Science History Association, Chicago, November 1998
• "Retelling Life Histories: Reading Social Investigations from the Bottom Up," North American Labor History Conference, Detroit, October 1998
• "The Hobo, the Wobbly and the 'Battle of Redfield': the Politics of Community in the Wheat Belt," Social Science History Association, Atlanta, 1995
• "Indispensable Outcasts: Harvest Laborers in the Wheat Belt," Newberry Library Rural History Seminar, Chicago, 1992

Awards & Fellowships: 

• Dissertation Completion Fellowship: University of Illinois Graduate College, 1998-1999
• List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent, University of Illinois: Based on student evaluations for History 337: "American Working Class History"; History 298: "Rural America in the age of the City"; and History 152: "US History since 1877"
• Joseph Ward Swain Publication Award: Department of History, University of Illinois, 1998
• Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois, 1996-97

Service : 

• American Historical Association, Member of Local Arrangements Committee for 2003 Annual Meeting
• Article reviewer for Labor History, 2001
• Labor and Working Class History Association: Membership Committee (current); Co-Chair, Electronic Resources Committee, 1999-2000
• Bughouse Square Debates Organizing Committee: Newberry Library, 2000-2001
• Committee on Labor Education: Illinois Federation of Teachers, Spring 2000
• Press Officer: Graduate Employees' Organization, IFT/AFT, 1998-2000
• University YMCA, Board of Governors: Student Member, 1995-97
• Peer Educator, Sexual Assault Prevention & Awareness Center, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1987

Department of History