Rate My Professor Emily Westkaemper

Emily Westkaemper serves as Associate Professor of History at James Madison University, having joined the faculty as Assistant Professor in 2010 and earning promotion to Associate Professor in 2016. Previously, she was Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Franklin & Marshall College (2009–2010). She received her Ph.D. in History from Rutgers University in 2009, specializing in Comparative Women’s and Gender History and U.S. History, complemented by a Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies. Her undergraduate degree is a B.A. with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia (2002), with a major in History and American Studies concentration, and a minor in French Language and Literatures.

Westkaemper’s scholarly work focuses on U.S. history, women’s and gender history, and cultural history, particularly exploring gender and consumer culture, working women’s activism, popular memory of feminism, twentieth-century feminisms, and advertising history. She teaches courses on U.S. history, women’s history, historical research methods, and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. Key publications include her book Selling Women's History: Packaging Feminism in Twentieth-Century American Popular Culture (Rutgers University Press, 2017), the chapter “Popular Cultures” in A Companion to American Women’s History, 2nd ed. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2021), and “Home Economics” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History (Oxford University Press, 2008). She also contributed as Editorial Assistant to The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, volume IV (Rutgers University Press, 2006), and co-developed “Virginia Constitution 1971: Curriculum for Undergraduate Courses” (2021). Her accolades encompass prestigious fellowships such as the Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellowship (2008), Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship (2007–2008), Radcliffe Institute Dissertation Grant (2006–2007), and National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar stipend (2017), alongside multiple grants from James Madison University, including the Provost’s Faculty Diversity Curriculum Development Grant (2018) and Faculty Educational Leave (Fall 2022).