Director of Undergraduate Studies, American Studies Program
Clinical Professor of American Studies
Research Areas: Education and civil rights history, literature and history of adoption in the U.S, and contemporary education policy and parent advocacy
Selected Publications:
With Jeannette Balantic and Andrea Libresco. Notable Books, Notable Lessons: Putting Social Studies Back into the K-8 Curriculum (ABC-CLIO, 2017)
With and Felicity Crawford. “Why Every Student Succeeds Act Still Leaves Most Vulnerable Students Behind.” U.S News and World Report, Dec. 14, 2015.
“Round and Round Together: The Civil Rights Movement Comes to an Amusement Park.” Social Studies and the Young Learner, November/December 2013.
Mary Battenfeld is a Clinical Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Boston University’s American Studies Program. She loves teaching undergraduates, and seeing students get excited about American Studies and its connections to their personal, professional, and political lives. A three-time Fulbright Scholar (Indonesia, Nepal, and Slovenia), Dr. Battenfeld also loves travel and learning from different people, places and cultures.
Like most American Studies scholars, Prof. Battenfeld’s research interests are eclectic. Her published works, conference papers, and grants range from histories of adoption, to analyses of race and public education, to a chapter in a collection of essays on the American Dream titled “Indigenous Perspectives on the American Dream.” Whatever the topic, Dr. Battenfeld, a former Public Impact Scholar at BU’s Institute on Cities, engages in research and writing that bears on the world we live in. This is evident in a recent article, The impact of cultural representation of youth on political representation, which analyzes how young people are represented and misrepresented in cultural discourse, and argues for lowering the minimum voting age.
You can view her CV here.