Linda Eisenmann is Associate Professor of Education and former director of the Higher Education Doctoral Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston, an urban-focused program which fosters change agency in higher education and explores connections between higher education and the schools. Linda teaches in both Higher Education and the doctoral program in Leadership in Urban Schools. Her courses include leadership in higher education; teaching, learning and curriculum in the urban context; history of higher education; and historical roots of urban schooling.
A first-generation college student and native of Cleveland, Ohio, Linda earned a master’s degree in American Literature (Georgetown University) before turning to the study of education. She completed her master’s and doctorate in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, with a research specialty in History of Education, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Before joining the UMass faculty, Linda taught at Harvard, Wellesley, and Bowdoin colleges, and has held several collegiate administrative posts, including career counselor (at Georgetown), assistant director of a research center (at Harvard/Radcliffe), and director of a project on general education (at UMass).
At UMass Boston, Linda has chaired the Department of Leadership in Education, the faculty senate, and several dean and faculty search committees. She is active at the national level in several scholarly associations. For the History of Education Society, she is the current President, having served as Vice President, past member of the Board of Directors, and past Associate Editor of the History of Education Quarterly. For the American Educational Research Association (AERA), she served as elected Vice President of Division F (History and Historiography) (2001-03), and elected member of the Executive Board, as well as the Executive Council of Division J (Postsecondary), including two years as Chair of its Evaluation Committee. For the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), she served on the Board of Directors (2001-03) and was Program Chair for the 2000 meeting.
A historian interested in the social context of
higher education, Linda’s scholarship examines three areas of educational
history: professionalization, women’s issues, and historiography. Within these, she has explored the history
and impact of collegiate coeducation; the history of teacher training
institutions, including their interactions with state bureaucracies; and
professionalization in higher education, especially the history of women
faculty. Her Harvard Educational
Review article, “Reconsidering a Classic: Assessing the History of Women’s
Higher Education a Dozen Years after Barbara Solomon,” analyzes the field and
offers predictions for future scholarly directions. Her edited book, Historical Dictionary of Women’s Education in
the United States (Greenwood Press, 1998), offers a reader-friendly summary
and analysis of current research. Forthcoming is Higher
Education for Women in Postwar America, 1945-65: Reclaiming the Incidental
Student (Johns Hopkins University Press), a book exploring the impact of
curricular and cultural decisions on women’s collegiate participation. Linda has also published in Teachers
College Record, Academe, Metropolitan Universities, History of Education
Quarterly, and Thought and Action, among other venues.
List of Courses Taught