Crystal Webster Curriculum Vitae Assistant Professor University of Texas San Antonio crystal.lynn.webster@gmail.com ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Texas San Antonio (Sept. 2018- ) Lecturer, W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst (Sept. 2017-May 2018) Visiting Adjunct Assistant Professor of Africana Studies, Hampshire College (Sept. 2017-Jan. 2018) EDUCATION Sept. 2017 Ph.D. in Afro-American Studies, Dissertation Title: Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: Northern Black Children s Political and Cultural Resistance, 1780-1861 Dissertation Committee Members: Chair: Manisha Sinha, Members: Barbara Krauthamer, Laura Lovett, James Smethurst May 2016 M.A. in African American History, Advanced Certificate in African Diaspora Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst Advanced Certificate in Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst May 2012 B.A. in African American Studies, With Honors in Africana Studies, Oberlin College BOOK PROJECT Title: Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: Northern African American Children s Political and Cultural Resistance RESEARCH Nineteenth century African American history with specializations in childhood/girlhood studies and Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies - 1 -
PUBLICATIONS Journal Articles In Pursuit of Autonomous Womanhood: Nineteenth Century Black Maternal Mourning and Motherhood in the U.S. North, Slavery & Abolition, May, 2017 From Enslavement to Indentured Servitude: The Daily Lives of Black Child-Laborers in the Early Nineteenth Century United States, Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, Under Review Book Chapters Bringing Depth to the Movement: Georgia McMurray and the Multi-Dimensionality of Black Women s Activism, chapter in edited collection, It s Our Movement Now : Black Women s Politics and the 1977 National Women s Conference, University of Massachusetts Press, ed. Laura L. Lovett and Rachel Jessica Daniel, Under Review FELLOWSHIPS, FUNDING, & AWARDS 2018 African American Studies Short-Term Research Fellowship Massachusetts Historical Society 2018 Visiting Scholar American Antiquarian Society 2018 Finalist, Hench Post-Dissertation Fellowship American Antiquarian Society 2018 Esther Terry Award for Distinguished Dissertations in Afro-American Studies 2017 Honorable Mention Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship 2017 Graduate School Dissertation Research Grant 2016 Program in African American History Mellon Dissertation Fellowship Library Company of Philadelphia 2016 Drusilla Dunjee Houston Memorial Scholarship Association of Black Women Historians 2016 Pass with Distinction, Comprehensive Exam 2015 Isaiah Thomas Stipend American Antiquarian Society - 2 -
2015 W.E.B. Du Bois Special Collections University Archive Research Fellowship University of Massachusetts, Amherst 2015 Honorable Mention Ford Foundation PreDoctoral Fellowship 2015 First Place, Graduate Student Essay Contest National Council for Black Studies 2014-2015 Afro-American Studies Incentive Fellowship W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro American Studies TEACHING EXPERIENCE HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE Fall 2017 Black Women s Intellectual History (Seminar) Adjunct Assistant Professor of African American Studies UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Spring 2018 African American History, 1865-1954 (Lecture Course) Visiting Lecturer Fall 2017 Fall 2017 African American History, 1619-1860 (Lecture Course) Visiting Lecturer History of the Civil Rights Movement (Online Seminar) Visiting Lecturer Spring 2016 Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in U.S. History (Seminar) Instructor Summer 2015 History of the Civil Rights Movement (Online Seminar) Instructor Fall 2015 Fall 2015 African American History, 1619-1860 (Lecture Course) Teaching Assistant African American History, 1865-1954 (Lecture Course) Teaching Assistant Spring 2014 African American History, 1619-1865 (Lecture Course) Teaching Assistant CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS Planned Institutionalized Childhood: Narratives of African American Children in Nineteenth Century Reformatories, American Studies Association, (Atlanta, GA), November. - 3 -
Planned Take This Child Away : Black Mothers Struggles to (Re)Claim Black Children during Educational, Abolitionist, and Humanitarian Reform Movements, Organization of American Historians, (Philadelphia, PA), April. 2018 Deviance, Race, and Childhood in Early Criminal Justice Reform, American Historical Association, (Washington, DC), January. 2017 Educating the Black Child: Antebellum Educational Activism as Political Discourse and Resistance. Organization of American Historians (New Orleans, LA), April. 2017 The Metaphysics of Childhood: Towards a New Approach to Studies of Nineteenth Century Black Girlhood, Global History of Black Girlhood Conference, (Charlottesville, VA), March. 2016 (Un)Learning Race: Child s Play and Resistance in the Antebellum North. C19: The Society of Nineteenth Century Americanists, (State University, PA), March. 2016 In Pursuit of Autonomous Black Motherhood: Northern Black Women s Writings on Womanhood, Motherhood, and Childhood. Motherhood, Childlessness and the Care of Children from Slavery to Emancipation Conference, (Reading, UK), March. 2015 From a Painful, Patient, and Silent Enslavement to an Enlightened Motherhood : Shifting Constructions of Black Motherhood in the Nineteenth Century. Association for the Study of African American Life and History, (Atlanta, GA), September. 2015 Trials of Girlhood: Representations of Childhood Bodies in Narratives of Enslavement. University of Massachusetts, Amherst Department of English Department Conference, (Amherst, MA), April. 2015 My Poor Child : Representations of Enslaved Childhood. University of Massachusetts, Amherst W.E.B. Du Bois Department Conference, (Amherst, MA), March. 2015 The Emancipatory Potential of Childhood: Representations of Children in Narratives of Enslavement. National Council for Black Studies, (Los Angeles, CA), March. INVITED TALKS 2018 Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood, Massachusetts Historical Society Brown Bag Seminar, (Boston, MA) June 2016 In Pursuit of Autonomous Child-Rearing: Constructions of Early Nineteenth Century Black Motherhood in the Antebellum North, McNeil Center for Early American Studies Brown Bag Seminar, (Philadelphia, PA), November. 2016 Indentured, Orphaned, and Black: Northern Networks of Black Children s Labor, Five College Childhood Studies Seminar, (Amherst, MA), December. - 4 -
2016 Fellowship Colloquium, Library Company of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA), October. 2016 Mourning Children Not Yet Dead: Antebellum Black Motherhood and the Emotional Value of the Child. Advanced Feminist Certificate Presentations (Amherst, MA), April. 2015 Outstanding Students in Humanities Panel, University of Massachusetts Graduate Student Orientation, (Amherst, MA), September. 2015 Transfiguring the Soul of Childhood : W.E.B. Du Bois and the Social, Political, and Cultural Role of Black Children. W.E.B. Du Bois Fellows Presentation, (Amherst, MA), October. PANELS ORGANIZED 2016 Organization of American Historians Panel Title: Racialized Rhetoric: Reading Constructions of Black Childhood in the Antebellum Era Presenters: Crystal Webster, Ben Davidson, Laura Soderberg. Chair: Mary Niall Mitchell, University of New Orleans Commentator: Anna Mae Duane, University of Connecticut 2015 National Council for Black Studies Panel Title: (Re)Envisioning Racial Uplift: Subversive Practices in the Writings of Nineteenth Century Black Women SEMINAR PARTICIPANT 2015 American Antiquarian Society, History of the Book in American Culture Summer Seminar: Reading Children SERVICE 2018 Dr. Martin Luther King Celebration, Northampton, MA Program Leader 2017 University of Massachusetts Press conference assistant 2016 W.E.B. Du Bois Graduate Student Conference planning committee member 2015-2016 Co-Chair, W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro American Studies Graduate Student Organization 2015-2016 University of Massachusetts, Amherst Advanced Feminist Certificate conference planning committee member - 5 -
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS American Historical Association American Studies Association Organization of American Historians History of Black Girlhood Network, Contributing Scholar Society of Nineteenth Century Americanists Association for the Study of African American Life and History National Council for Black Studies LANGUAGE COMPETENCY Spanish Reading: Proficient Spanish Writing: Proficient REFERENCES Kirsten Gardner University of Texas San Antonio Associate Professor, Chair Department of History Manisha Sinha University of Connecticut Storrs Draper Chair in American History Barbara Krauthamer Dean, Graduate School James Smethurst Professor, W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies Laura Lovett Associate Professor, Department of History - 6 -