Another PhD Alum Lands Tenure-Track Position

 

 

Beatty’s fields of interest are United States history, early American history, and the history of women and gender. Her dissertation and current manuscript project, “In Dependence: Women’s Protection and Subordination as Power in Early America, 1750-1820,” explores the ways in which early American women in Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston manipulated their legal, social, and economic positions of dependence and turned these constraints into vehicles of female empowerment. Using women’s petitions to state legislatures, divorce cases, almshouse records, newspapers, magazines, and novels, she argues that many women in this period were able to achieve a more empowered role not in spite of their dependent status but because of it. This project was a finalist for the 2017 Dissertation Prize from the Society for the History of the Early American Republic.

 

Before starting the doctoral program, She received her BA in History from Boston College in 2010 and her MA from Villanova University in 2012.  While pursuing her doctoral degree at Mason, she taught courses in Western Civilization and World History in the Department of History and Art History, along with courses in American Cultures and Graduate Studies for the INTO Mason Program at George Mason University.

 

Beatty conducted her doctoral research under the direction of Dr. Rosemarie Zagarri, who is University Professor of Early American History at Mason.  Zagarri was not surprised to hear the good news about Beatty’s appointment.  Says Zagarri, “Jackie is the kind of student we love to have in our doctoral program. She is smart, determined, and open to new ideas and opportunities. Her passion for history--especially Women's History--is infectious. We are so excited about this new chapter in her life as a professional historian."