Katherine V. Sedgwick
Ph.D. Candidate (ABD)
ksedgwic 'at' sas 'dot' upenn 'dot' edu
Education
B.A., History, Haverford College (1999); Ph.D. Candidate, History, University of Pennsylvania (ABD, 2007); Ph.D. Candidate, Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania (ABD, 2006)
Fields
U.S. Intellectual and Cultural History post-1865; U.S. History Survey, 1600-Present; History of U.S. Education, 1600-Present
Dissertation Topic
My dissertation, "The Meaning of Truth and the Purpose of Higher Education: Religion, Curricula, and Pedagogy, 1850-1930," analyzes the content and purpose of religious instruction at six colleges and universities in order to discover how educational leaders viewed changing notions of truth and educational philosophy during this period. The six institutions were chosen in part to reflect the diversity of higher education during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries: a small, denominational (Methodist) liberal arts college; a Quaker women's college; a Catholic university; an historically Black college with Presbyterian roots; an elite research university founded as a non-sectarian Protestant institution; a public, urban college. I also seek to connect my analysis of these six particular stories with national trends and outside influences by studying the records of religious bodies, of philanthropies, and of scholarly and learned societies that helped shape intellectual shifts in America during this period.
Dissertation Committee
Scholarly Activity
I have presented my work at the annual meetings of the History of Education Society, the American Educational Research Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Association for the Study of Higher Education. I currently have two articles under peer review for publication, and I co-edited a volume on African American philanthropy and education with Marybeth Gasman.
Publications
Katherine V. Sedgwick. Review, “The College ‘Y': Student Religion in the Era of Secularization” (David P. Setran). History of Education Quarterly forthcoming (2009).
Katherine V. Sedgwick, “An Ambiguous Purpose: Religion and Academics in the Bryn Mawr College Curriculum, 1885-1915,” Perspectives on the History of Higher Education, 27 (2008).
Marybeth Gasman and Katherine V. Sedgwick (eds.). Uplifting a People: Essays on African American Philanthropy and Education (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2005). ** Winner of the AFP/Skytone Ryan Prize for Outstanding Research on Fundraising and Philanthropy
Katherine V. Sedgwick. Review, “All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half Century of Brown v. Board of Education” (Charles Ogletree). Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 763-764.
Conference Papers
Katherine V. Sedgwick, "From Hazing to Socialization: A History of Social Conformity in Freshman Orientation," American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, April 9-13, 2007. ** Honorable Mention, HES Barnard Prize for the best paper by a graduate student.
Marybeth Gasman and Katherine V. Sedgwick, "Uplifting a People: A Symposium on African American Philanthropy and Education," Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., April 19-22, 2006.
Katherine V. Sedgwick, "Coming of Age: Student Identity Formation in College," Association for the Study of Higher Education Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, November 17-19, 2005.
Katherine V. Sedgwick, "Inadvertently Embracing Secularization: The Role of Religion in the College Curriculum, 1880-1920," History of Education Society Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, October 20-23, 2005.
Katherine V. Sedgwick, "Haverford College and Curriculum in the Age of the University," American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada, April 11-15, 2005.
Marybeth Gasman and Katherine V. Sedgwick, "Uplifting a People: A Symposium on African American Philanthropy and Education," American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada, April 11-15, 2005.
Katherine V. Sedgwick, "The Stabilized Historiography of the Rise of the American University," The History of Education Society Annual Meeting, Kansas City, MO, November 7, 2004.
