Curriculum Vitae
Marla R. Miller — historian of early America, women’s history, and public history; Distinguished Professor of History (Emerita), University of Massachusetts Amherst. Selected highlights follow; a full curriculum vitae is available on request.
Education
- Ph.D., U.S. History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1997
- M.A., U.S. History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1991
- B.A., History of Culture, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1988
Academic Appointments
- Distinguished Professor of History (Emerita), University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1999–2026
- Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, 2023–2026
- Director, Public History Program, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2002–2021
- President, National Council on Public History, 2018–2020
Selected Honors & Awards
- Distinguished Professor of History, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2020
- Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellowship, 2014–15
- UMass Amherst Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Research, 2011
- Millia Davenport Publication Award, Costume Society of America — The Needle’s Eye
- Finalist, Cundill Prize in History — Betsy Ross and the Making of America
- Award for Excellence in Consulting, National Council on Public History — Imperiled Promise
- Lerner-Scott Prize, Organization of American Historians (best dissertation in women’s history)
- Walter Muir Whitehill Prize in Colonial History
Books
- Entangled Lives: Labor, Livelihood, and Landscapes of Change in Rural Massachusetts (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019)
- Rebecca Dickinson: Independence for a New England Woman (Westview Press, 2013)
- University of Massachusetts Amherst: A Campus Guide (Princeton Architectural Press, 2013, with Max Page)
- Betsy Ross and the Making of America (Henry Holt, 2010)
- The Needle’s Eye: Women and Work in the Age of Revolution (University of Massachusetts Press, 2006)
Edited Volumes
- Indigenous Histories in New England: Pastkeepers and Pastkeeping, Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife (2025, with Alice Nash)
- Living with Disability in New England, Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife (2024, with Nicole Belolan)
- Bending the Future: Fifty Ideas for the Next Fifty Years of Historic Preservation in the United States (University of Massachusetts Press, 2016, with Max Page)
- Cultivating a Past: Essays in the History of Hadley, Massachusetts (University of Massachusetts Press, 2009)
Selected Articles & Essays
- “Telling American Stories: Mattel and the Material Culture of the U.S. Past,” Canadian Review of American Studies (2025)
- “Monuments in Flax and Wool: The Memory Work of Heritage Textiles,” Winterthur Portfolio (2024)
- “‘In the Spaciousness of Uncertainty is Room to Act’: Public History’s Long Game” (NCPH Presidential Address), The Public Historian (2020)
- “Reconstructing the Absent Center: Looking for Betsy Ross,” Common-place (2012)
- “The Last Mantuamaker: Craft Tradition and Commercial Change in Boston, 1760–1840,” Early American Studies (2006)
- “Gender, Artisanry and Craft Tradition in Early New England: The View Through the Eye of a Needle,” William and Mary Quarterly (2003)
- “‘My Part Alone’: The World of Rebecca Dickinson,” New England Quarterly (1998)
Major Reports & Public History Projects
- Women in the American Revolution, study for the National Park Service, Northeast Region, 2025–2026 (with Emily Whitted)
- Imperiled Promise: The State of History in the National Park Service, Organization of American Historians, 2012 (with Anne Whisnant, Gary Nash, and David Thelen)
- Co-curator, “Betsy Ross: The Life Behind the Legend,” Winterthur Museum, 2010–2011
- Co-curator, “Sheep-ish: Short Yarns on the Long History of Sheep in Hampshire County,” 2022
Selected Talks & Media
- Guest, “Broad Stripes, Bright Stars, and White Lies,” Sidedoor, a podcast from the Smithsonian Institution
- Keynote, “Monuments in Flax and Wool,” The Needle’s I conference, Winterthur Museum, 2022
- Presidential Address, “Public History’s Long Game,” National Council on Public History, 2020
