Dr. Laura Westhoff

Laura M. Westhoff, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History and Education
Curriculum Vitae
Laura Westhoff is an associate professor specializing in the
fields of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, American Democracy and Social
movements, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning History (SoTL), and the
History of Education. She is the author A Fatal Drifting Apart: Democratic Social Knowledge and Chicago
Reform (2007) which examines social constructions of knowledge and the
emerging tensions between democracy and expertise in modern America. She holds a Ph.D. in U.S. History from
Washington University in St. Louis and has published in the Journal of American History, The History
Teacher, Women’s History Review, and the
History of Education Quarterly. She
is currently working on a book on mid-twentieth century democratic practices,
titled Educating for Activism. As a joint appointment in the College of
Education at UMSL, Dr. Westhoff is committed to advancing history education at
all levels. She is active in social studies certification at UMSL, has served
as co-author and lead historian on several Teaching American History grants,
and is a frequent presenter at history workshops and colloquia for teachers. She serves as the faculty coordinator for the
Student Teaching in China program.
To contact Dr. Westhoff please use the following email Westhoffl@msx.umsl.edu