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  • Faculty

    Julia Foulkes

    Associate Professor of History

    PhD University of Massachusetts, AmherstM.A. Loyola University Chicago B.A. Williams College

    Julia Foulkes

    Julia Foulkes investigates interdisciplinary questions about the arts, urban studies, and history in her research and teaching. Her first book Modern Bodies: Dance and American Modernism from Martha Graham to Alvin Ailey (2002) explores how gender, sexuality, race, and politics shaped the development of modern dance in the 1930s and ‘40s; her second book, To the City: Urban Photographs of the New Deal (2011), charts the spread of urbanization captured in photographs of the 1930s. She is the editor of a journal volume on “The Arts in Place” (Journal of Social History, 2010) and co-editor of a forthcoming selection of essays on arts and urban development in the Journal of Urban History. Professor Foulkes has also served as an advisor for arts organizations, such as First Person Arts , and for the PBS documentary Free to Dance.

    Professor Foulkes is currently writing a book that looks at how the musical and film West Side Story reveal mid-20th century New York; another book will explore the rise of cosmopolitanism and arts institutions such as Lincoln Center amidst urban development in the 20th century.

    Professor Foulkes has served as Coordinator of Prior Learning, Chair of Social Sciences, and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs. She delivered the Aims of Education address at The New School convocation in September 2009.

    Courses Taught

    What is History?Twentieth Century World HistoryTransnational AmericaUrban Life: Social Justice and the Lived CityNew York City: Past Present FutureRe-Imagining New York Art and Politics: The Case of Paul RobesonSight, Sound, and Spectacle in the 1930sThe Body: Ethics and Aesthetics

    Recent Publications

    Introduction, Arts and Urban Development, Journal of Urban History (2014)
    “Dance and the City,” Festschrift for Rüdiger Kunow (2013)
    To the City: Urban Photographs of the New Deal (2011)
    Introduction, The Arts in Place, Journal of Social History (2010)
    “Streets and Stages: Urban Renewal and the Arts after World War II,” Journal of Social History (2010)

    Research Interests

    Arts and Urbanization, New York City, The New School

    Professional Affiliations

    Organization of American Historians
    American Historical Association
    American Studies Association
    Urban History Association
    Society for American City and Regional Planning History

    Awards and Honors

    Research Fellowship, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, July 2011
    Fulbright Scholar, University of Potsdam, Germany, 2005-06
    Scholar-in-Residence, Rockefeller Archive Center, Summer 2005
    Honorable Mention, American Studies Association’s 2003 Lora Romero First Book Publication Prize
    Postdoctoral Fellowship, David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the African Diaspora, University of Maryland, 2002-03
    Rockefeller Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, Columbia College Chicago, 1997-98

Julia Foulkes

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