People
Cassandra L. Yacovazzi
Associate Professor
CONTACT information and cv
Office: C243
Phone: 941-359-4344
Email: cyacovazzi@usf.edu
Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION
University of Missouri, PhD, 2015
TEACHING
My classes focus on American history from the time of exploration to the present, often centering on race, class, gender, religion, and cultural history. I offer several lecture courses in these areas, including 鈥淎merican Women I鈥� (AMH3561), 鈥淎merican Women II鈥� (AMH3562), 鈥淯nited States, 1914-1945鈥� (AMH3231), 鈥淯nited States, 1877-1914鈥� (AMH3201), 鈥淩esearch Methods in History: Utopian Experiments in America鈥� (HIS3900), and 鈥淩esearch Methods in History: The Transformation of America, 1960-1980鈥� (HIS3900). I have also taught courses on American Religious History, American History through Literature, and Nativism and Immigration in the US. In the classroom, I encourage students to move beyond memorization to assessing, valuing, and interpreting the past by grappling with conflicting evidence and multiple viewpoints. I include assignments that foster critical and creative thinking and provide the opportunity for students to work as historians by handling primary sources and entering the conversation of secondary scholarship. Finally it is important to me to create an environment of free inquiry where students feel acknowledged and respected.
RESEARCH
My research focuses on the intersection of women鈥檚 work, religion, and consumerism. My first book is , which was reviewed in the
Currently I am writing a book on Mary Kay Ash and Mary Kay Inc., the cosmetics company, exploring the ways in which women created a network of support, forged new avenues of business, participated in and helped define the beauty culture, and reconciled religion with capitalism within the context of the late twentieth century US. My previous work also looked at female communities, examining Catholic nuns and opposition to them in the first half of the nineteenth century US.