Catherine Whalen

Catherine Whalen is an Associate Professor at Bard Graduate Center, specializing in American Material Culture Studies. Her work intersects the history and theory of collecting, craft and design history, and material culture methodology.

• Education: PhD in American Studies (Yale), MA in Early American Culture (University of Delaware), BS in Design and Environmental Analysis (Cornell).

Her research explores how objects enact political agendas, particularly through cultural and economic nationalism in interwar American antiques. She leads the Craft and Design Oral History Project and co-created the Voices in Studio Glass History digital archive, emphasizing digital oral history and public humanities.

Key projects include A Collector’s Nation (2025), analyzing Francis Garvan’s collecting practices, and contributions to the Oxford Handbook of History and Material Culture (2020).