Laura M. Westhoff

Laura M. Westhoff is a Professor and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL), with a joint appointment previously held in the College of Education. Her research focuses on the U.S. Gilded Age and Progressive Era, democracy and social movements, the scholarship of teaching and learning history (SoTL), and the history of education.

• Key Themes: Social constructions of knowledge, tensions between democracy and expertise in modern America, and democratic practices in mid-twentieth century education.
• Notable Works: A Fatal Drifting Apart: Democratic Social Knowledge and Chicago Reform (Ohio State University Press) and Educating for Activism (under contract with University of Illinois Press).

Her publications appear in the Journal of American History, The History Teacher, Women’s History Review, and History of Education Quarterly.