Peter Filene, Professor and Associate Director, Institute for the Arts and Humanities

Contact Information

University of North Carolina
417 Hamilton Hall
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
(919 962-3971
filene@email.unc.edu

Education

Ph.D., Harvard University, 1965
M.A., Harvard University, 1961

Research Interests

I teach and write primarily on 20th-century American history, with particular interest in gender, mass media and popular culture. My publications include Him/Her/Self: Sex Roles in Modern America (1986) and numerous articles on historical definitions of masculinity. My most recent publications include: In the Arms of Others: A Cultural History of the Right-to-Die in America (Ivan Dee, 1998), which combines medical, legal, bioethical, political and cultural perspectives on death and dying in 20th-century America; and Him/Her/Self: Gender Identities in Modern America, third edition, (Johns Hopkins, 1998).

In my undergraduate courses I make considerable use of visual "texts" (photographs, paintings, television) as well as role-playing. I am also very involved in teacher-training of graduate students. Each fall I conduct a fairly extensive workshop for new teaching assistants, acquainting them with various pedagogical techniques and principles while assuaging their anxieties. I also teach a graduate seminar, "Designing an Undergraduate Survey Course," in which students produce a syllabus as well as several lectures and discussions. Every second year, I teach an undergraduate seminar on Photography and Modern American culture. I am also directing the honors program for senior history students.