Jocelyn Olcott, Professor and Associate Chair

Jocelyn Olcott is Professor of History; International Comparative Studies; and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. Her first book, Revolutionary Women in Postrevolutionary Mexico, explores questions of gender and citizenship in the 1930s.  Her second book, International Women’s Year:  The Greatest Consciousness-Raising Event in History considers the history and legacies of the United Nation’s first world conference on women in 1975 in Mexico City (Oxford University Press, 2017).  Her current project, a biography of the activist and folksinger Concha Michel, a one-time Communist who became an icon of maternalist feminism and a vocal advocate for recognizing the economic importance of subsistence labors, is under contract with Duke University Press.  The book follows Michel's life story from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth to examine the ways that the concept, labor, and policies surrounding “motherhood” articulated with major shifts in political-economic thought.  She has also embarked on an international, interdisciplinary project centered on rethinking the value of care labors broadly speaking, including not only dependent and household care but also, for example, environmental, community, cultural, and sexual care.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	314 Classroom Bldg, Box 90719, Durham, NC 27708-0719
Email Address:
Web Page:	https://www.revaluingcare.org/

Teaching (Fall 2024):

• HISTORY 137FS.01, MINOR UTOPIAS Synopsis

  Class Bldg 229, MW 01:25 PM-02:40 PM

  (also cross-listed as DOCST 137FS.01)

• HISTORY 547S.01, THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CARE Synopsis

  Smith Wrhs C106, W 04:40 PM-07:10 PM

  (also cross-listed as PUBPOL 547S.01)

• HISTORY 703S.01, FOCUSING ON TCHNG & PEDAGOGY Synopsis

  Smith Wrhs C106, W 03:20 PM-05:50 PM

Office Hours:

Monday, 3-5 p.m. or by appointment

Education:

Ph.D.	Yale University	2000
M.A.	Yale University	1996
AB	Princeton University	1992
B.A.	Princeton University	1992

Specialties:

Gender
Labor and Working Class History
Comparative Colonial Studies
Global Transnational History
Latin America and the Caribbean
Global and Comparative

Research Interests:

Current projects: UN International Women's Year, Concha Michel, Motherhood in Twentieth-Century Mexico

I work on feminist history of modern Mexico. My first book, Revolutionary Women in Postrevolutionary Mexico, explores questions of gender and citizenship in the 1930s. I am currently working on two book-length projects: a history of the 1975 UN International Women's Year Conference in Mexico City (under contract with Oxford University Press), and a biography of the activist and folksinger Concha Michel. I am also developing a long-term project on the labor, political, and conceptual history of motherhood in twentieth-century Mexico.

Keywords:

feminism • gender • labor • Mexico • Muser Mentor • transnational history • United Nations

Curriculum Vitae

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

• Robert Franco  
• Jes Malitoris  
• Yuri Ramirez  
• Paola Reyes  
• Corinna H Zeltsman  

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. Olcott, J, Revolutionary Women in Postrevolutionary Mexico (2005), Duke University Press [ViewProduct.php]  [abs]
2. Olcott, J; Vaughan, MK; Cano, G, Sex in Revolution: Gender, Politics, and Power in Modern Mexico (2006), Duke University Press [ViewProduct.php]
3. Olcott, J, Empires of Information: Media Strategies for 1975 International Women’s Year, Journal of Women’s History, vol. 24 no. 4 (2012), pp. 24-48, Johns Hopkins University Press [doi]  [abs]
4. Olcott, J, Introduction: Research and Rethinking the Labors of Love, Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 91 no. 1 (2011), pp. 1-27, Duke University Press [doi]  [author's comments]
5. Olcott, J, A happier marriage? Feminist history takes the transnational turn, in Making Women's Histories: Beyond National Perspectives, edited by Nadell, P; Haulman, K (December, 2013), pp. 237-258, New York University Press, ISBN 9780814758908
6. Olcott, J, Cold War Conflicts and Cheap Cabaret: Performing Politics at the 1975 United Nations International Women’s Year Conference in Mexico City, Gender and History, vol. 22 no. 3 (November, 2010), pp. 733-754, WILEY [doi]  [abs]
7. Olcott, J, ‘Take Off That Streetwalker’s Dress’: Concha Michel and the Cultural Politics of Gender in Postrevolutionary Mexico, Journal of Women’s History, vol. 21 no. 3 (Fall, 2009), pp. 36-59 [repository], [doi]  [abs]

For matters relating the History Department or my position as Director of Undergraduate Studies, please contact me via e-mail at historydus@duke.edu