Aerial view of campus with Williamsport, the Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Mountain as a backdrop

Elisabeth Davis

Education:

  • MS, Information and Library Science, University at Buffalo
  • PhD, History, University at Buffalo
  • MA, History, Temple University
  • BA, History, Shippensburg University 

Experience:

  • Assistant Professor of History, East Central University
  • Visiting Assistant Professor of History, University of Connecticut & Transylvania University
  • Student Success Librarian, Rosemont College

Publications:

Books

  • A Wilder World: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Historic Newspapers, and the Legend of the Little House Books (Under contract, University of Nebraska Press)
  • Catholic Women Religious and Native American Missions from 1840 to 1918  (Lexington Press, 2024)

Co-Authored Articles:

  • Nesset, V., Vanderschantz, N., Stewart-Robertson, O., & Davis, E. C. (2024). Advocating for a more active role for the user in LIS participatory research: a scoping literature review. Journal of Documentation, 80(2), 446-468.
  • Nesset, V., Davis, E. C., Vanderschantz, N., & Stewart-Robertson, O. (2024). APRD: action partnership research design: reimagining the role of the user in library and information science research. Journal of Documentation, 80(6), 1211-1237.
  • Nesset, V., Davis, E., Stewart-Robinson, O., & Bible, B. (2021) “Bonded Design in the Virtual Environment: The Transition of a Participatory Design Methodology.” Journal of Documentation. Online publication.

Sole Authored Articles:

  • “A Good Deal of Free Advertising” Despite her “Obscene Character”: Nuancing Media Portrayals of an Escaped Nun in the Gilded Age and Progressive Eras.” Journal of Religious History (accepted; expected publication 2026). 
  • “What a Great Grace to Have Died in the Church”: A Case Study in Death Culture and Ars Moriendi at a Native American Catholic Boarding School," U.S. Catholic Historian (accepted; expected publication 2026)
  • “For Actions He Took Against the Sisters’ School”: Imperial Politics, Quechan Resistance, and the Sisters of St. Joseph at the Fort Yuma Mission.” Journal of Arizona History 65 1 (Spring 2024): 3-30. 
  • “ ‘Our Colored and Indian Charges Furnish So Much Amusement for Us:’ Catholicism, Assimilation, and the Racial Hierarchy in Carlisle, Pennsylvania 1883-1918,” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 91 1 (Winter 2024): 47-64.
  • "We Know Not God’s Designs in Permitting a Separation: Women Religious, the Consolidation Controversies, and the Nineteenth Century American Catholic Church,” Journal of Religious History 47 4 (December 2023): 566-585.
  • ““Any Violation of This Arrangement:” Catholic Negotiations at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, 1883-1918),” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies (Summer 2023): 421-443.
  • ““Back Under the Jurisdiction of the Rev. Provincial:” The Dominican Sisters and the Limitations of Female Agency in the Nineteenth Century Catholic Church in the Midwest,” Ohio History 130 1 (Spring 2023): 9-25.
  • "“It Was about Time for Our Children to Learn How to Read”: Ruby Duncan, Operation Life, and the West Las Vegas Library." Libraries: Culture, History, and Society 6, no. 2 (2022): 238-257.
  • “‘To keep the Catholics intact’: The Catholic Experience at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, 1883-1918.” U.S. Catholic Historian (Fall 2022): 1-20.
  • “A Softness, Slyness and Low Cunning of the Mulatto”: Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin, Gender, and the Schism of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 89 2 (April 2022): 249–272. 
  • "The Disappearance of Mother Agnes Spencer: The Centralization Controversy and the Antebellum Catholic Church." American Catholic Studies 130, no. 2 (2019): 31-52.

Research Interests:

  • Open Educational Resources (OER)
  • Participatory design
  • User Experience (UX) studies
  • Library history