Susan Klepp

Susan Klepp
Name	Susan Klepp
Occupation	Historian, Professor
Known for	Early American history, women's history, Atlantic world studies

Susan Klepp is an American historian and scholar known for her work on early American history, women's history, and the Atlantic world. Her research examines gender, religion, race, and labor in colonial and revolutionary North America, situating local communities within transatlantic networks. Klepp's scholarship intersects with studies of material culture, migration, and legal history.

Early life and Education

Klepp was raised in a context that connected regional history and broader Atlantic studies, studying alongside figures associated with institutions such as Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Brown University, and Columbia University. She completed undergraduate studies at a liberal arts institution connected to traditions exemplified by Smith College, Wellesley College, Barnard College, and Bryn Mawr College, before pursuing graduate training at research universities with programs similar to those at University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, University of Virginia, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her doctoral work engaged archives comparable to those held by Library of Congress, Massachusetts Historical Society, New-York Historical Society, and American Antiquarian Society and drew on manuscript collections akin to Princeton University Library Special Collections, Yale Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Harvard Houghton Library, and Dartmouth College Library.

Academic Career

Klepp has held faculty positions at colleges and universities resembling Rutgers University, Temple University, College of William & Mary, University of Delaware, and Vassar College. She has participated in collaborative projects with centers such as the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, American Antiquarian Society, and research programs at American Historical Association gatherings and conferences hosted by Organization of American Historians. Her administrative roles included committee work modeled on bodies at National Endowment for the Humanities, Fulbright Program, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and partnerships with museums like Smithsonian Institution and New-York Historical Society.

Research and Publications

Klepp's publications analyze the intersections of gender, religion, and labor in colonial America, with comparative attention to Atlantic trade networks linking ports such as Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, Charleston, South Carolina, and Newport, Rhode Island. Her articles and monographs engage themes explored in scholarship by historians associated with Jill Lepore, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Gordon Wood, Bernard Bailyn, and Edmund Morgan. Her work cites archival materials from repositories like Massachusetts Archives, Rhode Island Historical Society, Connecticut Historical Society, and New Jersey Historical Society and dialogues with historiography connected to Middle Passage, Triangular trade, Glorious Revolution, American Revolution, and Seven Years' War. She has published in journals and edited volumes alongside contributors linked to William and Mary Quarterly, Journal of American History, Early American Studies, American Historical Review, and Colonial Latin American Review.

Teaching and Mentorship

Klepp developed courses on colonial North America, Atlantic history, and women's history drawing on pedagogical models from departments at Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Brown University, and Columbia University. She supervised graduate research on topics related to slavery and freedom in contexts like Barbados, Jamaica, St. Kitts, and Bermuda, as well as regional studies of New England, Mid-Atlantic, Chesapeake Bay, and Lowcountry. Her mentorship connected students to archival internships at institutions such as Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, American Antiquarian Society, and international archives like The National Archives (United Kingdom), Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Archivo General de Indias.

Awards and Honors

Klepp received recognition from scholarly organizations and foundations similar to awards distributed by American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, Omohundro Institute, Gilder Lehrman Institute, and fellowships parallel to those from National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, and Fulbright Program. Her work has been highlighted in venues associated with Modern Language Association, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, Society for the History of Children and Youth, and received research support akin to grants from Mellon Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Personal Life and Legacy

Klepp's career contributed to public history initiatives affiliated with museums and historical sites like Plimoth Plantation, Monticello, Mount Vernon, and Plymouth Rock interpretation projects, and influenced curricular developments at liberal arts colleges and research universities including Amherst College, Williams College, Swarthmore College, and Haverford College. Her legacy is reflected in continued scholarship on Atlantic world history, women's labor, and colonial communities, informing work by scholars in networks connected to Omohundro Institute, William and Mary Quarterly, Journal of Early American History, Rutgers University Press, and University of North Carolina Press.

Category:Historians