Courses Taught

• ED 730 & ED 731 – Doctoral Proseminar
• ED 801 – Educational Policy and Politics
• ED 911 – American Higher Education
• ED 912 – Administering Colleges and Universities
• ED 925 – Gender Issues in Higher Education

Personal Information
Volunteering & Hobbies: Food Gatherers of Ann Arbor, paper art, cooking

Interests
My primary research interest is in access and opportunity in higher education from an historical perspective. I have written on women’s issues in higher education including leadership. I have also written on the history of university administration, the declining access of poor students, and the historiographical challenges of the researching the poor. My books include, Beating the Odds: How the Poor Get to College (co-authored with Arthur Levine), Pioneering Deans of Women: More Than Wise and Pious Matrons, and Women Administrators in Higher Education: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (co-edited with Carolyn Bashaw). I have published in History of Education Quarterly and American Educational Research Journal, among others.

I am currently researching the role of women students as activists for suffrage in the early 20th century; a history of the first modern women’s center in higher education, and the factors that encourage college access for students from low-income backgrounds. On this last topic, I am starting a new book, Perspectives on the Effects of Low SES on Access to Higher Education as part of the New Foundations for Higher Education Series with Routlege Press, due out in 2013.

Degrees

HARVARD UNIVERSITY, GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION - Cambridge, MA

EdD, Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, 1994.

Areas of specialty:  History and Gender Issues in Higher Education.

Thesis:  “More Than a Wise and Pious Matron:  The Professionalization of the Position of Dean of Women, 1901 - 1920.”

MEd, Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, 1991.

INDIANA UNIVERSITY - Bloomington, IN

Masters Certificate, College Student Personnel Administration, 1982.

MSEd, Social Studies Secondary Education, 1981.

BSEd, US History/Sociology, 1979.  Graduated with High Distinction.

Publications

Books and Book Chapters

Nidiffer, Jana, (Ed.) Perspectives on the Effects of Low SES on Higher Education (working title) New Foundations for Higher Education Series, Marybeth Gasman and Edward St. John, eds. New York: Routlege, 2012 (expected).

“Historical Research on Low-Income Students in Higher Education,” in Critical Issues in the History of Higher Education. New Foundations for Higher Education Series, Marybeth Gasman and Edward St. John, eds. New York: Routlege, 2010.

“An Historical Glimpse of Women Leaders in Higher Education,” in Gender and Women’s Issues in Leadership. SAGE Reference Series On Leadership, Karen O’Connor, ed. New York: SAGE, 2010.

“Corrective Lenses: Suffrage, Feminist Post-Structural Analysis, and the History of Higher Education,” in Re/constructing Policy in Higher Education: Perspectives from Feminist Poststructural Policy, Elizabeth Allan, Susan Iverson, and Becky Ropers-Huilman, eds. New York: Routlege, 2010.

Nidiffer, Jana, (Ed.) Perspectives on the Effects of Low SES on Higher Education (working title) New Foundations for Higher Education Series, Marybeth Gasman and Edward St. John, eds. New York: Routlege, 2012 (expected).

Nidiffer, Jana and Bashaw, Carolyn, (Eds.). Women Administrators in Higher Education: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, Frontiers in Higher Education Series, 2001.

Chapters include:

Nidiffer, Jana and Bashaw, Carolyn, “Quiet Inspiration and Hard Work: The Impact of Women Administrators,” pp. 1-12. Nidiffer, Jana, “Crumbs from the Boy’s Table: The First Century of Coeducation,” pp. 13-36. Nidiffer, Jana, “New Leadership for a New Century: Women’s Contribution to Leadership in Higher Education,” pp. 101-134. Nidiffer, Jana, “Advocates on Campus: Deans of Women Create a Profession,” pp. 135-156. Bashaw, Carolyn and Nidiffer, Jana, “Women Administrators in Higher Education Today and in the Future,” pp. 271-278.

Nidiffer, Jana. Pioneering Deans of Women: More Than Wise and Pious Matrons. New York: Teachers College Press, 2000.

Levine, Arthur and Nidiffer, Jana. Beating the Odds: How the Poor Get to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.

Nidiffer, Jana. “Historical Research on Low-Income Students in Higher Education,” in Critical Issues in the History of Higher Education. New Foundations for Higher Education Series, Marybeth Gasman and Edward St. John, eds. New York: Routlege, 2010.

Nidiffer, Jana. “An Historical Glimpse of Women Leaders in Higher Education,” in Gender and Women’s Issues in Leadership. SAGE Reference Series On Leadership, Karen O’Connor, ed. New York: SAGE, 2010.

Nidiffer, Jana. “Corrective Lenses: Suffrage, Feminist Post-Structural Analysis, and the History of Higher Education,” in Re/constructing Policy in Higher Education: Perspectives from Feminist Poststructural Policy, Elizabeth Allan, Susan Iverson, and Becky Ropers-Huilman, eds. New York: Routlege, 2010.

Nidiffer, Jana. “The College Equal Suffrage League: Pioneers of Student Activism,” in Women’s Clubs and Associations in the History of Education, Anne Meis Knupfer and Christine Woysher, eds. New York: Palgrave, 2007.

Nidiffer, Jana. “From Whence They Came: An Historical Look at Women Administrators in Higher Education,” in Gendered Futures in Higher Education: Critical Perspectives for Change, Becky Ropers-Huilman, ed., SUNY Press, 2003.

Nidiffer, Jana. “Higher Education Management in Theory and Practice,” in Managing Colleges and Universities: Issues for Leadership, Allan M. Hoffman and Randal W. Summers, eds., Westport, CN: Bergin & Garvey, 2000. Levine, Arthur and Nidiffer, Jana. “Key Turning Points in the Evolving Curriculum” in Jerry G. Gaff and James L. Ratcliff, eds., Handbook on the Undergraduate Curriculum, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.

Articles

Nidiffer, Jana. “A Condensed History of Women Administrators: From Behind-the-Scenes to Head of the Table.” NASPA NetResults, March, 2008.

Nidiffer, Jana. “When I Went to College is Now Considered History!: American Women’s Participation in Higher Education in the 20th Century.” Review essay of five books and one article on women’s history. History of Education Quarterly, 47 (3), August, 2007.

Nidiffer, Jana and Cain, Timothy Reese. “’Elder Brothers’ of the University: Early Vice-Presidents in Late Nineteenth Century Universities.” History of Education Quarterly, 44 (4), Winter, 2005, 487-523.

Nidiffer, Jana. “Contributions of the Midwest to Higher Education” in Encyclopedia of the Midwest, Kate Rousmaniere, ed. Columbus, OH: Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities, 2005.

Nidiffer, Jana. “Public Higher Education,” in Encyclopedia of New England Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.

Nidiffer, Jana and Bouman, Jeffrey P. “’The University of the Poor’: The University of Michigan’s Transition from Admitting Impoverished Students to Studying Poverty, 1870-1910.” American Educational Research Journal, 41 (1), Spring, 2004, 35-67. Nominated – best article for the History of Education Society.

Nidiffer, Jana. “Social Reproduction or Social Transformation?” Consider, 20 (1), September 26, 2003.

Nidiffer, Jana. “Overview of Women and Higher Education,” in Women in Higher Education: An Encyclopedia, Ana Martínez-Alemán, ed. ABC-CLIO Press, 2002.

Nidiffer, Jana. “The First Deans of Women: What We Can Learn From Them.” About Campus, January-February, 2002, 10-16.

Nidiffer, Jana and Bouman, Jeffrey P. “The Chasm Between Rhetoric and Reality: The Fate of the ‘Democracy Ideal’ When A Public University Grows More Elite,” Education Policy: Special Issue: Economic Justice and Educational Policy: Critical Perspectives, 15 (3) July, 2001, 431-451.

Cook, Constance E. , Kaplan, Matthew, Nidiffer, Jana, and Wright, Mary C. “A Crash Course Guides Students to the Professoriate.” AAHE Bulletin, 54 (3) November 2001, 3-7.

Nidiffer, Jana. “Poor Historiography: Challenges and Dilemmas in Exploring the History of the ‘Poorest’ in American Higher Education,” History of Education Quarterly, 39 (3) Autumn, 1999, 321-336.

Nidiffer, Jana. “Morrill Land Grant Act, 1862 and 1890,” “Dean of Women,” “Marion Talbot,” “Boston Marriages,” and “Smashing,” entries in Historical Dictionary of Women’s Education, Linda Eisenmann, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998.

Nidiffer, Jana. “Lois Mathews Rosenberry,” entry in American National Biography, Cary, NC: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Nidiffer, Jana. “Postsecondary Education,” in Encyclopedia Americana, Danbury, CT: Grolier Inc., 1997.

Nidiffer, Jana. “From Matron to Maven: A New Role and New Professional Identity for Deans of Women, 1892 to 1916,” Mid-Western Educational Researcher: Special Issue on Midwestern History, 8 (4), Fall, 1995, 17-24.

Articles in preparation

Nidiffer, Jana. “Suffrage on Campus, 1890-1920.”

Nidiffer, Jana. “History of the First Women’s Center in Modern Higher Education.”

Nidiffer, Jana with Dziatczak, Mark. “High School to College Bridging Programs: Do They Increase Educational Opportunity for Low-Income Students?”

Book Reviews

“The Christian College: A History of Protestant Higher Education in America (2nd edition) by William C. Ringenberg” History of Education Quarterly, 50 (1), 2010, pp. 119-122.

“On Becoming a Woman Leader: Learning from the Experiences of University Presidents by Susan R. Madsen” Review of Higher Education, 2009.

“Envisioning Black Colleges: A History of the United Negro College Fund by Marybeth Gasman” NEA Journal of Thought and Action, 2008, pp. 147-149.

“Higher Education for Women in Postwar America, 1945-1965 by Linda Eisenmann” Review of Higher Education, 30 (1), 2006, 84-85.

“A History of American Higher Education by John R. Thelin” History of Education Quarterly, 46 (1) Spring, 2006, 113-115.

“Gender Equity or Bust: On the Road to Campus Leadership with Women in Higher Education by Mary Dee Wenniger and Mary Helen Conroy (eds.)” Department Administrator, 13 (1), 2002, 29-31.

“Voices of Women Historians: The Personal, the Political, the Professional by Eileen Boris and Nupur Chaudhuri (eds.)” History of Education Quarterly, 42 (1) Spring, 2002, 129-131.

“Elizabeth Palmer Peabody: A Reformer on Her Own Terms by Bruce Ronda” History of Education Quarterly, 41 (1) Spring, 2001, 143-145.

“Jewish Learning in American Universities by Paul Ritterband and Harold S. Wechsler” History of Education Quarterly, 37 (3) Fall, 1997, 339-341.

“A College for Appalachia: Alice Lloyd on Caney Creek by P. David Searles” History of Education Quarterly, 36 (3) Fall, 1996, 387-388.

“American Higher Education: A History by Christopher Lucas” Harvard Educational Review, 66 (1), Spring, 1996, 119-126.