Linda Eisenmann is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as Professor of History and of Education, at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.  A native of Cleveland and a first-generation college student, Eisenmann earned her B.A. in English, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut (1975).  She then earned a master’s degree in American Literature at Georgetown University (1977) before turning to the study of education.  She completed a second master’s degree (1981) and a doctorate in the History of Education at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education (1987). 

A historian interested in the social context of higher education, Eisenmann’s scholarship examines three areas of educational history: women’s experiences, professionalization, and historiography.  Within these, she has explored the history and impact of coeducation; the history of teacher training institutions; and professionalization in colleges and universities, especially the history of women faculty.  Her recent book, Higher Education for Women in Postwar America, 1945-1965 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), explores the impact of cultural expectations on women’s collegiate experience in the postwar era.  Her edited volume, Historical Dictionary of Women’s Education in the United States (Greenwood Press, 1998), offers a reader-friendly analysis of available research.  Eisenmann has published widely, including in Teachers College Record, Academe, History of Education Quarterly, Educational Foundations, Metropolitan Universities, and Thought and Action, among other venues. 

Before joining John Carroll, Eisenmann was Professor of Education and former director of the doctoral program in Higher Education Administration at the University of Massachusetts Boston, a program fostering change agency in colleges and universities and exploring connections between higher education and the schools.  She has previously taught at Harvard University, Wellesley College, and Bowdoin College, and has held several administrative posts in higher education, including assistant director of a research center at Radcliffe College. 

Eisenmann is active nationally in several scholarly associations.  She is incoming President of the Association for the Study of Higher Education and former President of the History of Education Society.  She has also served as Vice President (in the division of History and Historiography) of the American Educational Research Association.  For several years, she was Associate Editor of the History of Education Quarterly, and she co-chaired the editorial board of the Harvard Educational Review as a doctoral student.  Presently, she sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Higher Education and the Journal of Educational Administration and History (U.K.).  Eisenmann also serves on the Board of Directors of St. Joseph Academy, the only all-girls’ high school in the city of Cleveland.

Dr. Linda Eisenmann, Dean
College of Arts and Sciences