Faculty/Staff Directory
Dr. Susan Asbury
478-471-2982
Assistant Professor
| Office Hours: | Spring 2026: In-person office hours: Mondays & Wednesdays 10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Virtual office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:30 p.m. -- 2:30 p.m. (link in class syllabus) By appoinment as well |
| Locations: (Campus & Office) |
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| Biography: | Susan Asbury holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from The Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg. She completed a B.A. in History at Berry College and an M.A. in Public History at the University of South Carolina. For nearly ten years, Asbury worked in the museum field as a curator, museum educator, and administrator. Her research interests are in material culture, public history, U.S. history, consumerism, the intersections of popular culture and folklore studies, and social history. She has written articles, book chapters, blogs, and encyclopedia entries on her research. Asbury discovered her interest in the material culture of play while working as associate curator at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, and is currently working on her book, Family Game Night: Board Games, Play, Memory, and Culture in Victorian America, that focuses on the early decades of the American board game industry. The book will be published in 2026. I am delighted to be at MGA! |
| Syllabi: | |
| Teaching and Research Interests: | I teach courses in American and Public History. My research interests include Public History, Museum Studies, material culture, play studies, folklore, consumerism, and the history of childhood. |
| Courses: | HIST 2111 -- US History to 1865 HIST 2112 -- US History 1865-present HIST 2010 -- Foundations in Public History HIST 3010 -- Introduction to Public History HIST 3011 -- Museum Studies in Practice HIST 3012 -- American Architecture and Historic Preservation HIST 3015 -- Digital History HIST 4100 -- Material Culture Studies HIST 4110 -- Historic Site Interpretation |
| Education: (All institutions attended and degrees or credentials earned) | Ph.D., American Studies, Penn State University, Harrisburg M.A. Public History, University of South Carolina McKissick Museum Certificate in Museum Management, University of South Carolina B.A., History, Berry College |
| CV: | Susan R. Asbury, Asst. Prof. of History Middle Georgia State University, Macon, SOAL 107 susan.asbury@mga.edu (478) 471-2982 Faculty website: https://www.mga.edu/directory/people.php?name=asbury- Education Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg Fields: American Studies; Social History/Consumerism; Folk/Material/Popular Culture Dissertation Title: “Parlor Fun for the Whole Family: Board Games and the Transformation within the Home” M.A., University of South Carolina, Columbia Fields: Museum Studies/Public History, American History: 1877-present Certificate: McKissick Museum Certificate in Museum Management Thesis Title: “‘Far Up from the Hills’: Rethinking Oak Hill, Martha Berry’s Home” B.A., Berry College, Mount Berry, GA History major, Psychology minor Research and Teaching Interests I teach courses in American and Public History. My research interests include Public History, Museum Studies, material culture, play studies, folklore, consumerism, and the history of childhood. Courses (undergraduate students): HIST 2111: US History to 1865 HIST 2112: US History 1865 to the present HIST 3010: Introduction to Public History HIST 3011: Museum Studies HIST 3012: American Architecture & Historic Preservation HIST 3015: Introduction to Digital History HIST 4100: Material Culture Studies HIST 4110: Historic Site Interpretation HIST 4020: Special Topics in Museum Studies Publications Books: Family Game Night: Board Games from the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, forthcoming summer 2026. Journal Articles and Book Chapters: “‘Remember the Maine!’: The Spanish–American War Invades the Parlor.” Board Game Academics, Vol. 1 Issue 1 (Spring 2024): https://boardgameacademics.com/remember-the-maine-the-spanish-american-war-invades-the-parlor/. “Serious Fun: A ‘Strong’ Model for Play and Folklore in Children’s Museums,” chapter in Folklife and Museums: 21st Century Perspectives. C. Kurt Dewhurst, Patricia Hall, Charlie Seemann, editors. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2017. “The Checkered Game of Life: Depictions of the Life Cycle in Board Games,” Midwestern Folklore Vol. 41, No. 2, fall 2015: 3-19. “‘Simple Colonial Furniture:’ Franklin H. Gottshall’s Influence on Interior Design at Berry College,” with Laura Caldwell Anderson, in Georgia Inside & Out: Architecture, |
| Publications and Scholarships: (Last 5 Years) | Family Game Night: Board Games, Play, Memory, and Culture in Victorian America. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, Summer 2026. |
| Awards and Honors: | Georgia College and State University “Thank-a-teacher” award recipient, fall 2021 G. Rollie Adams Research Fellowship and Mary Valentine and Andrew Cosman Research Fellowships, The Strong, summer 2017 Penn State Harrisburg American Studies Dissertation Research Travel Fund recipient, summer 2017 Student Life Division Award, “Positively Restless,” Elizabethtown College, 2015-2016 Emerging Scholars Mentor, Elizabethtown College, 2015 Carole Isaac Nexus Award for the Student Development Learning Communities, Student Life Division Award, Elizabethtown College, 2011-2012 National Council on Public History (NCPH) Student Project Award, 2000 |
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