Michael B. Katz is Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History and a Research Associate in the Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Educated at Harvard, he has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a resident fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies (Princeton), the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; he also has held a fellowship from the Open Society Institute. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Education, National Academy of Social Insurance, and the Society of American Historians. In 1999, he received a Senior Scholar Award - a lifetime achievement award - from the Spencer Foundation. From 1989-1995, he served as archivist to the Social Science Research Council's Committee for Research on the Urban Underclass and in 1992 was a member of the Task Force to Reduce Welfare Dependency appointed by the Governor of Pennsylvania. From 1991-1995, he was Chair of the History Department at the University of Pennsylvania; from 1983-1996 he directed or co-directed the University's undergraduate Urban Studies Program; in 1994, he founded the graduate certificate program in Urban Studies, which he co-directs. He is a past-President of the History of Education Society and President of the Urban History Association (UHA).

   Michael B. Katz and Mark J. Stern
His work has focused on three major areas: the history of American education (The Irony of Early School Reform [1968, reprinted with a new introduction, 2001]; Class, Bureaucracy, and Schools: The Illusion of Educational Change in America [1971, expanded edition 1975]; Reconstructing American Education [1987]); the history of urban social structure and family organization (The People of Hamilton, Canada West: Family and Class in a Mid-Nineteenth Century City [1975, winner Albert C. Corey Prize, American and Canadian Historical Associations]; The Social Organization of Early Industrial Capitalism [1981]); and the history of social welfare and poverty (Poverty and Policy in American History [1983]; In the Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History of Welfare in America [1986, expanded edition 1996]; The Undeserving Poor: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare [1990, a finalist for the American Sociological Association's Distinguished Book Award]; The "Underclass" Debate: Views from History [1993]; and Improving Poor People: the Welfare State, the "Underclass," and Urban Schools as History [1995]); with Christoph Sachsse, he has edited The Mixed Economy of Social Welfare: England, Germany, and the United States from the 1870s to the 1930s (1996); and The Price of Citizenship: Redefining the American Welfare State (Metropolitan/Holt, 2001; Owl Books, 2002). With Michelle Fine and Elaine Simon, he is author of the essay, "Poking Around: Outsiders View Chicago School Reform" - based on five years of periodic interviews and observations (Teachers College Record, Fall 1997). With Thomas Sugrue, he edited, W.E.B. Du Bois, Race, and the City: "The Philadelphia Negro" And Its Legacy (1998). "The New African American Inequality," an article co-authored with Mark J. Stern and Jamie J. Fader, drawing on research for One Nation Divisible, won the Binkley-Stephenson Award from the Organization of American Historians for the best article published in the Journal of American History in 2005.

His research has been supported by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Canada Council, Behavioral Science Research Institute York University, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Education, National Endowment for the Humanities, Social Sciences Research Council, Rockefeller Foundation, Spencer Foundation, and the Research Foundation University of Pennsylvania.

 

Mark J. Stern is Professor of Social Welfare and History and Co-Director of the Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. from Reed College, his M.A. from the University of Toronto, and his Ph.D. in history from York University (Canada). Stern is Principal Investigator of the Social Impact of the Arts Project (SIAP), a policy research center at the Penn.

In addition to One Nation Divisible, Stern has authored or co-authored four books and over thirty scholarly articles and book chapters. He has written extensively on poverty, the history of the family, and public policy. The sixth edition of June Axinn and Mark J. Stern, Social Welfare: A History of the American Response to Need (Allyn Bacon) was published in 2004. His recent works include: "Back to the Future? Manuel Castells' The Information Age and the Prospects for Social Welfare" (Cultural Studies, January 2000) and "The Un (credit) worthy Poor: Historical Perspectives on Policies to Expand Assets and Credit," in Edward Wolf and Thomas Shapiro, eds. Assets and the Disadvantaged: The Benefits of Spreading Asset Ownership (New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2001).

In addition to his work on twentieth-century social history, Stern's research has focused on the role of the arts and culture in urban communities. His writings include (all co-authored with Susan Seifert): "Performing Miracles," City Limits (October 17, 2002); Re-presenting the City: Arts, Culture, and Diversity in Philadelphia," in G. Bradford, Michael Gary, and Glenn Wallach, eds. The Politics of Culture: Policy Perspectives for Individuals, Institutions, and Communities. (New York: The New Press, 2000); "The Dynamics of Culture." October 2005; "The Philadelphia-Camden Cultural Participation Benchmark Project." July 2005; and "Culture Builds Community." January 2002. SIAP has received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the William Penn Foundation.

Stern has been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship and a Fulbright lectureship in China. "The New African American Inequality," an article co-authored with Michael Katz and Jamie J. Fader, drawing on research for One Nation Divisible, won the Binkley-Stephenson Award from the Organization of American Historians for the best article published in the Journal of American History in 2005.

He has consulted for the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Abington Art Center, the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, and the Social Science Research Council's subcommittee on the arts and culture.

 
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