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Megan Kendrick

Visiting Assistant Professor of History
Humanities and Teacher Education, Seaver College
CAC 102B

Biography

Megan Kendrick is an urban historian whose research focuses on the relationships between the built environment and the social and cultural landscapes of cities. Megan completed her BA in history from California State University, Northridge, and her MA and PhD in history at the University of Southern California. Her dissertation, “Stay in L.A.: Hotels and the Representation of Urban Public Space in Los Angeles, 1880s-1950s” traces transformations in urban public space in Los Angeles through an analysis of the architecture and visual representation of hotels. Kendrick has taught a wide range of courses in U.S. history, California history, world history and urban studies.

Education

  • PhD, University of Southern California, 2009
  • MA, University of Southern California, 2004
  • BA, California State University, Northridge, 2000

 

Published Research

  • “Kevin Starr’s California Dream and the Creation, Destruction and Redemption of California Landscapes,” in Redemptive Dreams: Engaging California Starr’s California, edited by Jason S. Sexton (forthcoming, New York: Routledge, 2023).
  • “Rosie the Riveter, ca. 1942 (Naomi Parker Fraley),” biographical essay in Candice Goucher, ed., Women Who Changed the World: Their Lives, Challenges, and Accomplishments through History (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, January 2022). https://www.abc-clio.com/products/a5951c/ 
  • “Bullocks Wilshire,” [Los Angeles, California], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012. sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CA-01-037-0062
  • “Harvey House Railroad Depot,” [Barstow, California], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012. http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CA-01-071-0118
  • “L’Horizon Hotel and Spa” [Palm Springs, California], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012. http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CA-01-065-0114
  • “Milestone Mo-Tel” [San Louis Obispo, California], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012. http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CA-01-079-0006
  • Byrne, Jason, Megan Kendrick and David Sroaf. “The Park Made of Oil: Towards a Historical Political Ecology of the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area.” Local Environment, vol. 12 , no 2 (April 2007), 153–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549830601161830. 

Book Reviews

  • Review of Peter C. Baldwin, In The Watches of the Night: Life in the Nocturnal City, 1820-1930. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2012) in The Historian v75, iss. 3 
    (2013).
  • Review of Lawrence Culver, The Frontier of Leisure: Southern California and the Shaping of Modern America. (New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010) in The 
    Historian v73, iss. 4 (2012).
  • Teacher of the Year, Village Christian School, 2023
  • The John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 2007-2008
  • Provost’s Digital Dissertation Fellowship, USC Annenberg Center for Communication, 2005-2006
  • Historical Society of Southern California/Haynes Summer Research Grant, 2004
  • Sustainable Cities Fellowship, Environmental Sciences, Policy & Engineering, USC, 2000-2002
  • Northridge Presidential Scholarship, California State University, Northridge, 1997-2000
  • “Designing Landscapes of Health: Pedagogical Approaches to Teaching Urban Planning and Global Urban History”; World History Association online conference, 2021
  • “From the Local to the Global: Teaching World History through Family History Research”; Joint Conference of the California, Northwest, and Hawaii World History Associations, UC Berkeley, 2019
  • “From the Revolving Door to the Sky Lobby: The Transformation of Los Angeles Hotel Lobbies as Semi-Public Spaces”; Society for American City and Regional Planning History, Los Angeles, 2015
  • “The Los Angeles County Hall of Justice: At the Corner of Lawlessness and Order”; Los Angeles County Hall of Justice Rehabilitation and Repair Project Completion Celebration, 2014
  • “Bridging Law and Order in Public History: The Los Angeles County Hall of Justice Interpretive Center”; California Council for the Promotion of History, 2013
  • “‘Smart Women’ and ‘Business Girls’: Hotels and the Construction of Gendered Urban Spaces in Downtown Los Angeles, 1920s”; Western Association of Women Historians, Huntington Library, 2011
  • “Paradise Lost: The Ambassador Hotel, Historic Preservation, and the Transformation of Urban Image in Los Angeles”; Social Science History Association, 2009
  • “Virtual Tourisms,” in session on “Digital Cities: New Media Authoring in the Field of Urban History”; American Historical Association, 2007
  • “Imagined Vacations: Promotional Planning and the Experience of Los Angeles Hotels, 1880s-1950s”; Society of American City and Planning History Association, 2005
  • “The Geographies of Reading: The Influence of the Los Angeles Sentinel on the Cognitive Mapping of African Americans in Los Angeles, 1946-1965”; USC American Studies/History Department Graduate Student Conference, 2002
  • Woodbury University Agency for Civic Engagement (ACE) Mini Grant, 2016
  • Woodbury University Adjunct Micro Grant; for Public History Exhibition, 2015-2016
  • Woodbury University Adjunct Micro Grant; for Public History Training, 2014-15

Topics

  • 19th & 20th century United States History

  • Urban History

  • California History

Courses

  • History 204: History of the American Peoples