“美国女孩”谈话

作为创作者和主持人 “美国女孩” 播客, 全球十大网赌正规平台 alumnae Allison Horrocks ’09 和 Mary Mahoney ’09 have found a way to tie together their childhood passion 和 their professions as historians.

在 播客, Mahoney—who double-majored in 历史 和 English 和 is now back at Trinity as an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities—和 Horrocks—a double-major in American studies 和 历史 who is now a park ranger at Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts—analyze book after book, doll after doll of the beloved American Girl series, which was created by Pleasant Company in 1986.

While Horrocks 和 Mahoney knew of each other at Trinity, they became friends at the University of Connecticut, 他们都攻读了博士学位.D. in 历史 和 bonded over their shared love of all things American Girl. Here, they speak with fellow American Girl fan Kelly M. 沃恩 ’17 about why they decided to embark on a 播客 about American Girl 和 how listeners have responded to their fun, 信息丰富的, 以及充满怀旧的对话:

KV: You both are trained historians 和 I imagine are knowledgeable about a wide variety of topics in U.S. 历史. Why did you decide to focus on American Girl dolls for this 播客?

AH: I think in some ways it pulls together our own interests. Mary has done amazing scholarship 和 is really well-read on the 历史 of books 和 readers’ relationships to books in their lives. I did research in the 历史 of families 和 domesticity. This is a way for us to connect all of that to something we loved as children.

KV: What aspects of both your undergraduate 和 graduate education do you feel trained you to be able to closely analyze these dolls 和 their books?

MM: I think in both undergrad at Trinity 和 in graduate school we spent a lot of time reading books that analyzed all facets of culture. We thought about big ideas 和 the importance of arguments that you can tease apart 和 perfect again. It might sound funny to take that level of seriousness to books intended for 9-year-olds, but I think that allows us to underst和 that these books are histories of the eras that they claim to present, but also histories of the era in which they were produced.

KV: What was it like going back 和 reading all of these American Girl books after 20 years? 你觉得自己像历史学家还是9岁的孩子?

AH: I’m not looking to feel the way that I felt when I was 9, but I am interested in what kind of work the books did for me then versus now.

MM: I do remember the feeling I had when reading the books—the feeling of wondering what was going to happen in these girls’ lives 和 wondering in some trans-historical way if I would ever have a life like theirs.

KV: How do you think the 播客 和 your careers work to inform each other?

MM: 在三一, part of my work in the digital humanities includes outreach to faculty 和 students about the forms of digital scholarship we support in the library, 包括网站, 数字展示, 数据分析, 测绘项目, 和播客. I love coordinating research projects that offer exciting examples of integrating scholarship with digital tools that can reach broader audiences. One project I’m particularly excited about is “Hidden Literacies,” a digital anthology edited by English professors 希拉里Wyss 和 克里斯托弗·海格 that explores histories of literacies in early America. 创造数字化的作品, 可访问的, 和 educational is a through line for my work both personally 和 here at Trinity.

AH: Much of what we do on the 播客—storytelling, 分享我们对历史的了解, 思考代际学习, connecting with the public through social media—is very similar to my day-to-day work as a public historian 和 park ranger with the National Park Service. 自从开始这个播客, I think I have become even more aware of the importance of what museum professionals call “sticky memories,” or the moments that stay with us through the life cycle. When I am talking to a young person in the museum where I work, I am aware that the impact of our conversation may kindle a lifelong interest, which they may not even be able to articulate until much later. One of the most delightful aspects of doing the 播客s has been hearing from people my age who were once on the other end of such conversations, 和 it’s a reminder to me just how important every single visitor is, 不管他们的年龄.

KV: How do you think the American Girl books read differently in 2019 than they did in the late 1980s 和 1990s?

AH: Josefina is growing up in a place that is now New Mexico, but she’s not really a girl of the United States. Thinking about this very tender story about a young woman living near what is now the border, we thought really carefully about what we talked about because it’s on the news 和 causing a lot of trauma in the country. It’s not something we were aware of as 9-year-olds, 和 it’s a topic that reads differently in 2019.

KV: 在播客中, you poke some holes in the historical narratives, but seem to believe there are valuable lessons in the books for young girls. What do you think are some of the most important takeaways?

MM: I think the importance of friendship—particularly in the lives of young women—is a theme that’s really important 和 worth cultivating. The real pleasure I find in this show is not getting to talk about American 历史, but getting to do the show with my best friend. 当我还是个孩子的时候，我自己玩娃娃, 所以这是一项孤独的事业, but now it’s this great source of friendship 和 that’s something we could only use more of.

KV: How is the 播客 being received by listeners? 它接下来要去哪里?

AH: We get a lot of direct messages with people sharing photos of themselves as young girls with their dolls 和 it’s always accompanied by a very precious 和 beautiful story. How many people get to say that they open a blurred photo on social media 和 it’s something really sincere 和 wonderful from their childhood? 我们并不认为这是理所当然的.

MM: 其中一集的风格是 护理 & 留住你 书系列. If anyone has read the Josefina books, you know that their greatest theme is grief. We were approached by a therapist who works with young people 和 she’s going to talk to us about ways to deal with grief in your own life 和 how to support a friend who is grieving.

KV: 你的反应是什么 《全球十大网赌正规平台》 列 that TV critic Margaret Lyons wrote about your 播客? 你知道会发生这种事吗?

MM: I saw that the writer had tweeted something about American Girl books being available on InternetArchive.org. I retweeted it because I thought some of our listeners might want to check it out 和 she DMed me 和 told me she was writing about our show. Needless to say, we were both pretty surprised!

AH: I was worried about reading the comments because there are things you don’t want to read about yourself, 但是一个朋友对我说, “埃里森, 根本不是你们俩的事. It’s everyone sharing their story 和 connections to it 和 they’re excited to listen to it.”

MM: I think a lot of treasured books give you a language for your own experience, so having a forum to talk about these books is just inviting readers to share their memories.

KV: 你最近访问过 美国女孩商店 在纽约市. What was that experience like for you, 和 how did it impact how you think about American Girl?

MM: 我的情绪可能永远无法恢复, 身体上的, or spiritually from everything I witnessed at the 美国女孩商店. I was so overwhelmed by the scale of the store. I grew up with American Girl at a time when it was entirely catalogue-based. I received the dolls 和 books as gifts from my gr和mother 和 read the magazine 和 catalogue 和 that was it. To be in a massive store that features a doll salon, 医院, 和 café was well beyond my 9-year-old comprehension.

AH: This was not my first—or even second—visit to an 美国女孩商店; I went once as a younger person 和 more recently visited the store in Chicago. I’ve always loved the material culture aspects of American Girl. In addition to ordering products from the catalogue, my mother 和 I would make additional outfits 和 my father would help me to make furniture. With this visit, it was a great opportunity to see some of the new, interactive elements. I especially liked what they have done with Julie, whose story is set in the 1970s. We are so grateful that we were able to visit 和 truly appreciate the staff who took the time to make us feel welcome.

Watch the video below to see more of their visit to the 美国女孩商店.

作家凯利·M. 沃恩 ’17 double-majored in American studies 和 English at Trinity 和 wrote a senior thesis titled “America through Rose-Colored Glasses: How American Girl Dolls Shape American Girlhood 和 Identity.“她目前是一个 digital food editor at Martha Stewart Living 在纽约市.