Paul Hirsch, Ph.D.
Email
PUBLICATIONS
Books
2022 Words As Weapons: The Writers’ War Board and the Birth of Modern American Propaganda, in process
2021 Pulp Empire: The Secret History of Comic Book Imperialism, University of Chicago Press
Peer-Reviewed Articles
2021 “The Accidental Killer: Thomas Midgely, Disability, and Environmental Disaster,” Technology & Culture, in process
2014 “This Is Our Enemy: The Writers’ War Board and Representations of Race in Comic Books, 1942- 1945,” Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 83, No. 3 (August 2014), p. 448-486, winner of the 2015 American Historical Association W. Turrentine Jackson Prize for Best First Article
Popular Articles
2016 “Funnyman: The Tragic Adventures of A Crime-Fighting Comedian,” The Lowbrow Reader, Vol. 1, No. 10 (2016), p. 26-32
Book Reviews
2018 Review of Afterimages: Photography and U.S. Foreign Policy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016) by Liam Kennedy, Journal of American Studies, Vol. 52, No. 4 (October 2018)
MEDIA OUTREACH AND INTERVIEWS
2020 Marvel Declassified Podcast, “War Stories”
2019 “Splat! Bam! It’s the Federal Reserve to the Rescue!,” The New York Times, April 27, BU5. Interviewed for, and cited in this article as a leading authority on federal propaganda by the New York Times.
2016 “War and Superheroes: How The Writer’s War Board Used Comic Books During World War II,” Interview with Dr. Daniele Turello of the Library of Congress, November 2.
2015 “The Battle Lines Are Drawn,” Interview on Backstory with the American History Guys, National Public Radio (NPR), June 26.
2014 “Historian Paul Hirsch Discusses EC Horror Comics, the FBI, and McCarthyism,” Interview on Santa Barbara Public Radio, KCSB 91.9 FM, May 19
2013 “UCSB Researcher Explores Use of Comic Books by U.S. Government As Propaganda Tools,” Interview on Los Angeles NPR, KCLU 88.3 FM, November 12.
AWARDS AND HONORS
2020 New York Review of Books, Robert B. Silvers Foundation Fellow
2015 American Historical Association W. Turrentine Jackson Prize for Best first article, awarded for “This Is Our Enemy: The Writers’ War Board and Representations of Race in Comic Books, 1942- 1945,” in the Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 83, No. 3 (August 2014), p. 448-486
2015 Library of Congress Kluge Center/Swann Foundation, Postdoctoral Fellow
2014 UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, Postdoctoral Fellow
2012 UCSB John Coleman Award for Outstanding Work in U.S. Foreign Relations
2011 History Associates Foundation, Predoctoral Fellowship
2009 Philip and Aida Siff Educational Foundation, Graduate Dissertation Fellowship
2009 Borchard Foundation, European Studies Fellowship for Dissertation Research
2008 NYU Center for the United States and the Cold War, Predoctoral Fellowship
2006 UCSB Badash Award for Outstanding Work in the History of Science and Technology
2005 Los Alamos Laboratory/National Science Foundation Nonproliferation Fellowship
2003-2008 National Science Foundation, Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Fellowship (NSF IGERT), “Public Policy and the Nuclear Threat”
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
Robert B. Silvers Foundation
2020-2021 Fellow for Work in Progress
Department of History, University of Texas, Austin – Postdoctoral Fellow and Affiliate
2015-2019 Undergraduate and Graduate Student Mentor Collaborative Co-Developer of Presentations and Digital Histories
Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas, Austin – Postdoctoral Fellow
2016 Robert Strauss Center for International Security
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C – Residential Fellow
2015 Joint Position at the John W. Kluge Center and the Caroline and Erwin Swann Foundation
Humanities and Social Sciences Division, UC Santa Barbara – Postgraduate Research Associate
2014 UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center
Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara – Lecturer
2013 War and Society since 1789
2012 Europe since 1945
Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara – Teaching Assistant
2010-2011 The American People, 1917 to the Present
2008-2009 The American People, Sectional Crisis through Progressivism
2007 Great Issues in the History of Public Policy
INVITED TALKS
2020 “Using Comic Books to Teach Digital and Traditional Histories of U.S. Foreign Relations, Department of English, Northern Arizona University, October 13
2017 “An Introduction to Digital History: Building Digital Maps in Story Maps and Archives in Omeka, UT Office of Learning Sciences, November 2
2016 2015 “Drones, Diplomacy, and Visual Culture, 1941-1991,” Intelligence Studies Project Lecture Series, Clements Center for International Security at the University of Texas, Austin, April 11
2015 “Battling America’s Pulp Demons: The Transnational Debate Over American Comic Books and Culture, 1945-1955,” Lecture Series at the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas, Austin, October 5
2015 “Donald Duck’s Atom Bomb: Comic Books and the Uncensored Debate Over Atomic Weapons,” Roundtable on the End of World War II at the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas, Austin, September 25
2013 “Is the 21st Century the Age of Graphic Narrative?” UCSB Arts & Lecture Series, Santa Barbara, CA, April 12
2012 “Andy’s Atomic Adventures: Re-evaluating the Cold War through Commercial and Propaganda Comic Books,” History Associates Lecture Series, Santa Barbara, CA, October 23
2011 “Directions for Delinquents: The Political and Legal Campaign Against Comic Books in the United States, 1945-1955,” UCSB Annual Parents’ Council Meeting, Office of Development, Santa Barbara, CA, April 25
2010 “Disney Diplomacy: The International Cartoon Campaign against Fascism during World War II,” UCSB College of Creative Studies, Santa Barbara, CA, April 17
2009 “There Are No Master Races: Organized Labor’s Program to Promote Tolerance through Comic Books during World War II,” NYU Tamiment Library and the Center for the United States and the Cold War Lecture Series, New York, NY, December 15
SELECTED PAPERS PRESENTED
2020 “American Civilization Means Airstrips and Comic Strips: Comic Books as U.S. Foreign Policy in the Decolonizing World, 1945-1965,” National Conference, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, New Orleans, LA
2016 “Four-Color Fear: Race and Darkness in Uncensored Comic Books, 1945-1955,” Histories of Darkness and Light: Annual Conference for the Institute for Historical Studies in the Department of History, University of Texas, Austin, April 22
2013 “This Is Our Enemy: Creating Intercultural Diplomacy at the Writers’ War Board and the Office for Inter-American Affairs, 1942-1945,” National Conference, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Alexandria, VA, June 22-25
2010 “How Boys and Girls Can Help Win the War: The Federal Government’s Appropriation of the Comic Book Medium, 1941-1955,” National Conference, Popular Culture Association of America, St. Louis, MO, March 31-April 3
2005 “Bert the Turtle Says Duck and Cover: Teaching Civil Defense through Children’s Literature,” 1942-1955,” National Conference, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Washington, D.C., June 23-25
2005 “Weird Science: Images of Nuclear War in Commercial Comic Books, 1945-1954,” National Conference, Center for Cold War Studies and International History, Santa Barbara, CA, April 2
CHAIRED PANELS
2014 “Socialist and Communist Politics and Discourse,” National Conference, Center for Cold War Studies and International History, Santa Barbara, CA, April 11-13
EDUCATION
2013 University of California, Santa Barbara, Ph.D. in History
Dissertation: Pulp Empire: Comic Books, Culture, and U.S. Policymaking at Home and Abroad, 1941-1955
2007 University of California, Santa Barbara, M.A. in History
1997 Tufts University, B.A. in History, Minor in Political Science
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND ACADEMIC SERVICE
2016 Founding Member and Officer, Comic Studies Society
2014-present Peer Reviewer for ImageTEXT: Journal of Interdisciplinary Comic Studies
2013-2014 Research Associate, UCSB Center for Cold War Studies and International History
2005-2013 Mentor and member, UCSB Disabled Students Program
2007 George Washington University Summer Institute on Conducting Archival Research
2005 Graduate Coordinator, UCSB Center for Cold War Studies and International History
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Amputee Coalition of America
Comics Studies Society
Popular Culture Association
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
LANGUAGES
French: intermediate verbal, writing, and reading ability
Russian: basic verbal, writing, and reading ability
