Fields of Interest
Biography
Professor Yee’s training is as a historian of gender, women, race & ethnicity in the United States. She has been a member of the Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies faculty since 1988. She served as Chair of the department from 1995-2001.
Fellowships and Grants
- Royalty Research Grant, University of Washington. 2000-2001
- Senior Society of Scholars Program, Center for Humanities, University of Washington, 2000-2001
- Humanities Alumni Award of Distinction, Ohio State University, June 2000
Research
Selected Research
- National Women's Studies Association, Annual Conference, 2019.
- Shirley Yee. An Immigrant Neighborhood: Interethnic and Interracial Encounters in New York before 1930. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2011.
- Shirley Yee. • "Dependency and Opportunity: Socioeconomic relations between Chinese and non-Chinese in New York City, 1870-1943," Journal of Urban History 33(January 2007): 254-76.
- Shirley Yee. "The 'women' in Women's Studies," published in differences: a journal of feminist cultural studies (Fall 1997) (actually appeared in Fall 1998).
- Shirley Yee. "Finding a Place: Mary Ann Shadd Cary and the Dilemmas of Black Migration to Canada, 1850-70." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, (Dec. 1997).
- Shirley Yee. "Gender Ideology and Black Women as Community-Builders in Ontario, 1850-70," Canadian Historical Review, LXXV (1994).
- Shirley Yee. Black Women Abolitionists: A Study in Activism, 1828-60. The University of Tennessee Press, 1992.
Research Advised
- Morado, M. K. (2023). Creative Kin-Making Practices Among Queer Youth and Womxn of Color, 1950-2020. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
- McKenzie, T. J. (2018). Praxis in the Trenches: A Self-study of Feminist Assessment of Student Learning in Online Education. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
- Coss, N. R. (2016). Feminist Street Performances in Puerto Rico: Alternative Imaginaries Shifting the Ideal(ized) National Body. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
- Kim, N. Y. (2013). “The call of God” : Korean American women’s activism in the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Libraries.
- Peloff, A. R. (2011). Unexpected feminisms : how popular culture brought feminism beyond the movement. University of Washington.
- Adair, Z. R. (2010). Negotiating spectacle : Florence Mills, Josephine Baker & Adelaide Hall : transnational black women’s expressive culture, 1920-1935. University of Washington.
Conversations
Professor Yee’s research and teaching connects with nearly all her colleagues in GWSS in some way: Priti Ramamurthy’s research on gendered paid and unpaid labor in the family or household and in the community at large; Michelle Habell-Pallan’s work on popular culture and race & ethnic community formations; Luana Ross’s work on history, representation of indigenous peoples Angela Ginorio’s work on violence and Nancy Kenney’s work on reproductive technologies; Amanda Swarr’s work on sexualities. All of these topics have historical foundations and appear in Yee’s courses on women’s history. Ramamurthy’s and Habell-Pallan’s research has the most direct connection to Yee’s research on the histories of racial/ethnic community formation and her newest work on the work and the production of the popular and material culture in the history of mourning rituals and the U.S. funeral industry.
Courses Taught
Spring 2025
Spring 2024
Winter 2024
Autumn 2023
Spring 2023
Winter 2023
Social History of American Women to 1890
20th Century History of Women in the U.S.