Professor Grier is also a faculty member in the department’s Public History Program, and
co-director of the Museum Management Certificate Program, which is administered through
The McKissick, the University Museum of South Carolina. Dr. Grier teaches graduate seminars
on material culture studies and exhibition development for museums as well as a variety of
undergraduate courses. She founded the undergraduate internship program in public history
in 2001.
Professor Grier is a specialist in the history of everyday life in the United States, Dr. Grier is the author
of Ulture and Comfort: Parlor Making and Middle Class Identity (1997). She also serves
a consultant to museums and historic houses. She is a Council Member of the International
Society for Anthrozoölogy and a member of the national advisory board of the Museum of Early
Southern Decorative Arts, Old Salem, Inc.
Current Activities:
My current research focuses on the history of animal-human interaction. I am interested in the
changing patterns of everyday relationships between Americans and domestic animals, with an
emphasis on the practice of keeping pets. My book Ets in America: A History will be
published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2005. I am also serving as
guest curator for an exhibition on pet keeping in the United States, originating
at The McKissick in 2005 and traveling for three years thereafter. In general, what makes
my scholarly work distinctive is my use of material culture as a crucial part of the
documentary record. The material culture of pet keeping is rich and hitherto neglected;
it reveals information about the relationships of people and animals that cannot be recovered
from written sources. And, yes, I do have pets of my own! My husband and I reside with Buddy
and Patty, two mixed-breed dogs we rescued, and Ed and Rudy, two cats adopted from shelters.
To see Professor Grier CV, click here.
http://www.cla.sc.edu/hist/pubhist/Faculty/grier/index.html
