About

Laurie Mercier has been a practicing historian for three decades, teaching high school, directing oral history and public history projects, and since 1995, teaching at WSU Vancouver.

As a social historian, she has been interested in the experiences of ordinary people and how they both accommodate and contest the larger forces that affect their lives. She has published numerous articles and books about the twentieth-century United States and Pacific Northwest, especially the role of gender in industrial communities and labor unions.

Mercier believes in sharing scholarship with wide audiences and contributes to a monthly radio program, participates in Teaching American History projects with K-12 teachers, and helps students and others develop digital archives, oral history projects, and other resources for the general public. She is currently writing a book on women's oral history narratives and with colleague Desiree Hellegers (WSUV-English) researching the history of social movements in Portland, Oregon.