Dr. Rebecca Plant

Professor

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Biography

Rebecca Jo Plant is a Professor of History at UC San Diego. Her research interests center on gender, family history, and the social psychological impact of war in the nineteenth and twentieth-century United States. Born in Kansas City, she attended Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and later moved to Baltimore for graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University. Before joining UC San Diego in 2002, Plant taught at Vanderbilt University. Her recent book, co-authored with Frances M. Clarke, is titled 'Age: Boy Soldiers Military Power Civil War Era,' published by Oxford University Press in 2023, and it has received the 2024 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. Plant's earlier works include 'Mom: Transformation of Motherhood in Modern America' and co-editing 'Maternalism Reconsidered: Motherhood, Welfare, and Social Policies in the Twentieth Century.' Her scholarship has also garnered multiple fellowships, including those from the American Association of University Women and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. With a strong focus on the history of psychiatry and war trauma, her current research explores the implications of military psychiatry during World War II, particularly around the experiences of soldiers dealing with neuropsychiatric disorders and the cultural perceptions of mental illness.

Research Interests

Gender History Family History Social Psychological Impact of War

Experience

Professor

— Present

University of California, San Diego • La Jolla, CA

Teaches various undergraduate and graduate courses in history, focusing on gender, war, and social movements.

Instructor

— Present

Vanderbilt University • Nashville, TN

Taught courses in history, contributing to research and scholarship in the field.

Awards

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Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize

#

Grace Abbott Award

#

Carol Gold Article Award

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Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Publication Prize

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Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Article Prize

Courses

HIUS 112: Civil War Reconstruction HIUS 156: American Women, American Womanhood to 1870 HIUS 157: American Women, American Womanhood from 1870 to Present HILD 2B: U.S. History: Nineteenth Century HIUS 173: Topics in American Women’s History: Historical Perspectives on Family Emotions HIGR 267: Research Seminar in U.S. History HIGR 265C: Historical Scholarship in Twentieth-Century U.S.: Families, Sexual Difference, State HIGR 265C: Historical Scholarship in Twentieth-Century U.S.: Labor Consumption HIGR 205: Historical Scholarship on Women and Gender HIGR 209: Teaching History (co-taught with Prof. Mark Hanna)

Requirements for University of California, San Diego

Doctorate Program
Requirements
GPA Requirement
Required:3
TOEFL
Total
Required:85
IELTS
Overall
Required:7
Duolingo
Overall Score
Required:120
Overall
Required:120
Prerequisites
Bachelor's degree in physical, biological, or earth sciences, mathematics, or engineering. Differential and integral calculus. One year of calculus-based physics with laboratory. One year of chemistry with laboratory.
Application Checklist
  • Statement of Purpose (max 2 pages)
  • Unofficial transcripts
  • Three letters of recommendation
  • Curriculum Vitae (CV)
  • Application fee ($135 domestic / $155 international)
Specialization Notes

Administered by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Curricular groups include Climate-Ocean-Atmosphere (COAP), Geosciences (GEO), and Ocean Biosciences (OBP).