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Susan Curtis

Professor // History
Emeriti Faculty

Professor // American Studies // SIS
Emeriti Faculty


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Susan Curtis is a Professor of History specializing in the History of American Culture, Religion, and Race Relations. She is the author of four books, A Consuming Faith:  The Social Gospel and Modern American Culture (1991): Dancing to a Black Man's Tune:  A Life of Scott Joplin (1994); The First Black Actors on the Great White Way (1998); and Colored Memories:  A Biographer's Quest for the Elusive Lester A. Walton (2008). During her tenure at Purdue, Professor Curtis served as Director of American Studies, Director of Interdisciplinary Studies in the College of Liberal Arts, Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Programs and Engagement, and Interim Head of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies. In recent years, her chief project in the classroom and in research has been to integrate the meaning of American culture in a multiracial and multiethnic society. She seeks ways to understand cultural collaboration and conflict across racial boundaries and to expose the power of culture to delimit opportunities, expression, acceptance, and citizenship.