April, 2020

Catherine Koonar joins the historians of Historians on Housewives 
The conversation delves into topics surrounding Bravo, US capitalism, the myth of the “self-made” man, and its relation to The Real Housewives. We compare Milton Hershey’s larger-than-life brand to Andy Cohen, Ramona, Bethenny, and Vicki; play high-low with the Housewives’ reported net worth; and use Karen Huger's La' Dame perfume drama to discuss the culture of entrepreneurship, and much, much more! Check out the episode!

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January, 2020

​Catherine Koonar joins the Board of Directors of the History Watch Project
The History Watch Project is a federally incorporated Canadian non-profit organization that brings together an international network of activist scholars. Grounded in the expertise of its affiliates, the History Watch Project undertakes research and educational initiatives which employ the methods of Critical Applied History to contemporary social issues. Its work emphasizes matters related to the Global South though it may also address matters related to the marginalization of people elsewhere in the world.

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October, 2018

“Making Chocolate American: Labor, Tourism, and American Empire in the Hershey Company,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 142, 3 (October 2018): 339–364.
This article shows how Hershey chocolate became American, traces the history of the town as a destination, and explores the way Hershey’s industrial and imperial past has been obfuscated in favor of a narrative grounded in the brand’s place in American culture and Milton Hershey’s personal legacy. Commitment to welfare capitalism, the desire for Americans to visit the town and the factory, and Hershey's intentionally folksy self-promotion worked to establish the brand as part of American popular culture.