Peggy Ann Pascoe was an American historian. She was the Beekman Professor of Northwest and Pacific History and Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon

University of Oregon

-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...

. She earned a B.A. from Montana State University in 1977, an M.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in 1980, and a Ph.D. at Stanford University in 1986. She was a member of the University of Oregon History Department from 1996 until her death on July 23, 2010.

Education

• B.A. 1977 at Montana State University
  Montana State University - Bozeman
  Montana State University – Bozeman is a public university located in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's land-grant university and primary campus in the Montana State University System, which is part of the Montana University System...
  
  
• M.A. 1980 at Sarah Lawrence College
  Sarah Lawrence College
  Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
  
  
• Ph.D. 1986 at Stanford University
  Stanford University
  The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
  
  

Professional Activities and Awards

• Jensen/Miller Article Prize (1991)
• University Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Utah
  University of Utah
  The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
  
   (1995)
• National Endowment for the Humanities
  National Endowment for the Humanities
  The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
  
   Grant (1996)
• ABC-CLIO
  ABC-CLIO
  ABC-CLIO is a publisher of reference works for the study of history and social studies in academic, secondary school, and public library settings.-History:...
  
   America: History and Life Award (1997)
• Co-President, Coordinating Council for Women in History (1997-2000)
• National Council, American Studies Association (1998-2001)
• Ellis W. Hawley Prize
  Ellis W. Hawley Prize
  The Ellis W. Hawley Prize is an annual book award by the Organization of American Historians for the best historical study of the political economy, politics, or institutions of the United States, in its domestic or international affairs, from the American Civil War to the present. The prize honors...
  
   and the Lawrence W. Levine Award
  Lawrence W. Levine Award
  The Lawrence W. Levine Award is an annual book award made by the Organization of American Historians . The award goes to the best book in American cultural history. The award is named for Professor Lawrence W. Levine, President of the OAH 1992-1993, who wrote extensively in the field. A committee...
  
   from the Organization of American Historians
  Organization of American Historians
  The Organization of American Historians , formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S...
  
  for her book, What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America (2009)

Major publications

• What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Professor Pascoe provides a sweeping historical and sociological review of America's laws against interracial marriage, their origins, and demise, focusing not just on Southern states' statutes targeting intimate relationships of African Americans, but also the Western states' many laws targeting people of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and Hawaiian descent, with particular attention to the cultural attitudes that once sustained these laws.

• Relations of Rescue: The Search for Female Moral Authority in the American West, 1874-1939. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Themes explored include

1. The romanticized theme of “white women civilizers of the West."
2. The ethnocentric and class-based idealization of Anglo-Protestant “civilization.”
3. Although the West offered opportunities for Victorian missionaries to exercise their moral authority and attain some political power and social influence, it also reinforced one facet of “womanhood” and entrenched women within this model. Ultimately, this rigid definition of the “true woman” limited society’s tolerance of the types of careers and activities women could engage.

External links

• Peggy Pascoe
• Pascoe's article on History News Network called "The Election of Barack Obama and the Politics of Interracial and Same-Sex Marriage" http://hnn.us/articles/60057.html
• Pascoe's article on History News Network called "Why the Ugly Rhetoric About Same-Sex Marriage is Familiar to this Historian of Miscegenation" http://hnn.us/articles/4708.html
• Pascoe's article on BackPast.org called "What Comes Naturally: The Loving v. Virginia Case in Historical Perspective" http://www.blackpast.org/?q=perspectives/what-comes-naturally-loving-v-virginia-case-historical-perspective