Seth C. Bruggeman

Raised in South Central Pennsylvania, Seth C. Bruggeman studied memory and material culture first at Penn State University and then at the College of William & Mary where he earned a PhD in American Studies. He is currently Associate Professor of History at Temple University where he also directs the Center for Public History. Bruggeman studies the role of memory in public life, and particularly how Americans have used objects—in museums, monuments, historic, sites, and other commemorative spaces—to exert control over how we understand the past. His books include Commemoration: The American Association for State and Local History Guide (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), Born in the USA: Birth and Commemoration in American Public Memory (University of Massachusetts Press, 2012), and Here, George Washington Was Born: Memory, Material Culture, and the Public History of a National Monument (University of Georgia Press, 2008).