Elizabeth Ewen was a scholar of

women's history Women's history is the study of the role that women have played in history and the methods required to do so. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights throughout recorded history, personal achievement over a period of ...

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

, and

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

. She was among the first

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

historians to write about early

American cinema The cinema of the United States, consisting mainly of major film studios (also known as Hollywood) along with some independent film, has had a large effect on the global film industry since the early 20th century. The dominant style of Ame ...

. Ewen was a professor of

American Studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory. Sch ...

at the

State University of New York at Old Westbury The State University of New York College at Old Westbury (SUNY at Old Westbury) is a public college in Old Westbury, New York, with portions in the neighboring town of Jericho, New York. It enrolls just over 5,000 students. History The State Uni ...

( SUNY). Noted

film historian The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art form created using film technologies that began in the late 19th century. The advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined. However, the commercial, public scr ...

Robert Sklar described Ewen's 1980 article, “City Lights: Immigrant Women and the Rise of the Movies,” in ''Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society'', as 'the first significant writing by a historian on early American cinema to follow the author's and

arth Arth is a village, a List of towns in Switzerland, town, and a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Schwyz District in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. The municipality consists of the villages Arth, Oberarth, and Goldau. The four ...

Jowett's books.” Ewen's book, ''Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars'', examined the role of cinema in the lives of immigrant girls and women in New York City's

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

Filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

Ellen Noonan has explained that the book was the inspiration for the 1993 documentary ''Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl''. Elizabeth Ewen authored several books with her husband,

media historian Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media. Media Studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly ...

Stuart Ewen Stuart Ewen (born 1945) is a New York-based author, historian and lecturer on media, consumer culture, and the compliance profession. He is also a Distinguished Professor at Hunter College and the City University of New York Graduate Center, ...

, and her colleague

Rosalyn Baxandall Rosalyn Baxandall ( Fraad; June 12, 1939 – October 13, 2015) was an American historian of women's activism and feminist activist. Early life and education Baxandall was born in New York City on June 12, 1939. Her father, Lewis M. Fraad, was ...

, including ''Channels of Desire: Mass Images and the Shaping of American Consciousness'' (1992), ''Picture Windows: How the Suburbs Happened'' (2000), ''Typecasting: On the Arts and Sciences of Human Inequality'' (2006). Ewen's work is frequently cited by contemporary

historians A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

. Elizabeth Ewen died May 29, 2012, in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

.http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?pid=157878129 "ELIZABETH R. EWEN - Obituary".

Selected publications

* Elizabeth Ewen, “City Lights: Immigrant Women and the Rise of the Movies,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 5, no. 3, 1980. *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ewen, Elizabeth Year of birth missing 2012 deaths Feminist historians American film historians