Harvey J. Graff

Harvey J. Graff (born June 19, 1949) is a comparative social and cultural historian of North America and Western Europe^[2]

Harvey J. Graff
Born	(1949-06-19) June 19, 1949 (age 76)
Known for	Scholarship on social history and the history of literacy
Academic work
Discipline	Urban history Cultural history History of literacy Interdisciplinarity
Institutions	Ohio State University University of Texas at San Antonio Loyola University of Chicago (visiting professor) Simon Fraser University (visiting professor)[1]

He is a professor emeritus of English and History and Ohio Eminent Scholar in Literacy Studies at Ohio State University.^[3] Graff’s scholarship spans multiple areas, including the history of literacy; childhood, youth and family; urban history; interdisciplinarity; and higher education. ^[4]

His work on the history and social contexts of literacy has been published in multiple languages and countries. He is also known internationally for his contributions across several academic fields, particularly in the development of interdisciplinary approaches to historical and social analysis.^[5]

Education

Harvey J. Graff received the Bachelor of Arts degree in history and sociology from Northwestern University in 1970 followed by Master of Arts from The University of Toronto in 1971^[6], and finally his Doctor of Philosophy both in history and history of education, also from The University of Toronto in 1975.^[2]

He was a Woodrow Wilson and Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation fellow.^[7]

Personal life

Harvey J. Graff was born to Milton and Ruthe Graff and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is married to Vicki L. W. Graff.^[6]

Academic career

Graff began his academic teaching career in 1973 as an Instructor in the Summer School at Northwestern University, shortly after completing his doctoral coursework.^[6]

From 1974 to 1975, he served as an Extramural Lecturer at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.^[8]

In 1975, Graff became a founding faculty member of the University of Texas at Dallas, where he spent more than two decades in the School of Arts and Humanities, rising from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor (with tenure) and Full Professor of History and Humanities.^[9]

During this period, he played a role in mentoring doctoral students and securing numerous research grants, including support from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Spencer Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Science Foundation.^[6] During his tenure at UT Dallas from1975 to 1998, he was also active in supervising doctoral students and securing multiple internal and external research grants.^[10] He was active in public history and public humanities.^[2] He founded the Dallas Social History Group in 1981.^[11]

Graff also held appointments during this period as Visiting Adjunct Professor of History at Loyola University Chicago in 1980 and Visiting Professor of English and Education at Simon Fraser University, Canada, in the summers of 1981 and 1982.^[7]

In 1998, Graff was appointed Professor of History at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) as Professor of History, where he also served as Director of the Division of Behavioral and Cultural Sciences^[4] from 1998 to 1999.^[12]

His interdisciplinary role extended across UTSA’s doctoral and graduate programs, including the Ph.D. Program in Culture, Literacy, and Language, the Department of English, and the graduate faculty in Public Administration.^[13] His time at UTSA was marked by faculty development awards and research leave, as well as growing national leadership in interdisciplinary scholarship.^[7]

He joined OSU in 2004 and established the interdisciplinary LiteracyStudies@OSU initiative, which he directed until 2016.^[14] During his tenure at OSU, he also held affiliations with academic and research centers, including the Department of Comparative Studies, the Diversity and Identity Studies Collective, the Humanities Institute, the International Poverty Solutions Collaborative, the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, Project Narrative, Popular Culture Studies, the Neighborhood Institute, and the Future of the University Group.^[6] He collaborated extensively with faculty across disciplines, including medicine, law, education, and the sciences, as well as the humanities and social sciences.^[15]

In 1999, Graff was elected President of the Social Science History Association (SSHA) for its 25th anniversary year of 2000, following his term as Vice President in 1998. ^[16]

In his presidential address Graff argued that traditional historians had successfully counterattacked against quantification and the innovations of the "new social history":

The case against the new mixed and confused a lengthy list of ingredients, including the following: history’s supposed loss of identity and humanity in the stain of social science, the fear of subordinating quality to quantity, conceptual and technical fallacies, violation of the literary character and biographical base of “good” history (rhetorical and aesthetic concern), loss of audiences, derogation of history rooted in “great men” and “great events,” trivialization in general, a hodge-podge of ideological objections from all directions, and a fear that new historians were reaping research funds that might otherwise come to their detractors. To defenders of history as they knew it, the discipline was in crisis, and the pursuit of the new was a major cause.^[17]

In 2001, in recognition of his contributions to historical scholarship and the interdisciplinary field of literacy studies, Graff was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa by Linköping University in Sweden. ^[18]

In 2004, Graff was appointed the inaugural Ohio Eminent Scholar in Literacy Studies and Professor of English and History at The Ohio State University.^[19] The Eminent Scholar appointment is the university’s highest faculty recognition. It is endowed by the state to support distinguished scholars who advance cross-disciplinary innovation.^[2] At Ohio State, Graff held faculty positions in the Departments of English and History and cultivated affiliations with the Department of Comparative Studies and several university-wide research centers and interdisciplinary initiatives.^[20] His affiliations included the Diversity and Identity Studies Collective (DISCO), the Humanities Institute, the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, the International Poverty Solutions Collaborative, Project Narrative, Popular Culture Studies, the Neighborhood Institute, and the Future of the University Group.^[21]

Graff’s most significant institutional contribution at Ohio State was the founding of LiteracyStudies@OSU in 2005, an interdisciplinary initiative that he directed until 2016. ^[2]

LiteracyStudies@OSU facilitated collaborative research, curricular development, and public programming, helping to define literacy studies as a dynamic interdisciplinary field.^[20]

After retiring from active teaching in 2017, Graff was named Professor Emeritus of English and History. ^[6]

Post-Retirement Work

Following his retirement, Graff remains active in public education, extending his teaching and scholarly engagement beyond the university. ^[5]

He continues to mentor former doctoral students and advise junior faculty on research, publication, and professional development. His post-retirement work includes virtual lectures, scholarly forums, and ongoing collaborations with students and colleagues in the United States and internationally.^[22]

From 2021-2024, he was the author of a regular column, “Busting Myths,” in the Columbus Free Press, where he applied historical and interdisciplinary analysis to contemporary issues, including higher education, urban development, and misinformation. He contributes essays to outlets such as Inside Higher Ed and Times Higher Education, where he writes on topics including interdisciplinarity, public engagement, and academic freedom.^[21]

He also participates in educational outreach at multiple levels, engaging with high school and undergraduate students on research topics such as critical race theory and urban geography.^[2] In 2022, he delivered a virtual faculty development lecture to Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates.^[21]

Graff’s public work includes collaborations with media outlets, including NPR affiliates, and contributions to policy discussions with legislative staff and advocacy groups. His public education activities form part of a broader post-retirement initiative he describes as “Harvey U,” a non-traditional, global educational effort.^[2]

In 2022, he was named Academy Professor in the Ohio State University Emeritus Academy.^[20] In 2023, he was elected to full membership in the American Antiquarian Society and nominated to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Education.^[7]

In 2024, Graff published his hybrid autobiography, My Life With Literacy: The Continuing Education of a Historian. The Intersections of the Personal, the Political, the Academic, and Place (WAC Clearinghouse Publications and University of Colorado Press).^[23] Graff's critical reflections and recommendations toward a new understanding and major reforms of American higher education are the focus of his 2025 book, Reconstructing the "Uni-versity": From the Ashes of the " Mega- and Multi-versity" to the Futures of Higher Education "(Bloomsbury Academic).^[24]

Books

The Literacy Myth

Written in 1979, this book studies 19th century educators who supported the "literacy myth", as Graff calls it, which is the assumption that literacy translates to economic, social, and cultural success. Graff suggests that this myth views literacy as a necessity for success, and a means to an economic, social, or political end. His research contradicts this, suggesting “that connections between schooling and social mobility are not natural ones".^[25] He goes on to say that reality contradicts inborn assumptions correlating literacy and success.^[25]

The Legacies of Literacy: Continuities and Contradictions in Western Society and Culture

Graff’s early scholarship on literacy culminated in The Legacies of Literacy: Continuities and Contradictions in Western Society and Culture (1987), a general historical analysis that examines the development and meanings of literacy in Western societies over time.^[26] Drawing on interdisciplinary sources, the book argues that literacy has been frequently misunderstood as a universally beneficial force, while in reality it has played contradictory roles in different social contexts.^[27] The project was funded by the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Spencer Foundation, the Newberry Library, and the University of Texas.^[28]

Conflicting Paths: Growing Up in America

The assumption has been made by scholars and the general populace alike “that children have followed in the paths marked out for them by adults, and the possibility that they developed their own reactions and behavior in the course of their maturation has been ignored”.^[29] Basically, while social scientists are familiar with normative behavior, little is known about the actual behavior of children as they mature. Conflicting Paths looks at over five-hundred narratives dating from 1750 to 1920 to try and follow the actual process of growing up in America and, if it has, how it has changed over time as well as the effects of factors such as class, gender and ethnicity.^[29][30]

The Dallas Myth: The Making and Unmaking of an American City

In The Dallas Myth: The Making and Unmaking of an American City (2008), Graff offers a critical examination of Dallas, Texas, challenging the dominant narratives promoted by local elites.^[31] The book analyzes the concept of the “Dallas Way,” a governing ideology that Graff argues limits democratic engagement and reinforces social inequality.^[32] Through historical investigation, Graff deconstructs the myth of Dallas as a “city with no past” and scrutinizes how urban planning, racial politics, and civic culture have shaped the city’s development.^[33]

Undisciplining Knowledge: Interdisciplinarity in the Twentieth Century

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2015. According to the description provided in Google Books:^[34] "Interdisciplinarity — or the interrelationships among distinct fields, disciplines, or branches of knowledge in pursuit of new answers to pressing problems — is one of the most contested topics in higher education today. Some see it as a way to break down the silos of academic departments and foster creative interchange, while others view it as a destructive force that will diminish academic quality and destroy the university as we know it... Graff presents readers with the first comparative and critical history of interdisciplinary initiatives in the modern university. Arranged chronologically, the book tells the engaging story of how various academic fields both embraced and fought off efforts to share knowledge with other scholars. It is a story of myths, exaggerations, and misunderstandings, on all sides."

Searching for Literacy: The Social and Intellectual Origins of Literacy Studies

Searching for Literacy: The Social and Intellectual Origins of Literacy Studies (2022) provides a critical account of the evolution of literacy studies across disciplines.^[35] The book traces how foundational concepts and methodologies have developed over time and critiques prevailing approaches, including those associated with the New Literacy Studies. Graff argues that literacy studies have lost some of their critical grounding and calls for renewed historical and interdisciplinary engagement with the field. The book aims to reorient how scholars and institutions conceptualize and investigate literacy.^[14]

Awards

Graff has also received awards from the American Antiquarian Society, American Council of Learned Societies, Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, The Newberry Library, Spencer Foundation, Swedish Institute, Texas Committee for the Humanities, and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.^[4]

In 2013, he received the first SSHA Special Award recognizing his continuous participation from 1976 through 2013.^[16] In 2001, he was awarded the honorary Doctor of Philosophy by the University of Linköping in Sweden for his scholarly contributions.^[36]

In 2023, Graff was elected a full member of the American Antiquarian Society. ^[10]He has been nominated to several academic bodies, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Education.^[37] In retirement, Graff remains active in both scholarly and public discourse. ^[38]