Harvey J. Graff

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, == 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. == 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. From 1974 to 1975, he served as an Extramural Lecturer at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. 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. 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. 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. 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. His time at UTSA was marked by faculty development awards and research leave, as well as growing national leadership in interdisciplinary scholarship. In 2004, Graff was appointed the inaugural Ohio Eminent Scholar in Literacy Studies and Professor of English and History at The Ohio State University. 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. and several university-wide research centers and interdisciplinary initiatives. Graff's institutional contribution at Ohio State was the founding of LiteracyStudies@OSU in 2005, an interdisciplinary initiative that he directed until 2016. After retiring from active teaching in 2017, Graff was named Professor Emeritus of English and History. From 2021 to 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. His new book is Reconstructing the "Uni-versity": From the Ashes of the " Mega- and Multi-versity" to the Futures of Higher Education " (Bloomsbury Academic). == Areas of research ==

History of Literacy Graff is known as a founding figure in the historical study of literacy and the New Literacy Studies. In this and subsequent publications, such as The Legacies of Literacy (1987) and The Labyrinths of Literacy (1987/1995), Graff demonstrated that the meanings and functions of literacy vary significantly across time, place, and social context. History of Children, Youth, and Family Graff is known as a pioneering figure in the interdisciplinary field of the history of children, youth, and family. His scholarship emphasizes the historically contingent and socially constructed nature of childhood and adolescence, challenging universalized or ahistorical understandings of growing up. A foundational work in this area is his widely cited article, "Interdisciplinary Explorations in the History of Children, Adolescents, and Youth—For the Past, Present, and Future", published in The Journal of American History (1999). In this influential essay, Graff explores the emergence of childhood and youth as subjects of historical inquiry, calling for greater interdisciplinary collaboration across history, sociology, education, and cultural studies. He argues for moving beyond sentimental or developmental narratives and toward historically grounded analyses that center class, gender, race, and place. History of cities and urban history Graff has played a role in the evolution of urban history, particularly within the broader frameworks of social, cultural, comparative, and interdisciplinary historiography. His early urban work includes Dallas, Texas: A Guide to the Sources of Its Social History (1981), co-authored with doctoral students Alan Baron and Charles Barton, which was among the first efforts to document the social historical record of a modern American city using interdisciplinary research methods. History of Interdisciplinarity, history of knowledge Harvey J. Graff is widely recognized for his pioneering scholarship on interdisciplinarity and the intellectual history of academic knowledge. His 2015 book, Undisciplining Knowledge: Interdisciplinarity in the Twentieth Century (Johns Hopkins University Press), is a landmark work that offers the first sustained, comparative, and critical history of interdisciplinary initiatives within the modern university. Higher Education: History, Present, and Future Graff critically engages with the history and contemporary challenges of universities in his recent and forthcoming works. His hybrid autobiography, My Life With Literacy: The Continuing Education of a Historian (2024), offers a reflective exploration of his personal and academic journey. In this work, Graff examines the interconnectedness of his personal experiences, political influences, academic scholarship, and the cities where he lived and worked. He describes the book as a “new intersectionality,” highlighting the complex interplay of these factors throughout his life and career. In addition to his autobiography, Graff has completed several projects that address academic change, student experiences, and institutional transformation. Reconstructing the "Uni-versity": From the Ashes of the "Mega- and Multi-versity" to the Futures of Higher Education is published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2025. In August 2025, Graff published Changing Paths of Academic Lives: Revising How We Understand Higher Education, 1960s to 2020s and Beyond (WAC Clearinghouse Publications and University Press of Colorado), a collection of original essays for which he served as editor and wrote the introduction. == Books ==

The Literacy Myth Written in 1979, this book critically reviews 19th century thought that supports the "literacy myth", as Graff calls it, which is the assumption that literacy by itself translates to economic, social, and cultural success. His research contradicts this, suggesting “that connections between schooling and social mobility are not natural ones". He argues that reality contradicts assumptions correlating literacy and success. 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. 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”. 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 personal narratives dating from 1750 to 1920 to 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. 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. The book analyzes the concept of the “Dallas Way,” a governing ideology that Graff argues limits democratic engagement and reinforces social inequality. 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. Undisciplining Knowledge: Interdisciplinarity in the Twentieth Century Published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2015, this book argues that 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. Organized chronologically, the book tells the engaging stories 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. The book traces how foundational concepts and methodologies have developed over time and critiques prevailing approaches, including those associated with the New Literacy Studies. Reconstructing the “Uni-versity”: From the Ashes of the “Mega- and Multi-versity” to the Futures of Higher Education Graff’s 2025 book, Reconstructing the “Uni-versity”: From the Ashes of the “Mega- and Multi-versity” to the Futures of Higher Education published by Bloomsbury Academic, critiques prevailing narratives about the decline of higher education. == 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. In 2013, he received the first SSHA Special Award recognizing his continuous participation from 1976 through 2013. In 2023, Graff was elected a full member of the American Antiquarian Society. 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. In retirement, Graff remains active in both scholarly and public discourse. == Selected publications ==

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