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    Image of Prof. Ann Heiss

    Mary Ann Heiss

    History
    Professor and Chair
    Campus:
    Kent
    Office Location:
    Bowman Hall
    Contact Information
    Email:
    mheiss@kent.edu
    Phone:
    330-672-8905
    Fax:
    330-672-2943

    Biography

    A life-long Ohioan, I grew up in Lake County and was educated at Miami University in Oxford (B.A. and M.A.) and The Ohio State University (Ph.D.).

    I’m a specialist in the history of US foreign relations with a particular emphasis on Anglo-American relations.  My publications include Fulfilling the Sacred Trust: The UN Campaign for International Accountability for Dependent Territories during the Era of Decolonization (Cornell University Press, 2020), which won the 2021 Ohio Academy of History Publication Award, and Empire and Nationhood: The United States, Great Britain, and Iranian Oil, 1950-1954  (Columbia University Press, 1997); co-edited volumes on the recent history/future of NATO, US relations with the Third World, and intrabloc conflicts within NATO and the Warsaw Pact; and numerous essays in edited collections and professional journals, including the International History Review, the Journal of Cold War Studies, and Diplomatic History.  My current research projects include a study of Anglo-American visions of empire in the period 1945-1956, a comprehensive history of Cold War presidential doctrines, and the first extended study of Queen Mary’s Carpet.

    I’ve been actively involved in the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, having served on its Council and on the editorial board of its journal, Diplomatic History.  I served as SHAFR President from 2022-2023. I’ve also been a member of the Harry S. Truman Library Institute’s Committee on Research Scholarship and Academic Relations and its Board of Directors.  I’m a past President of the Ohio Academy of History and currently serve as its Archivist.

    Here at Kent State, I teach courses in the history of America and the world, the Global Cold War, and the Twentieth-Century World.

    Expertise

    United States
    International
    Anglo-American
    Decolonization
    Cold War

    Publications

    • Fulfilling the Sacred Trust: The UN Campaign for International Accountability for Dependent Territories during the Era of Decolonization (Cornell University Press, 2020). Winner of the 2021 Ohio Academy of History Publication Award.
    • Empire and Nationhood: The United States, Great Britain, and Iranian Oil, 1950-1954 (Columbia University Press, 1997).
    • “Presidential Cold War Doctrines: What Are They Good For?” Diplomatic History 48 (January 2024): 1-19.
    • “Exposing ‘Red Colonialism’: U.S. Propaganda at the United Nations, 1953-1963,” Journal of Cold War Studies 17 (Summer 2015): 82-115.
    • “The United States, Great Britain, and the Creation of the Iranian Oil Consortium, 1953-1954,” International History Review 16 (August 1994): 511-35.
    • NATO and the Warsaw Pact: Intrabloc Conflicts, ed. with S. Victor Papacosma (Kent State University Press, 2008).
    • Empire and Revolution: The United States and the Third World since 1945, ed. with Peter L. Hahn (Ohio State University Press, 2000).
    • NATO in the Post-Cold War Era: Does It Have a Future?, ed with S. Victor Papacosma (Palgrave Macmillan, 1995).

      Affiliations

    • Actively involved in the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
    • having served on its Council and on the editorial board of its journal
    • Diplomatic History.
    • Member of the Harry S. Truman Library Institute’s Committee on Research
    • Scholarship
    • and Academic Relations
    • Editor of the series “New Studies in U.S. Foreign Relations” published by the Kent State University Press
    • Documents

      PDF icon heiss.vita_.pdf
      Department of History

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      850 Lester A Levy Blvd Kent OH 44242-0001


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      800 E. Summit St.
      Kent, OH 44242

      Contact Us

      330-672-2882 history@kent.edu
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