Dr. Amy Helene Forss
Faculty Professor Amy Helene Forss teaches History and Art History at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Nebraska. She has a PhD in African American History from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her first book, Black Print with a White Carnation: Mildred Brown and the Omaha Star Newspaper, 1938-1989, was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2014. In 2017, she published Newspapers & Butter Pecan Ice Cream, which is the children’s picture book version of it for 2nd to 4th graders. Omaha Public Schools, Lincoln Public Schools and Boys Town have Newspapers as part of their curriculum studies. Her third book, Borrowing from our Foremothers, a material culture comparison between suffragist and modern feminist visual strategies and artifacts was published by University of Nebraska Press in 2021. Her upcoming fourth book and second illustrated children’s book, I Am Not Alone: Micro Preemie Baby, will be published in the winter of 2025.

Education

PhD, African-American History, December, 2010
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
Dissertation: Black Print with a White Carnation: Mildred Brown and the Omaha Star, 1938-1989
Advisor: Dr. Margaret Jacobs

Art History Graduate Hours, 2023
University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska
Completed 18 Hours of Graduate Coursework in Art History

M.A., History, December 2000
University of Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska
Thesis: The Ash Grove Lime and Portland Cement Company and Louisville, Nebraska, 1926-1955
Advisor: Dr. Harl Dalstrom

B.S., Secondary Education, December, 2002
Peru State College, Peru, Nebraska

B.G.S., History, May, 1994
University of Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska

Teaching Experience

Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, Nebraska
History Program Chair, 2011 to 2023
History Program Online Lead, 2012 to 2023
Social Sciences Co-Representative, 2013-2020
Faculty History Instructor, 2005 to Present
Faculty Art History Instructor, 2008-Present

Nebraska Wesleyan University, Omaha Campus, Nebraska
Guest Professor, Summer 2012

Boys Town High School
Substitute/Long Term Substitute Teacher, 2001-2004

Honors and Awards

  • Nebraska Center for the Book: One Book, One Nebraska shortlist, 2021
  • Fulbright Alumni Ambassador, 2019-Present
  • Fulbright Scholar Peer Review American History Committee, 2014-2018
  • CCHA Distinguished Humanities Educator Award, 2016
  • U.S. Fulbright Scholar, Kecskemet, Hungary, January to June, 2014
  • Nebraska Center for the Book Award: Best Non-Fiction Biography, 2014
  • Nebraska State Historical Society 2013-2014 Research Grant
  • American Historical Association & National Endowment for the Humanities
  • Bridging Cultures Atlantic and Pacific Grantee Participant, 2012 to 2015
  • James L. Sellers Memorial Award, Best Article, Nebraska History, September, 2011
  • Nebraska Community College Association Nebraska Excellence in Teaching Award, 2010
  • Metropolitan Community College Excellence in Teaching Award, 2010
  • National Institute for Staff and Development (NISOD) Excellence Award, 2010
  • Metropolitan Community College Outcome Assessment Group Award, 2006

Publications

Book Review of Indigenous Continent, by Pekka Hämäläinen, Fulbright    Chronicles, upcoming Summer, 2024.

Borrowing from our Foremothers: Modern Day Feminists Utilizing Suffragist Strategies, 2021. University of Nebraska Press.

“Nebraska’s Persistent Suffragist: Grace Crandall Richardson,” History Nebraska, Vol. 101, No. 4 Winter, 2020. Peer-reviewed article.

Book Review of The Rise and Fall of the Associated Negro Press: Claude Barnett’s Pan-African News and the Jim Crow Paradox, by Gerald Horne, American Historical Review, Vol. 124, Issue 1, February, 2019.

“Suspended Beauty: A ‘Votes for Women’ Mystery” Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study blog, https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/blog/suspended-beauty-votes-women-mystery, May 23, 2019.

Book Review of The Drunken Duchess of Vassar: Grace Harriet Macurdy Pioneering Feminist Greek Scholar, by Barbara J. McManus. Council for Coordinating Women Historians Newsletter Issue 50-2, May 2019.

Technical Innovation in American History: An Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, eds. Peggy Lamphier and Rosanne Welch. Santa Barbara, California, forthcoming, 2018. Three entries: “Rumford Fireplace” “Egg Beater” and “Lobster Trap”.

Book Review of The Black Newspaper and the Chosen Nation, by Benjamin P. Fagin, American Historical Review, Volume 122, Issue 3, June, 2017.

Newspapers and Butter Pecan Ice Cream: Mrs. Mildred Brown and the Omaha Star, Color House Graphics, 2017.

Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection, eds. Peggy Lamphier and Rosanne Welch. Santa Barbara, California, January 2017. Ten entries: “Anti-Suffrage Movement” “Ma Barker” “Martha Brown” “Martha Canary/Calamity Jane” “Cult of True Womanhood” “Daughters of St. Crispin” “Sarah Good” “Mammy and Jezebel Stereotypes” “Spinning Bees” and “Black Feminism”

Book Review of Relentless, by Neil Leifer. American Journalism: A Journal of Media History, Volume 33, Number 4, Fall 2016, p. 484-486.

Book Review of Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler: The Life and Times of a Piano Virtuoso, by Beth Abelson Macleod. Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Volume 109, Number 3, Fall, 2016, p. 336-338.

“One Can Be an Influence”: Nebraska Farm Wife Doris Royal’s Successful Campaign Against the Widow’s Tax” Nebraska History, Volume 96, Number 2, Summer, 2015. Nebraska State Historical Society Press

Black Print and a White Carnation: Mildred Brown and the Omaha Star, 1938-1989, University of Nebraska Press, 2014

“Mildred Brown and the De Porres Club: Collective Activism in Omaha, Nebraska’s Near North Side, 1947-1960” Nebraska History, Volume 91, Number 3 & 4, Fall/Winter, 2010. Nebraska State Historical Society Press

“The Economic Survival of Louisville, Nebraska, in the Great Depression” Heritage of the Great Plains, Volume XXXVI, 2003. Emporia State University Press

Book Review of The Notorious Dr. Flippin: Abortion and Consequences in the Early Twentieth Century, by Jamie Q. Tallman. Nebraska History, Volume 92 Number 4, Winter, 2011

Book Review of The Rhythm Boys of Omaha Central: High School Basketball at the ’68 Racial Divide, by Steve Marantz. Great Plains Quarterly, Volume 31, Number 4, Fall, 2011

Professional Presentations

“Spaces of Women’s Activism in Diana Mara Henry’s Photograph” Panel Discussant, Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, Santa Clara University, June 28 to July 2, 2023. 

Chaired Arts and Culture panel at the Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies’ Midwest Jewish Association: “A Zionist Message in Stained        Glass, Laura Cochrane, Middle Tennessee State University, “Arbel Chorale: The Third Modern Jewish Choir” Stephen Michael Cohen, Independent Scholar, “The Purim Ball as Public Event in Nineteenth Century Kansas” David M. Katzman, Kansas State History Project, Jewish Community Center, Omaha, Nebraska, September 18, 2022. 

“The Ottoman Empire,” “History of Greek Civilization,” “History of Spain,” “History of the Italian Renaissance,” “History of the Roman Empire,” and “History of the Venetian Republic” Viking Resident Historian for Viking Cruises, June 25 to July 30, 2022.

“Omaha’s Diverse Foremothers” University of Nebraska Medical Center            (UNMC) Honoring the Contributions of Women Month, March 10, 2022.

 “Once a Fulbright, Always a Fulbright” Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) 2022 Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, February 21, 2022.

 “Exploring Social Justice in Hungary” Community College for International     Development (CCID) virtual conference, February 19, 2021.

“Fulbright U.S. Scholars Teaching Race Relations in Slovenia and Hungary”     National Association of African American Studies (NAAAS) and Affiliates            virtual conference, February 16, 2021. 

“Unladylike2020” Moderator, Nebraska Public Media/PBS, Nebraska live streaming Facebook event, February 18, 2021.           

Fulbright U.S. Scholar Alumni Ambassador presentations to Peru State College, Nebraska Indian Community College, Concordia College, Mid-Plains Community College, Metropolitan Community College, 2020-Present.

“How to Write a Children’s Non-Fiction Book” Plum Creek Children’s              Literacy Festival, Concordia University, Seward, Nebraska, September 21, 2019.

“Grace Crandall Richardson: Nebraska’s Persistent Suffragist” History Nebraska Brown Bag Lecture, Lincoln, Nebraska, August 15, 2019.

“80 Years of the Omaha Star” Durham Museum Lecture Series, Omaha,             Nebraska, August 7, 2019.

“Chair a History Department” panelist Organization of American Historians, Sacramento, California, April 11, 2018.

“Carrying the Torch: Suffragist and Feminist Symbolism” Community College Humanities Association, Baltimore, Maryland, November 11, 2017

“Seneca Falls, Seneca Falls, Seneca Falls” Missouri Valley History Conference, Omaha, Nebraska, March 4, 2017

“Black Print with a White Carnation,” Omaha, Nebraska. C-SPAN 2 and C-SPAN 3, July 4-5, 2015

“Using Maps to Bring the Atlantic and Pacific World into the U.S. History Survey Course” American Historical Association, New York City, January 2-5, 2015

“How to teach African American History in the ESL Classroom” 60th Annual Berlin Seminar for American Fulbright Scholars, Berlin, Germany” March 23-27, 2014

“Remembering the First Ladies” Fulbright American Corners Hungary, Debrecen, Hungary (March 20, 2014) Pecs, Hungary (March 31, 2014) and Veszprem, Hungary (April 7, 2014)

“Capturing Change at the National Women’s Conference, Houston, Texas, 1977” American Historical Association (AHA) Conference Panel Presenter and Organizer, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2013

“Mildred Brown: The Black Matriarch of North Omaha, Nebraska” 97th Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September, 2012

“It’s all in the Representation: Analyzing the Photographic Images of Black Civil War Soldiers” 97th ASLAH Conference, Richmond, Virginia, 2011.

Teaching American History (TAH) grant speaker, Nebraska Wesleyan University, June, 2010

“Mildred D. Brown and the Star,” Douglas County Historical Society, August, 2009

Plattsmouth Chautauqua Reading and Film Series, March, 2009

“Mildred Dee Brown and the Omaha Star” 52nd Missouri Valley History  Conference, March 6, 2009

“Finance, Location and Structure: Establishing the Municipal University of Omaha, 1908-1938” 50th Missouri Valley History Conference, March 1, 2007

“The Economic Survival of Louisville, Nebraska, in the Great Depression,” 45th Missouri Valley History Conference, March 8, 2002