Krystyn Moon

Krystyn Moon
Professor of History and American Studies
Office: Monroe 225
Phone: 540.654.1479
Email:kmoon@umw.edu

Krystyn R. Moon

Krystyn R. Moon is a professor in both the History and American Studies programs. Her teaching and research include US immigration history, popular culture, race and ethnic studies, foodways, gender and sexuality, and consumerism. She is the author of Yellowface: Creating the Chinese in American Popular Music and Performance, 1850s-1920s (2005), and several articles, essays, reviews, and blogs on American immigration history and ethnic identity. Additionally, she has worked as a public historian, collaborating with the Office of Historic Alexandria (OHA) for several years. As part of this partnership, she has written “Finding the Fort: A History of an African American Neighborhood in Northern Virginia, 1860s-1960s” to assist with the inclusion of African American history in Alexandria’s public programming. She was also the lead historical researcher and interviewer for OHA’s “Immigrant Alexandria: Past, Present, and Future,” an oral history project funded by Virginia Humanities. Her current research looks at ways in complicating the public’s understanding of the past, especially through her research on race relations and immigration. Through COPLAC (Consortium of Public Liberal Arts Colleges), she also collaborates with faculty at UNC-Asheville and the University of Havana on developing intellectual exchanges among faculty. She also serves as the president of the Alexandria Historical Society, and is the past president of the Southeastern Regional Chapter of the American Studies Association.

Education

• Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University. 2002. History.
• M.A., The Johns Hopkins University. 1999. History.
• B.A., Pomona College. 1997. American Studies.

Courses Taught

Publications

Book:

• Yellowface: Creating the Chinese in American Popular Music and Performance, 1850s-1920s. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2005). Multimedia edition, American Council of Learned Societies History E-book Project, 2006.

Selected Articles:

• “Immigration Restrictions and International Education: Early Tensions in the Pacific Northwest, 1890s-1910s,”History of Education Quarterly 58, no. 2 (2018): 1-34.
• “The Alexandria YWCA, Race, and Urban (and Ethnic) Revival: The Scottish Christmas Walk, 1960s-1970s,” Journal of American Ethnic History 35, no. 4 (Summer 2016): 59-92.
• “The African American Housing Crisis in Alexandria, Virginia, 1930s-1960s,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 124, no. 1 (2016): 28-68.
• “‘On a Temporary Basis’: Immigration and the American Entertainment Industry, 1880s-1930s,” Journal of American History 99 (December 2012): 771-792.
• “The Quest for Music’s Origin at the St. Louis World’s Fair: Frances Densmore and the Racialization of Music,” American Music 28 (Summer 2010): 191-210.
• “Paper Butterflies: Japanese Acrobats in Mid-Nineteenth-Century New England,” in Asian Americans in New England: Culture and Community, ed. Monica Chiu (Lebanon, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2009), 66-90.
• “Lee Tung Foo and the Creation of a Chinese American Vaudevillian,” Journal of Asian American Studies, 8 (Feb. 2005): 23-48.
• “‘There’s No Yellow in the Red, White, and Blue’: The Creation of Anti-Japanese Music during World War II,” Pacific Historical Review, 72 (Aug. 2003): 333-353.