Last updated: May 26, 2022
Academic Positions
Framingham State University
- Associate Professor, 2019-present
- Assistant Professor, 2014-2019
- Visiting Assistant Professor, 2012-2014
Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture
- Project Coordinator, Across America, 1776, 2022–present
- Assistant Editor, Digital Initiatives, 2014–2021
Johns Hopkins University
- Lecturer, 2010-2011
Education
Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University (2010)
M.A., The Johns Hopkins University (2007)
A.B., in History, cum laude, Harvard University (2002)
Publications
Books
Revolutionary Networks: The Business and Politics of Printing, 1763–1789. Studies in Early American Economy and Society, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019.
- Honorable Mention, 2019 St. Louis Mercantile Library Prize, Bibliographical Society ofAmerica
The Rise and Fall of the Post Office in America. Under contract with Harvard University Press.
Articles and Chapters
“Who Tells Your Story?: Hamilton as a People’s History.” In Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical Is Restaging America’s Past, edited by Renee C. Romano and Claire Bond Potter, 277–96. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2018.
With Victoria E. M. Gardner. “News in the Age of Revolution.” In Making News: The Political Economy of Journalism in Britain and America from the Glorious Revolution to the Internet, edited by Richard R. John and Jonathan Silberstein-Loeb, 47–72. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
“Transatlantic Migration and the Printing Trade in Revolutionary America,” special issue on The Worlds of Mathew Carey, guest edited by Cathy Matson and James N. Green, Early American Studies 11, no. 2 (Fall 2013): 516-44.
“‘A constitutional Conveyance of Intelligence, public and private:’ The Post Office, the Business of Printing, and the American Revolution,” Enterprise & Society 11, no. 4 (2010): 709-52.
Shorter Works
“William Bradford (1722-1791),” in Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment, ed. Mark G. Spencer (New York: Continuum, forthcoming 2014).
“Imprimeures dans les colonies britanniques [Amérique du Nord XVIIe-XVIIIe siècle],” in Dictionnaire Universel des femmes créatrices, edited by Béatrice Didier, Antoinette Fouque, Mireille Calle-Gruber, and Sonia Rykiel, 3 vols. (Paris: Éditions des Femmes, 2013), 2: 2094. [Women Printers in the British Colonies (North America, 17th-18th centuries)]
Online Media
Guest host, Ben Franklin’s World
- “Elections in Early America: Presidential Elections and the Electoral College,” ep. 287
- “The Power of the Press in the American Revolution,” ep. 156
“It’s Finally Ben Franklin’s Time in the Sun,” Slate, Apr. 4, 2022.
“A Loyalist and His Newspaper in Revolutionary New York,” Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History, Aug. 25, 2020.
“The media revolution that guided Paul Revere’s ride,” Washington Post, Apr. 19, 2019.
“Did Hamilton Write Too Much for His Own Good?” Public Seminar, Nov. 9, 2017
“The Power of the Press in the American Revolution,” guest host, Ben Franklin’s World, episode 156, Oct. 17, 2017
“‘Meer Mechanics’ No More: How Printers Shaped Information in the Revolutionary Age,” Age of Revolutions, Sept. 11, 2017
“National Endowment for the Humanities Cuts Would Harm Local Communities,” Framingham Source, June 3, 2017
“Free from the Government: The Eighteenth-Century Origins of Press Freedom,” We’re History, Jan. 17, 2017
“George Washington, Man of Mystery,” TheAtlantic.com, Feb. 15, 2016
“USPS Folly Foreshadowed by Confederate Post Office,” Echoes blog, Bloomberg News, Feb. 7, 2013
“The Postal Service Is a Civic Institution, Not a Business,” TheAtlantic.com, Apr. 25, 2012
“Mobilizing the Public Against Censoship, 1765 and 2012,” TheAtlantic.com, Jan. 23, 2012
Contributor, Publick Occurrences 2.0 blog, Common-place
Contributor, The Junto
Reviews
An Empire of Print: The New York Publishing Trade in the Early American Republic, by Steven C. Smith, Journal of the Early Republic 39, no. 2 (Summer 2019): 362–64.
How the Post Office Created America: A History, by Winifred Gallagher, Business History Review 90, no. 4 (Winter 2016): 783–85, doi: 10.1017/S0007680517000125.
A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns, 1787–1825, Journal of American History 103, no. 1 (June 2016): 297–98.
Empowering Words: Outsiders and Authorship in Early America, by Karen Weyler, Journal of Southern History 80, no. 4 (Nov. 2014): 942–43.
Coming of the American Revolution, 1764-1776 and Mission US, Journal of American History 99, no. 4 (March 2013): 1330-1332.
“A Transatlantic Culture of News?” Review of Reading Newspapers: Press and Public in Eighteenth-Century Britain and America, by Uriel Heyd, Common-place, October 2012.
Scandal & Civility: Journalism and the Birth of American Democracy, by Marcus Daniel, J-History, H-Net Reviews, Sept. 2011.
The Postal Age: The Emergence of Modern Communications in Nineteenth-Century America, by David M. Henkin, in Technology & Culture 49, no. 1 (2008): 272-73.
Work in Progress
“Communication.” In preparation for The Cambridge History of the American Revolution, 3 vols. Edited by Marjoleine Kars, Michael A. McDonnell, and Andy Schocket. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
“‘A busy, bustling, disputatious tone:’ News Anxiety in the Age of Revolutions and Today.” In American Revolutions in the Digital Age, edited by Nora Slonimsky, Mark Boonshoft, and Benjamin Wright. Under review, Cornell University Press.
“Trans-Atlantic Correspondence and Imperial News Narratives in the Revolutionary Era.” In preparation.
“Business, Propaganda, and the American Revolution.” In preparation for Early American Studies, special issue on propaganda and the American Revolution.
Academic Awards and Honors
Elected Member, American Antiquarian Society
FSU Belongs Award for Excellence in First-Year Foundations, 2021
Junior Prize, Rita Lloyd Moroney Award for Scholarship in Postal History, United States Postal Service, for “‘A Constitutional Conveyance of Intelligence,” 2011
Alexander Butler Prize, JHU History Department, May 2005
Fellowships and Grants
Course Release, Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, Scholarship, and Service, Framingham State University, Spring 2022
Professional Development Stipend, Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, Scholarship, and Service, Framingham State University, Winter 2020
Research Stipend, Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, Scholarship, and Service, Framingham State University, Fall 2018
Course Release, Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, Scholarship, and Service, Framingham State University, Spring 2016
Research Presentation Grant, Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, Scholarship, and Service, Framingham State University, Fall 2013
Curriculum Development Grant, Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, Framingham State University, Spring 2013
Professional Development Grant, Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, Scholarship, and Service, Framingham State University, Spring 2013
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, American Antiquarian Society, Feb.-July 2012
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Program in Early American Economy and Society, Library Company of Philadelphia, Fall 2011
Dissertation Fellow, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, Declined, Fall 2009
Dissertation Fellow, Doris G. Quinn Foundation, 2008-2009
Short-Term Fellow, Program in Early American Economy and Society, Library Company of Philadelphia, Feb. 2009
Isaiah Thomas Travel Grant, American Antiquarian Society, June 2008
Travel Grant, JHU Graduate Representative Organization, June 2008
Research Fellow, New York Public Library, Gilder-Lehrman Institute, Nov. 2007
McLean Contributionship Fellow, Library Company of Philadelphia, July 2007
Stephen Botein Fellow, American Antiquarian Society, June 2007
Research Associate, McNeil Center for Early American Studies2006-2007
Frederick Jackson Turner Travel Bursary, JHU History Department, Mar. 2007, Jan. 2010
Isaac Comly Martindale Fund Resident Fellow, American Philosophical Society, Sept. 2006
Research Fellow, David Library of the American Revolution, July 2006
Graduate Fellowship, Johns Hopkins University, 2004-2008, 2009-2010
Teaching Experience
Framingham State University
- HSTY 111 United States History to Reconstruction
- HSTY 112 United States History Since Reconstruction
- HSTY 120 American Lives
- HSTY 225 Historiography
- HSTY 250 Historical Research and Writing
- HSTY 303 Native American History, 1500-1800
- HSTY 304 American Revolution
- HSTY 306 Early American Republic
- HSTY 360 Media and Communications in American History
- HSTY 345 Networks and Empires: Economic History of the Atlantic World
- HSTY 450 The Seminar
- HSTY 490 Independent Study in History (Topic: Digital History)
- HNRS 480 Honors Program Thesis/Project (1st reader on 1 thesis, 2nd reader on 2 theses)
- DGHM 110 Introduction to Digital Humanities
The Johns Hopkins University
- Creating the News: Media and Politics in Early America, Spring 2011
- Revolutionary America, Fall 2010
Guest Presentations
Teaching College History & Professional Development (HIST 6980), Western Michigan University, Spring 2021
Problems in Early American History (HIST 651), Purdue University, Spring 2021
American Revolution (HIST 341), Colorado State University, Fall 2020
Presentations
Conference Presentations
Chair/Commenter, “Imperial Crises,” Crafting Narratives of Empire: Contested Roots of Revolution in the Long Eighteenth Century, Institute for Thomas Paine Studies and the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, New Rochelle, NY, Sept. 2022
Chair/Commenter, “Political Communications During the Revolutionary Era,” Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, 42nd Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, July 2021
“‘A busy, bustling, disputatious tone:’ News Anxiety in the Age of Revolutions and Today,” The Age of Revolutions in the Digital Age, Institute for Thomas Paine Studies, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY, Sept. 2020
“Benjamin Franklin and the Postal Paradox in Colonial North America,” OIEAHC 25th Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, June 2019
Participant, “Thomas Paine and the Digital Humanities,” Revolutionary Texts in a Digital Age: Thomas Paine’s Publishing Networks, Past and Present, Institute for Thomas Paine Studies and Iona College, Oct. 2018
Moderator, “Roundtable: Teaching the Early Republic in the American Heartland,” 40th Annual Meeting, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, Cleveland, OH, Jul. 2018
“Independent Student Projects in Digital Humanities,” CELTSS Brown-Bag Series, Framingham State University, Apr. 2017
Workshop Leader, “The Maturing Blogosphere of Early America,” joint meeting of the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture and the Society of Early Americanists, Chicago, Jun. 2015
“Online Engagement and New Audiences for Scholarship,” Gender Interest Group Works-in-Progress Series, Framingham State University, Mar. 2015
“Reading and Writing: Turning the Interdisciplinary Page in Early America,” Economic History’s Many Muses, Program in Early American Economy and Society, Library Company of Philadelphia, Oct. 2014
“Using Social Media in the Classroom,” with Meredith O’Brien-Weiss, CELTSS January Day, Framingham State University, Jan. 2014
“The Triumph of Profit-Seeking: The Post Office Becomes the Postal Service,” American Historical Association, Washington, DC, Jan. 2014
Discussant, “Setting Up Shop: Domesticating Global Business in the Age of Revolution,” Business History Conference, Columbus, OH, Mar. 2013
Panel Chair, “The Trading Nation,” Ireland, America, and the Worlds of Mathew Carey, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, Nov. 2011
“Immigrant Printers and the Creation of Information Networks in Revolutionary America,” Ireland, America, and the Worlds of Mathew Carey, Philadelphia, PA, Oct. 2011
“With ‘Unanimity, Spirit and Zeal:’ Printers and Representations of Public Opinion in the Revolutionary Media,” OIEAHC 17th Annual Conference, New Paltz, NY, Jun. 2011
“Printers’ Networks and the Business of Producing Political News in Revolutionary America,” Business History Conference, St. Louis, MO, Apr. 2011
“Creating the News: Printers and the Circulation of Political News in Revolutionary America,” American Historical Association, San Diego, CA, Jan. 2010
“‘The News of the Killing Stamp:’ Business and Politics in Printers’ Reactions to the Stamp Act,” Early American Literature and Material Texts Summer Workshop, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, Philadelphia, PA (dissertation chapter draft), Jul. 2009
“‘Your Thirst after News must now be very Ardent:’ Transatlantic Letter-Writing and the Construction of the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1760-1772,” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Richmond, VA, Mar. 2009
“‘The News of the Killing Stamp:’ Business and Politics in Printers’ Reactions to the Stamp Act,” Consortium on the Revolutionary Era, Savannah, GA, Feb. 2009
“The Circuits of Revolution: Printers and the Transmission of Political Discourse, 1763-1776,”New York Metro American Studies Association, New York, NY, Nov. 2008
“‘A constitutional Conveyance of Intelligence, publick and private:’ The Business and Politics of Printers and the Creation of an American Post Office, 1773-1789,” Organization of American Historians, Minneapolis, MN, Mar. 2007
Invited Talks
Talks about Revolutionary Networks:
- Natick Historical Society, Natick, MA, April 2021
- Marblehead Museum, Marblehead, MA, Oct. 2020
- Framingham Public Library, Framingham, MA, Sept. 2020
- Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA, Dec. 2019
- Arlington Historical Society, Arlington, MA, Nov. 2019
- Lexington Historical Society, Lexington, MA, Nov. 2019
- Library Company of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, Sept. 2019
- David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, PA, July 2019
Guest Lecturer, The Revolution in Books, NEH Summer Institute for Higher Education Faculty, Florida Atlantic University, June 2022
“Breaking the News in the Age of Revolutions and Today,” Irvington (NY) Public Library and Irvington Historical Society, June 2022
“Trans-Atlantic Correspondence and News Narratives in the Revolutionary Era,” Five College Seminar in History of the Book, May 2022
Guest Lecturer, The News Media and the Making of America, 1730–1800, NEH Summer Institute for K-12 Teachers, American Antiquarian Society, July 2021
“Print and Partisanship in Early New York State,” Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY, Nov. 2020
“‘We Don’t Print Retractions’: Politics and the Press in Early U.S. Elections,” American Studies Summer Institute, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA, July 2019
“Social Media Engagement for Cultural Institutions,” Long Island Library Resources Council, Holbrook, NY, Nov. 2018
Roundtable, “Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical is Restaging America’s Past,” National Archives, Washington, DC, Sept. 2018
Roundtable, “Historians on Hamilton,” Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, MA, Sept. 2018
“Black & White & Read All Over: Circulating News in Post-Civil War America,” Lifelong Learning Series, Framingham Public Library, Apr. 2018
“Bulwark of Liberty: The Revolutionary Origins of Freedom of the Press,” Waterstone at Wellesley, Oct. 2017.
“Constitution 101,” Social Justice Ministry, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Framingham, MA, May 2017
“Digital Humanities and Early American History,” with Liz Covart, American Origins Seminar, USC-Early Modern Studies Institute, Pasadena, CA, Oct. 2016
“Common Carrier: The Post Office in American Life,” Lifelong Learning Series, Framingham Public Library, Apr. 2016
“A Revolution by Post,” keynote address, Members Dinner, Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History, Weston, MA, Oct. 2015
“News of the Killing Stamp:” Information Networks and the Stamp Act Crisis, Twelfth Annual Seminar on the American Revolution, Fort Ticonderoga, Sept. 2015
“The New England Economy in the Early Republic,” Old Towns/New Country, Framingham History Center, Sept. 2014
“Liberty’s News: How the Media Shaped the American Revolution,” Lifelong Learning Series, Framingham Public Library, Apr. 2014
“Two Countries, Two Presses: Making News in the Age of Revolutions, 1775-1815,” with Victoria E.M. Gardner, “Free Market, Free Press? The Political Economy of News Reporting in the Anglo-American World since 1688,” Columbia University, Nov. 2012
“The Post Office as Civic Institution in Civil War America,” keynote address, 7th Annual Postal History Symposium, “Blue & Gray: Mail and the Civil War,” Bellefonte, PA, Nov. 2012
“National Productions: Rebuilding Print Networks in the Confederation Period,” AAS Regional Seminar, Worcester, MA, Oct. 2012
“‘Adieu to the Liberty of the Press:’ The Stamp Act and the Limits of Media Regulation,” Constitution Day lecture, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Sept. 2012
“The Importance of History in the 21st Century,” keynote address, Phi Alpha Theta induction ceremony, Framingham State Univ., Apr. 2012
“Print and Popular Politics,” guest lecture, “Pursuits of Happiness: Ordinary Lives in the American Revolution,” Prof. Richard J. Bell, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, Feb. 2012
“‘Extracts from Some Rebel Papers:’ Patriots, Loyalists, and the Perils of Wartime Printing,” joint seminar, Program in Early American Economy and Society and McNeil Center for Early American Studies Seminar, Philadelphia, PA (pre-circulated paper), Feb. 2012
“With ‘Unanimity, Spirit and Zeal’: The Boston Tea Party and the Production of Revolutionary News,” Columbia Seminar on Early American History, New York, NY (pre-circulated paper), Dec. 2011
Professional Service
Assistant Producer, Ben Franklin’s World podcast, 2017–present
Participant, 250th Anniversary Themes Focus Group, American Association for State and Local History, 2020
Lapidus Initiative Advisory Group, OIEAHC, 2017–2019
Editor, Ask the Author column, Common-place: The Journal of Early American Life, 2014–2017
Core Committee, Digital Isaiah, American Antiquarian Society, Summer 2016, 2019-present
Program Committee, 38th Annual Meeting, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, New Haven, CT, 2016
Manuscript and Proposal Reviewer for: National Endowment of the Humanities-Office of Digital Humanities, University of Virginia Press, Broadview Press, American Historical Review, American Periodicals, Early American Studies, Information & Culture, Journal of American History, Journal of the Early Republic, New England Quarterly, Political Studies, William and Mary Quarterly
Judge, AHA Today Blogging Contest, Summer 2015
Framingham State University
Chair, History Department Curriculum Committee, 2020–present
Ad Hoc Committee on Digital Humanities, 2022
University Tenure Committee, 2021–2023
Arts & Ideas Committee, 2021–present
Social Media Advisory Group, 2021
Department Peer Evaluation Committee, 2020–2021
Member, All-University Committee, 2016–2018 (Vice Chair, 2017–2018; Secretary, 2016–2017)
Chair, Faculty Subcommittee, Civic Learning Engagement and Outreach Initiative, 2015–2017
Member, Web Management Team, 2015–2017
Department Liaison, CELTSS Steering Committee, 2014–2016
Web Content Coordinator, History Department, 2014–present
Co-Advisor, Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society, 2013–present
Member, Task Force on Training History Educators, 2013-2014
Presenter, History Skills Workshop, 2013-2014
Peer Mentor, First-Year Faculty Mentoring Program, 2013-2014
Organizer, Native American History lecture series, Spring 2013
Search Committee, Modern European History, 2012-13
Professional Development
Antiracist Pedagogies Academy, Framingham State University, 2020–2021
Second Book Writers Workshop, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, 41st Annual Meeting, Cambridge, MA, July 2019
Early American Literature and Material Texts Initiative, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, led by Matthew P. Brown July 2009
Summer Seminar in the History of the Book, American Antiquarian Society June 2008
- Topic: “The Newspaper and the Culture of Print in the Early American Republic,” led by David Paul Nord and John Nerone
Professional Affiliations
American Historical Association
Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
Society for Historians of the Early American Republic
Business History Conference
Other Employment
Project Associate, Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, 2010-2011
Communications Director, Office of New York State Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, 2002-2004
References available upon request.
Joseph M. Adelman 