Erika L. Briesacher

Contributor

Erika L. Briesacher is an Associate Professor of History at Worcester State University, specializing in European, German, and public history. She writes on identity, material culture, and economics, and is currently preparing a monograph called Nordic Days: Festival, Culture, and Identity in Lübeck, 1920-1960 on the continuities and economics of culture and identity in northwestern Germany. She got her Ph.D. at Kent State University in 2012 and her MA in History with a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Museum Studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2006.

Health and Wellness

Makers of Living, Breathing History: The Material Culture of Homemade Facemasks

By Erika L. Briesacher • June 24, 2020

Ten days into shelter-in-place orders after my kids’ schools closed, my family and I gathered around the table, staring at a mystery machine. The serendipitous early birthday gift from my mother-in-law – a sewing machine – had been meant for my sabbatical dream of learning to sew. Now, the material I had snagged from a… Read more →