Amy Mittelman is the author of Brewing Battles: A History of American Beer (Algora Publishing, 2007). She holds a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University, a bachelor degree in nursing from the University of Massachusetts, and is a Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude graduate of the City College of New York. She won the Ruth A. Smith Writing Award from the University of Massachusetts in 1995. In addition to her book, Brewing Battles: A History of American Beer, she is the author of two published articles and many essays, reviews, and reference articles. Amy was a Five College Women’s Studies Research Center Associate for the academic year 2010-2011.
In the past, Amy had a business, Academic Publicity, which helped scholarly authors promote their books. She helped at least one author get his book published in paperback. She taught history at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hampshire College and Mount Holyoke. Amy also taught nursing at Holyoke Community College, and worked as a nurse for four years in a methadone clinic.
Amy has been a historian, a mother, a businesswoman, a nurse and a published author. She has always brought skills, resources, and lessons from previous endeavors to each new one. This is typical for women. Many women’s lives do not occur in a linear fashion. Both male and female baby boomers are famous for second acts and continually reinventing themselves. This has always been truer for women and has certainly been true for Amy. These experiences make Amy uniquely qualified to write her new book Dames, Dishes, and Degrees: Faculty Wives in America.
Amy lives in the Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts, which is home to at least ten colleges including Smith and Mount Holyoke, the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center and the Everywoman’s Center at the University of Massachusetts. The Pioneer Valley also has an active craft beer drinking population. In her hometown of Amherst with a population of thirty thousand where “reality is an option”, there are two brewpubs and a bar, the Moan and Dove that sells primarily imported and craft beers.
Amy is married to a college history professor who, for many years, was an administrator. Her life as a faculty wife is the underpinning for Dames, Dishes, and Degrees. Amy’ s experiences sparked her interest in the topic and her inside perspective helps shape the story.