Research Interests: History of education; American idealist philosophy and evolutionary paradigms. Historiographical interests include the American "Midwest," labor, and Marxism.

Laura Lee Schmidt's dissertation, "Subject-Object Lessons: Social Science in the St. Louis Style, 1866-1917" excavates the Idealist roots of the US public education system, and demonstrates how, starting with Reconstruction, the educational reform activities of St. Louisan Hegelians in Midwestern schools influenced the vocation of industrial social science across America.

Degrees:
BA., DePaul University
AMarchS., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PhD., History of Science, Harvard University