Ben Keppel

My teaching and research specialties are African-American History; Mass Media and Social Change in 20th-Century America; and Cultural, Intellectual, and Political History in the 20th-century United States. In my teaching and my research, I emphasize the importance of popular culture and how its patterns and assumptions strongly shape politics and policy.  In addition to my appointment in the Department of History I am a faculty member in the African & African-American Studies Program and the Film & Video Studies Program.

I am a former Californian who is enjoying the process of becoming an Oklahoman. I grew up in the California Central Valley town of Sacramento, which is also the state capital. I earned a bachelor's degree at the University of California, Davis and completed my graduate work at UCLA.  My experiences as a student at one of the finest public university systems in the world has given me a deep reverence for the tradition of public education on which this country is founded. Because of that commitment, I am honored to be able to teach at the University of Oklahoma, the capstone public university in this state.

I am also fortunate to teach at the same university as my wife, Katherine Pandora (an associate professor in the History of Science department), with whom I share a strong interest in popular culture and the history of social science.