Ashton Merck
20th century, Agriculture, Consumer protection, Regulatory policy, Business fraud, Trade, United States, Public policy and regulation
Women in Business History
I am a Program Manager for Climate Research + Engagement at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC.
Before joining the Museum, I spent a decade in academia. I earned a PhD in History from Duke University in 2020, where, among other things, I wrote a dissertation on management-based regulation in food safety in the twentieth century.
From 2021-2024, I was a postdoctoral researcher at NC State University, where I worked closely with scientists and engineers on topics as varied as nanotechnology in food and agriculture to sweetpotatoes to phosphorus sustainability.
I have been active in the BHC since 2017.
Service to the BHC
Senior List Editor, H-NET 2026 - 2029
Emerging Scholars Committee 2025 - 2028 [Chair 2027 - 2028]
Philip Scranton Best Article Prize Committee 2022 - 2025 [Chair 2023 - 2024]
Senior List Editor, H-NET 2020 - 2023
Recent Conference Participation
| 2026 BHC Meeting:
Presenter, Roundtable Presentation
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| 2025 BHC meeting:
Chair, Bitter Harvests: Political Economy in the Interwar Agrarian Periphery Discussant, The Business and Labor of “Quality” in the Twentieth Century |
| 2024 BHC Meeting:
Presenter, "“We Have a Responsibility to Feed Our Country”: Essential Work, Critical Infrastructure, and Food Inspection"
Chair, Intellectual Property Rights and Technological Diffusion |
| 2023 BHC Meeting:
Presenter, "Hope in Trusts: National Broiler Marketing Association v. United States and the Limits of Countervailing Power"
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| 2023 BHC Meeting:
Presenter, Roundtable Presentation
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| 2022 BHC Meeting :
Discussant, Regulating Safety in the American Marketplace |
| 2020 BHC Meeting:
Presenter, "Towards 'One Smithfield': Smithfield Foods, WH Group, and the Politics of Pork from North Carolina to China"
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