KIRA LUSSIER

PhD Candidate, University of Toronto

Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology (IHPST)
Victoria College, Room 316
91 Charles Street West, Toronto, ON M5S 1K7
kiralussier.com | kira.lussier@utoronto.ca | 647-924-6944

EDUCATION
2018*

PhD, IHPST, University of Toronto

Dissertation: How Psychology Became Human Capital: Personality Testing in
Corporate America, 1960-1990
Committee: Elspeth Brown (co-chair); Michelle Murphy (co-chair); Mark Solovey

2012

MA, University of Toronto, IHPST

Collaborative program in Book History and Print Culture

2010

BA (Hon.), History, McGill University

First Class Honours with Distinction

RESEARCH INTERESTS
History of psychology; Science and technology studies; History of capitalism; Postwar business
and management history; 20th American cultural and intellectual history; Cold War science

PUBLICATIONS
Under review
Testing Temperament in Interwar American Corporations. Submitted to History of Psychology
(January 2016)
Of motives and managers: Training the work ethic and cultivating human capital in corporate
America, 1960-1980. Submitted to special issue, Managing the Human, in ephemera: Theory
& Politics in Organization (September 2016)
Other academic publications (non-peer reviewed)
In Press

Managing Intuition. Invited roundtable, Liberating the Organization Man.

Business History Review

2016

Book Review of Pathologist of the Mind: Adolf Meyer and the Origins of American
Psychiatry, by Susan Lamb. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 52(3):
312-313.
The Manager as Motivator: Ernest Dichters Top Man Training Seminars. Hagley
Research News (February 19)

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2015

Motivated or Manipulated? Ernest Dichter and David McClelland at Work.

Hidden Persuaders Blog (December 8)

2014

Paper dolls and ink blots: history of projective tests at the University of Toronto,
University of Toronto Scientific Instrument Collection Blog.

GRANTS, AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS

2017

Young Scholars Initiative Event Grant, Institute for New Economic Thinking, with
Bretton Fosbrook and Justin Douglas

2016-17

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection Grant, with
Michelle Murphy, Bretton Fosbrook and Justin Douglas ($10,200)

2016

Victoria College Junior Fellow, University of Toronto

Historical Studies Travel Grant, University of Toronto Mississauga
Canadian Business History Association Grant, Rotman Business School

2013-16

Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, SSHRC ($105,000)

2015

Grant-in-Aid, Rockefeller Archive Center

Alvin A. Achenbaum Grant, Hartman Center, Duke University
School of Graduate Studies Travel Grant, University of Toronto
Griffin Bursary, Centre for Mental Health and Addiction
Research Grant, Center for the Study of the United States, University of Toronto

2014

Alfred D. Chandler Travel Fellowship, Harvard Business School

Henry Belin Du Pont Exploratory Grant, Hagley Museum and Library
Henry May Award, Society for U.S. Intellectual History

2013

Ontario Graduate Scholarship ($15,0000; declined)

Stillman Drake Grant, IHPST, University of Toronto

2012

Jackman Junior Fellowship, Jackman Humanities Institute ($5,000)

Avie Bennett Award, University of Toronto ($5,000)

2011

Ontario Graduate Scholarship ($15,000)

University of Toronto Fellowship (declined)

2006-10

James McGill Major Scholarship, McGill University ($20,000)

CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION
Conference Organization
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2017

Co-organizer, Techniques of the Corporation Conference, Toronto, ON (May 4-6).

With Michelle Murphy, Justin Douglas, and Bretton Fosbrook.

2016

Panel organizer, Non-Scientific Management in a Turbulent World, 1960-90.

Business History Conference, Portland, OR (Mar 31-Apr 2).

2015

Panel organizer, From Bedrooms to Boardrooms. Society for the Social Studies of
Science. Denver, CO (Nov 11-15)

Refereed conference presentations

2017

Intuiting the Future: Psychology, Management, and the Myers-Briggs Type

Indicator. Panel: Economic Futures in Postwar American Capitalism, Canadian
Historical Association, Toronto, ON (May 29-31)
Big in Japan: Management, Social Psychology, and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
in Japan, 1970-90. Business History Conference-sponsored panel, Captive Minds
and Footloose Capital, Organization of American Historians, New Orleans, LA
(Apr 6-9)

2016

Big in Japan: Management, Social Psychology, and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
in Japan, 1970-90. History of Capitalism Conference, Cornell, NY (Sept 30-Oct 1)
The Art of Corporate Governance (with Justin Douglas and Bretton Fosbrook).
Historicizing the Economy workshop, New Initiatives for Economic Thinking,
Cambridge, MA (Sept 23-24)
Managing Intuition: Cognitive Science Meets Corporate America. Business
History Conference, Portland, OR (Mar 31-Apr 2).

2015

From Amateur Psychology to Corporate America: The Case of the Myers-Briggs

Type Indicator. History of Science Society, San Francisco, CA (Nov 19-22)
Personality Testing, Human Capital and Affect in Corporate America. Society for
the Social Studies of Science, Denver, CO (Nov 11-15)
Managing Intuition: The Rhetoric of Right/Left Brain in American Management.
American Studies Association, Toronto, ON (Oct 8-11)
Measuring Consumers Minds: Psychographics in 1970s Marketing Research,
American Psychological Association, Toronto, ON (Aug. 6-9)
Motivating Minds in Cold War America. Society for the Recent History
of the Social Sciences, Cambridge, MA (June 7-8)

2014

Testing Technologies in Intellectual History. Society for United States Intellectual

History, Indianapolis, IN (Oct. 9-12)
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KIRA LUSSIER
Emotions at Work: Testing Temperament in Interwar American Corporations,
Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, St.
Catharines, ON (May 24-26)
2013

Testing Temperament at Work: The Humm-Wadsworth Temperament Scale in

Interwar America. International Congress for the History of Science, Technology
and Medicine, Manchester, UK (July 21-28)

2012

Ordering Insanity in Progressive-Era America, Cheiron and European Society for

the History of the Human Sciences Joint Meeting, Montreal, QC (July 18-22)

Invited talks
2016

Whats Your Type? The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in Between Academic and
Popular Psychology. Invited talk at Psychology Department Colloquium, Brock
University, St. Catharines ON (Oct 27)
How to Motivate Yourself and Others: The Business of Motivational Psychology in
1970s Corporate America. Invited talk at History and Theory of Psychology
Colloquium Series, York University, Toronto ON (Jan 14)

Workshop presentations
2016

Motivating the Self: Corporate Psychological Testing, 1960-1990. Business History

Conference Doctoral Colloquium, Portland OR (Mar 30)

2015

Manager as Motivator: Motivation Training Seminars in 1970s American

Corporations. Centre for the Study of the United States Graduate Student
Workshop, University of Toronto (Oct 27)
Managing the Self: Corporate Psychological Testing, 1960-90. Montreal Summer
School in the History of Science and Economics, Montreal, QC (Jul 14-19)

2013

Testing Temperament at Work: Human Relations, Labor Relations and Industrial

Psychology in Interwar America. Centre for the Study of the United States
Graduate Student Workshop, University of Toronto (Oct. 30)
Grappling with Eugenics: Psychiatry and the Politics of Prevention at the 1930
International Congress on Mental Hygiene. Eugenics in North America Workshop,
University of Toronto (May 9)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Course Instructor
2017-18

Making Up People: History of 20th-Century Psychology, IHPST

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Teaching Assistant (University of Toronto)
2016

History of Evolutionary Biology, IHPST

Leading Across Differences, Rotman School of Management
Bioethics, Philosophy Department, University of Toronto Scarborough

2015

Head Teaching Assistant, Science of Human Nature, IHPST

2014

Science of Human Nature, IHPST

2013

History of Evolutionary Biology, IHPST

2012

Writing Clinic Advisor, IHPST

2011

Scientific Revolutions, IHPST

PROFESSIONAL & PUBLIC SERVICE

2015-

Affiliated Researcher, Technoscience Research Unit

2013-15

President, IHPST Graduate Student Course Union

2012-15

Production Editor, Spontaneous Generations: A Journal for the History and

Philosophy of Science

2013-14

Mentor, History of Toronto Public Health Mentoring Project

2012-13

Graduate Student Representative, IHPST Curriculum Committee

2011-15

Associate, University of Toronto Scientific Instrument Collection

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Canadian Business History Association
Forum for the History of Human Sciences, History of Science Society
Organization of American Historians
Society for the History of Psychology, American Psychological Association
Society for the Social Studies of Science
Technoscience Research Unit
Updated January 2017

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