Biography

Elizabeth "Betsy" Loyd was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1979. As a young girl, Betsy spent many summers in Bay View, Michigan, and enjoyed the cultural life of the permanent Chautauqua there. These experiences spurred her interest in the Chautauqua movement in the United States, and led to her intellectual engagement with this historical topic. Betsy was educated in Michigan and earned a Bachelor's degree in American Studies from Colby Colelge, Waterville, Miane, where she studied woulded veterans' homecoming after WWII and Vietnam. After graduating, Betsy taught at a boarding school in Maine for three years. In August 2004 Betsy started her doctoral studies in American Studies at The University of Iowa, where she interned and volunteered at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Museum and Library in West Branch, and the Theatre Museum of Repertoire Americana in Mt. Pleasant. It was when Betsy encountered the Records of the Redpath Chautauqua Collection at The University of Iowa Special Collections and University Archives that she reflected on her childhood experiences and decided to write her dissertation about the Chautauqua movement. After course work she traveled across the United States to archives and the remaining permanent Chauauquas, where she collected oral histories with people about these community institutions. In the spring of 2011, Betsy defended her American Studies dissertation titled "Same Place Next Summer: Permanent Chautauquas and the Performance of Middle-Class Identity." Since 2010, Dr. Betsy Loyd Harvey and her husband, Kol Harvey, have been living in Geneva, Switzerland, where Betsy teaches at an international school.

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