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, IHPST, University of Toronto

Collaborative program in Book History and Print Culture

2010 BA (Hon.), History, McGill University

First Class Honours with Distinction

PUBLICATIONS

Journal publications

2017 Managing Intuition. Article in invited roundtable, Management Theory after

Organization Man Business History Review 90, no. 4: 708-718.

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, no.
3: 312-313.

Articles under review

Testing Temperament in Interwar American Corporations. Revise and Resubmit from History of
Psychology (Submitted 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)

Online publications

2016 The Manager as Motivator: Ernest Dichters Top Man Training Seminars. Hagley
Research News (February 19)

2015 Motivated or Manipulated? Ernest Dichter and David McClelland at Work.

Hidden Persuaders Blog (December 8)
 KIRA LUSSIER

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 Grant, Institute for New Economic Thinking ($2,500)

2016-17 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection Grant, with
Michelle Murphy, Bretton Fosbrook and Justin Douglas ($10,200)

2016-17 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)

2015-16 Grant-in-Aid, Rockefeller Archive Center ($2,000)

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 Humanities Institute Junior Fellowship ($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

2017 Co-organizer, Techniques of the Corporation Conference, Toronto, ON (May 4-6).

With Michelle Murphy, Justin Douglas, and Bretton Fosbrook.

Conference presentations

!2
 KIRA LUSSIER

2017 Intuition, Automation, and the Corporation: Debates over Artificial Intelligence in
Corporate America, 1970-1990. Society for the History of Technology,
Pennsylvania PA (Oct 26-29)

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)

There Is an I in Team: The Psychological Training Seminar as Corporate

Technique. Techniques of the Corporation, Toronto, ON (May 4-6)

Big in Japan: Circulations of Management Techniques and the Myers-Briggs Type

Indicator Between America and Japan. Organization of American Historians, New
Orleans, LA (Apr 6-9)

2016 Big in Japan: Management, Psychology, and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
in Japan, 1970-90. Histories of Capitalism Conference, Cornell (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).
Panel organizer, Non-Scientific Management in a Turbulent World, 1960-90

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)
Panel organizer, From Bedrooms to Boardrooms.

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)

Emotions at Work: Testing Temperament in Interwar American Corporations,

!3
 KIRA LUSSIER

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

2017 The Irrational Actor: Decision-Making Research at the Boundaries of Economics

and Psychology Invited talk at 14th History of Economics as History of Science
Workshop, Cachan, France (June 23)

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
!4
 KIRA LUSSIER

Responsible for course & syllabus design

2017-18 Topics in the History of Science: Making Up People, IHPST

Teaching Assistant (University of Toronto)

Responsible for planning & leading tutorials, grading, and course administration

2017 History of Evolutionary Biology, IHPST

2016 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- 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 May 2017

!5