2020 marks the national centennial of the 19th Amendment. The history of the women's suffrage movement in New York State and the nation spanned seventy years, from the 1848 meeting convened by Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Seneca Falls to the tactics wielded by Alice Paul, and includes overlooked stories and contributors such as the African-American suffragists. This reading and discussion program includes six texts that provide a window into this chapter of American social progress. These readings, which participants will study over the course of twelve weeks, will act as a springboard into the ongoing discussion of women's — and by extension, our society's — past, present, and future.
Participants will meet every two weeks in Deyo Hall (6 Broadhead Avenue), starting on Wednesday, February 5th from 4:00 – 5:00 PM, to discuss the most recently assigned text and engage in meaningful dialogue about women’s rights. Discussions will be led by Dr. Susan Ingalls Lewis, a SUNY New Paltz Professor Emerita of History who taught courses in New York State History, American Women's History, and American Social and Cultural History, as well as Women’s Studies. Dr. Lewis received her B.A. from Wellesley College with High Honors in Art History and her Ph.D. in American History from Binghamton University. Her publications include The Power of Art, an Art Appreciation textbook co-authored with her husband Richard and now in its third edition (Wadsworth, 2013), and Unexceptional Women: Female Proprietors in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Albany, New York, 1835-1885 (Ohio State University Press, 2009), winner of the Hagley Prize for the best book published in the field of business history. In 2007-2008, she was named Liberal Arts & Sciences (LA & S) Teacher of the Year and in 2011 she won an Excellence in Scholarship Award from LA & S.
All texts provided; for a full list of dates and topic discussion, click below.
Free and open to the public.
This program is possible thanks to the support of Humanities New York. Humanities New York encourages critical thinking and cultural understanding in the public arena through grants, programs, networking, and advocacy. Visit humanitiesny.org to learn more.
Any view, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.