Wendy Rouse

Wendy Rouse

The University Scholar Series for fall 2019 will continue on Nov. 13 The event will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library Room 225/229. The series is free and open to the public, with a light lunch provided.

Her Own Hero: The Origins of the Women’s Self-Defense Movement, 1890-1920

Associate Professor of History Wendy Rouse will present her research on the history of women and children in the Progressive Era during the final University Scholar Series talk of the semester. She will be discussing her latest book, Her Own Hero: The Origins of the Women’s Self-Defense Movement, 1890-1920. The book explores the way in which the proliferation of women’s self defense during the Progressive Era helped to debunk patriarchal myths about feminine weakness.

Her research has focused on methods of teaching history as well as women and children in the Progressive era, and she has penned a chapter on film portrayals of women’s suffrage for Hollywood or History? An Inquiry-Based Strategy for Using Film to Teach U.S. History and a journal article on Chinese exclusion and resistance published in Teaching History: A Journal of Methods. She is currently working on a project that examines the lives of queer suffragists in preparation of the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 2020.

Rouse has doctorate in American History from University of California, Davis, a master’s in history and archaeology from California State University, Sacramento, as well as a bachelor’s in history from CSU Sacramento.

The series is hosted by Provost Vincent Del Casino, and sponsored by the Academic Affairs Division, the Spartan Bookstore and the University Library.