Utica, N.Y. — Renowned women’s history scholar Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner will speak at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7 at Oneida County History Center, 1608 Genesee St., Utica, discussing how women of the Haudenosaunee people in upstate New York influenced the women’s suffrage movement. This lecture is free and open to the public, but donations are encouraged.
What inspired the suffragists to think they could create a world where women could be agents of their own being? Wagner will share how the surprising answer may lie with the sovereign women of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy of six nations (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora) in upstate New York, who showed their settler neighbors how a society that empowered women worked.
This lecture is part of the humanities discussion series, “A New Agora for New York: Museums as Spaces for Democracy,” that includes the Smithsonian’s traveling exhibition, “Voices and Votes: Democracy in America” currently on view at Munson in the Museum of Art Root Court in downtown Utica, and “An Essential Feature of Democracy: Lucy Carlile Watson,” on view at the History Center until Dec 13th.
Wagner is a major historian of the suffrage movement and the founding director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation. She was awarded one of the first doctorates in the country for work in women’s studies at the University of California Santa Cruz, and she has appeared on CNN, several PBS documentaries, and BBC. Her articles have appeared in numerous publications including “Ms. Magazine,” “USA Today,” and “Northeast Indian Quarterly,” and her books include “The Women’s Suffrage Movement” (Penguin Classics), and “We Want Equal Rights: How Suffragists Were Influenced by Native American Women” (7th Generation). Wagner has taught women’s studies courses for 53 years, currently in Syracuse University’s Honors Program.
“The History Center is excited to collaborate with Munson and Dr. Wagner to showcase local contributions and influences on the women’s suffrage movement and civic engagement,” said History Center Executive Director Rebecca McLain. “It is an honor to work across disciplines with these talented individuals. We encourage the public to visit both sites and hope they are inspired to learn more about their local and national history.”
Visit oneidacountyhistory.org for more information about this lecture and the exhibit “An Essential Feature of Democracy: Lucy Carlile Watson.” Learn more about “Voices and Votes” at agoranewyork.org, and view the full schedule of related programming and events happening at Munson at munson.art.
