This seminar will identify major themes in U.S. history with a particular eye towards the decades-long suffrage movement. We will trace the emergence of feminist ideas from the margins of democratic thought to the center of modern political discourse and culture, and examine the ways that women's voices have been collected and commemorated in museums, monuments, and public history, most recently in the 2020 centennial celebrations of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.

Presenter: Monica L. Mercado is Assistant Professor of History at Colgate University, affiliated with the programs in Museum Studies and Women's Studies. She has worked as a curator, researcher, and college educator for twenty years, and is particularly interested in the ways that the histories of women are represented in the U.S. museums, archives and public monuments.