Niagara University’s department of history and women’s studies program will host Mary Brennan-Taylor, vice president of programs at the YWCA of the Niagara Frontier, on Thursday, Nov. 9, for a presentation on “Alice Paul the Suffrage Militants.”
This event will take place from 5-6:30 p.m. in Dunleavy Hall, Room 127. It is free and is open to the public.
“We are delighted that Mary will talk about her friendship with Alice Paul,” said Dr. Shannon Risk, associate professor of history at NU. “So often we think (of) historic figures as one-dimensional, but through the process of biography, we realize that we have a lot in common with those of the past.”
Brennan-Taylor will discuss her friendship with suffragist Alice Paul in the 1970s. Paul was the leader of the National Woman’s Party and author of the Equal Rights Amendment. Paul and her colleagues were arrested for protesting and thrown into jail. They were force-fed when they went on a hunger strike to protest the fact that the U.S. was fighting for democracy abroad, but American women lacked the right to vote.
A serious study of history allows us to learn from the mistakes of the past, to understand other cultures and peoples, and to gain new perspectives on the past, present and future, Dr. Risk said. Niagara’s women’s studies program uses an interdisciplinary framework to analyze the historical, economic, political, social, and cultural experiences of women, and offers critical tools for analytical inquiry into the lives of women through the use of “gender lens.”
For more information about the “Alice Paul and The Suffrage Militants” event, please contact Dr. Risk at srisk@niagara.edu.