The University of Scranton Sponsors Third Conference on Women and History in NEPA

Feb 22, 2011

             “Women’s History in NEPA: So What?” will be the keynote topic presented at the Third Biennial Conference on Women and History in Northeastern Pennsylvania coming to The University of Scranton on Saturday, March 5. The conference, which will take place on the fifth floor of Brennan Hall on campus, is open to the public.

            Linda Shopes, associate fellow in history at Dickinson College, and faculty member at the Oral History Institute at Columbia University, will deliver the keynote address. Affiliated as a historian with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission for 17 years, Shopes has overseen the development of programs and research initiatives that have made, and continue to make, a significant contribution to our understanding of state history.

            “This is a remarkable and unusual regional conference that has united five counties in Northeast Pennsylvania in shared research of local women’s history,” said Josephine M. Dunn, Ph.D., conference founder and organizer and professor of art history at The University of Scranton. “There is no other initiative like it in the state. The growing body of knowledge on women’s history in our region has excited all who have attended the conference; and those who have presented in the past conferences, in many cases, have inspired those of us who are continuing their leads on such topics as women artists, suffrage and the history of nursing in Scranton.”

            The conference begins at 9 a.m. on March 5 with a welcome and opening remarks by Dr. Dunn. Morning presentations will include “Suffrage in Wilkes-Barre, 1913-1915” by Susan Gilroy-King, adjunct faculty member of Luzerne County Community College; “The Visiting Nurse Association of Scranton” by Marian Farrell, Ph.D., professor of nursing at The University of Scranton; “Lady Poets of The Century Club of Scranton” by Gemma Williams, a 2009 graduate of The University of Scranton; and “Art in Early 20th-Century Scranton” by Dr. Dunn.

            A buffet luncheon, presented in 1920s style to honor the enactment of the 19th Amendment, will take place at noon, preceded by Shopes’s keynote address.

            Topics to be presented during the afternoon include “Mary Liberatore of the Clayton-Liberatore Gallery, NYC” by Darlene Miller-Lanning, Ph.D., director of the Hope Horn Gallery at The University of Scranton; and “Miss Jennie Brownscombe, Artist” by Sally Talaga, director of the Wayne County Historical Society.

            The conference concludes at 3 p.m. with a reception in the University’s Hope Horn Gallery on the fourth floor of Hyland Hall, Jefferson Avenue and Linden Street. Conference participants will view the paintings of Jennie Brownscombe and receive a complimentary catalog of the exhibit.

            The Biennial Conference on Women and History in Northeastern Pennsylvania was founded in 2007 by Dr. Dunn. The objective was to create a forum for presentation and discussion of current research on women’s history in a region of Pennsylvania that has seen little study on the subject. The conference is supported by a bequest from Hope Horn.

            For more information, call (570) 941-4016. The lectures are free and open to the public and do not require reservations. There is a $10 fee to attend the luncheon, which requires a reservation. The luncheon reservation deadline is Tuesday, March 1. 


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