March 29, 2024

GREAT LIVES: Cooper & Du Bois were the social justice warriors of their time (The Free Lance-Star)

Marsh Pens Editorial on Anna Julia Cooper and W. E. B. DuBois for ‘Great Lives’ Lecture

Kristin Marsh, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Kristin Marsh, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Professor of Sociology Kristin Marsh penned an editorial on authors and Black rights activists Anna Julia Cooper and W. E. B. DuBois in The Free Lance-Star in advance of her “Great Lives” lecture on Feb. 23. View the lecture here.

AT THE TURN of the 20th century, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868–1963) was one of the most renowned social justice intellectuals in the U.S. He helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), edited its popular journal, The Crisis, and established the first School of Sociology at Atlanta University.

Toward an empirically grounded critical race theory, the DuBoisian school examined the extensive institutional and interpersonal racism facing African Americans. Du Bois was a staunch supporter of liberal education for blacks at a time when whites favored the vocational education advocated by Booker T. Washington.

Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (1858–1964) was as fully engaged in public debates surrounding racial uplift as was Du Bois. An educator herself, Cooper led the M Street High School for blacks in Washington, D.C., where she insisted on providing students with the best college preparatory curriculum available. Read more.

Dynamic Decade: Women’s and Gender Studies Program Turns 10

Six years after graduating from the University of Mary Washington, Sam Carter ’14 still draws daily on some of the lessons she learned as an undergrad. “Everyone has a different cultural experience,” said Carter, a Women’s and Gender Studies major who’s now a digital director for the House Budget Committee majority staff. “It’s important that […]

Dynamic Decade: Women’s and Gender Studies Program Turns 10

UMW students listen as Women’s and Gender Studies faculty and alums gather together to celebrate the program’s 10th anniversary. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

UMW students listen as Women’s and Gender Studies faculty and alums gather together to celebrate the program’s 10th anniversary. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

Six years after graduating from the University of Mary Washington, Sam Carter ’14 still draws daily on some of the lessons she learned as an undergrad.

“Everyone has a different cultural experience,” said Carter, a Women’s and Gender Studies major who’s now a digital director for the House Budget Committee majority staff. “It’s important that we understand that.”

Carter was back on campus yesterday to celebrate the program’s 10th anniversary. Through this interdisciplinary major, students explore the intersections of gender, race, class, ethnicity and sexual orientation to gain an understanding of the breadth of human experience. Graduates use the perspectives they acquire in the classroom to inform careers in such fields as media, law, health, education and social work, and to influence and inspire future generations. Read more. 

Marsh Speaks About Suffrage Movement on 19th Amendment Anniversary

Kristin Marsh, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Kristin Marsh, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Kristin Marsh, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, spoke at the League of Women Voters of the Fredericksburg Area meeting at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library Monday in celebration of Women’s Equality Day. It honors the anniversary of the date when the 19th Amendment, which prohibits states and the federal government from denying the right to vote on the basis of sex, became official.

Marsh discussed how the women’s movement occurred in three waves, beginning with the suffrage movement in the 1920s, and continuing with the push for Equal Rights in the late 1960s and 1970s, who fought and won access to law school, medical school and academia, resulting in half of Ph.D.s being women. Their daughters and students began the third wave. Marsh noted that since 1980, more women have cast ballots than men, and she discussed the forecast for women voters in next year’s presidential election. “All predictions are that in 2020, the turnout is going to be even higher.”

Read more. 

Fredericksburg’s League of Women Voters celebrates Women’s Equality Day (The Free Lance-Star)