During the Winter 2015 semester, Dr. Ann-Marie Nicolosi (History) led a group of students on a tour through London rightfully named “Documenting Women’s History: Comparing the US and British Suffrage Movements.” Cecilia Colbeth, program coordinator for the WGS department, joined and this course even teamed up with a British Theatre and Literature course led by two English professors. Here we find out from Dr. Nicolosi what her students studied and what the mission of the trip was:
Jack: What were the students assigned to focus on? Did they have a central project? What is the curriculum like?
Dr. Nicolosi: The core of the class was learning about the influences of the British Suffrage Movement on the US Suffrage Movement. Experiences included visits to museums to see artifacts and memorabilia from the movement, walking tours highlighting the movement and archival research in the Women’s Library at the London School of Economics. Assignments included four papers: two document analysis papers (using the material from the archive), an experiential paper in which students discuss how their research and experiences helped them to understand the significance of both the British and US movements, and an analytical paper in which students discuss the relationship between the two movements.
Jack: Why was it important to conduct this course in this country and this city?
Dr. Nicolosi: It was important to be in London in order to see the places where significant events in the movement occurred and to conduct research at the Women’s Library.
One of the students on the trip, Katherine Burke, senior History and Secondary Education double major, shares her thought-provoking experiences. As a future teacher, she will be sure to take this knowledge into the classroom.
Jack: What one experience did you have on this trip that made you realize how big the world is?
Katherine: I realized how big the world was — or more accurately how old the world is — when we were walking in and around buildings that were older than the United States. Signs all over London detail that this or that building, pub, or store was rebuilt in 1666, or the year of the “Great Fire.” The density of history in both London and Stratford-Upon-Avon both amazed and humbled me. As a future history teacher, I know that many students receive two years of US history, while the rest of the world is lumped into one year of “World” history. Considering the amazing amount of history I saw and was able to physically handle in England, I cannot even imagine learning the entire history of that great nation in anything less than a decade.
Jack: Why did you feel it was important to study what you did in London specifically?
Katherine: I feel that it is important to study women’s suffrage because of the important connotations this movement has upon our world and our life today. While history textbooks in high schools always say that American women were “given” the right to vote in 1920 and British women were “given” full enfranchisement in 1928, but that is very clearly not the case.
We also visited the Women’s Library in the London School of Economics to work with artifacts and documents dating from the movement. Being able to hold and handle pamphlets, pictures, newspapers, and diaries from very real suffragists and suffragettes made the history much more real and emotional. These women had lives, jobs, responsibilities and yet put everything on hold to fight for something they truly believed in. It hammered home that the right to vote is dearly fought and even more dearly won, and that each person able to vote in this country should do so.
Story and Interview by Jack Meyers
Photos Courtesy of Dr. Nicolosi