First-Year Seminars 110GP - Gender and Power in the History of Mount Holyoke College

Mary Lyon, founder in 1837 of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, held out to her students the possibility that they might transform the world around them -- a tall order for young women who were excluded from proper citizenship and political power. Duty, discipline, and economy would make it possible. What transformations ensued? And what can we learn from them about the complexities of gender and power in worlds shaped by racism, colonialism, capitalist development, national aspirations, Protestant dominance, and normative regimes of gender, sexuality, and bodily comportment? This course will introduce students to the richness of the College Archives and the possibilities of historical thinking.

Mount Holyoke first-year students only, by placement.