A look at women’s political history in Arizona will kick off this fall’s Humanities Lecture Series, monthly discussions hosted by the School of Letters and Sciences that will focus this semester on topics related to the fall elections.
Heidi Osselaer, who has a doctorate in history, will be speaking at the lecture on Thursday about her book, “Winning Their Place: Arizona Women in Politics, 1883-1950,” which describes the history of politically active women in Arizona and national politics.
“We tend to think of women as not (having) accomplished much,” Osselaer said. “It took them awhile to move up the ranks from county offices to the executive (positions) after the modern women’s movement.”
During her lecture, “Women and Politics in Arizona,” Osselaer will cover the women’s suffrage movement.
“This is about Arizonan women who were pioneers (and) who served in the state legislature and courts,” Osselaer said. “It is vastly important to downtown (Phoenix) because it is such a rich part of its history.”
Following Osselaer’s discussion, Associate Dean Kristen Gilger and a News21 student panel in October, will discuss the Voting Rights Project, which was a nationwide investigation into voter’s rights.
Professor Doris Marie Provine, who is studying immigration policy and researching how local police are responding to federal immigration enforcement, will speak Nov. 8 on “Arizona Policies on Unauthorized Immigration.”
“The Arizona state legislature and Phoenix have not been on the same page in regards to immigration,” Covine said. “Students who stay here (full time) will feel the direct effects of Arizona’s immigration policy.”
The lectures are part of ASU’s Project Humanities and began in 2007, according to Mirna Lattouf, School of Letters and Sciences Honors Disciplinary Faculty member.
“The lecture series is meant to focus on how the humanities are a part of our lives; how they inform us about us,” Lattouf said. “We wanted to reach out to the community at large and become more embedded in it.”
Each semester the lectures, and those speaking at them, have built their discussions around a unified theme. Previous lectures have covered African-American political artists, sex and drugs in the entertainment industry and political corruption in Arizona politics.
Each lecture, which will take place in the Nursing and Health Innovation II building, room 110, is free and open to the public.
Contact the reporter at john.nussbaum@asu.edu.
