This Land is Herland: Gendered Activism in Oklahoma

 University of Oklahoma, Norman

October 22-24 (in-person)

November 6-7, 2021 (in-person)

Scholars:

Sarah Eppler Janda, PhD, Cameron University

Patti Loughlin, PhD, University of Central Oklahoma

 This seminar considers the ways in which gender and activism have converged in Oklahoma. This Land is Herland (University of Oklahoma Press, 2021) is a new contributed volume coedited by Sarah Eppler Janda and Patti Loughlin featuring thirteen activists in Oklahoma from the 1870s to the 2010s. From Kate Barnard to Rachel Caroline Eaton to Clara Luper to LaDonna Harris, we will discuss the ways in which their work and legacy connect to larger themes in western women’s history including intersectionality, suffrage, political campaigns, civil rights, and tribal sovereignty. This course will also explore the ‘story’ of women’s lives and activism by examining how women’s experiences are articulated—whether they are celebrated, silenced, reimagined, or critically evaluated. We will look at who tells the stories, what information and sources are used, and what the ‘making’ of women activists reveals about both the past and present.

• Enrollment through your home campus
• OSLEP provides all required reading materials at no additional cost - NO books to buy!

Sarah Eppler Janda is Professor of History at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma. She is the author of Beloved Women: The Political Lives of LaDonna Harris and Wilma Mankiller (Northern Illinois University Press, 2007), Pride of the Wichitas: A History of Cameron University (Oklahoma Heritage Association, 2010), and Prairie Power: Student Activism, Counterculture, and Backlash in Oklahoma, 1962–1972 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018). She is an active member of the Coalition for Western Women’s History, the Western History Association, and the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians.

Patti Loughlin is Professor of History at the University of Central Oklahoma. Her publications include Hidden Treasures of the American West: Muriel H. Wright, Angie Debo and Alice Marriott (University of New Mexico Press, 2005), Building Traditions, Educating Generations: A History of the University of Central Oklahoma (Oklahoma Heritage Association, 2007) with Bob Burke, and Main Street Oklahoma: An American Story (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013) coedited by Linda Reese. Her book Angie Debo, Daughter of the Prairie (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Hall of Fame, 2017), received the 2018 Oklahoma Book Award for children/young adult. Patti serves on the Oklahoma Historical Society board of directors, and remains active in the Coalition for Western Women’s History and the Western History Association.

Janda and Loughlin coedited This Land is Herland: Gendered Activism in Oklahoma from the 1870s to the 2010s (University of Oklahoma Press, 2021). Currently they are writing an Oklahoma history textbook for statewide adoption in high schools for the University of Oklahoma Press.