INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Humanities has awarded research fellowships to four Hoosier scholars from Bloomington to South Bend to examine and unearth new stories about Indiana women’s participation in local, state and national politics in advance of the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote.
The May Wright Sewall Fellowships, named after one of Indiana’s most significant suffrage activists, commemorate the centennial of the 19th Amendment in 2020 by illuminating the accomplishments and difficulties women of different backgrounds and means faced politically before, during and after 1920.
A new traveling exhibit and a speakers bureau are among the other components of group’s work. Eleven talks, ranging from the role of working-class women in the suffrage movement to the status of women in elected office today, are available to be booked for events in 2020. Interested organizations can peruse the available talks and book a speaker at http://indianasuffrage100.org/resources/. The deadline to apply to host a speaker is Nov. 1. The website also includes information about how to book the exhibit.
For the research fellowships, Indiana Humanities has awarded $2,500 each to:
• Hilary Fleck, collections manager for the Monroe County History Center.
• Anita Morgan, senior lecturer of history at IUPUI.
• Jamie Wagman, associate professor and chair of history and gender and women’s studies at Saint Mary’s College.
• Laura Merrifield Wilson, assistant professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis
For more information about the fellows’ research projects and their academic backgrounds, go to http://indianasuffrage100.org/news/.