Phillips Library at Mount St. Mary’s University is one of 25 libraries nationwide selected to participate in Let’s Talk About It (LTAI): Women’s Suffrage, an American Library Association (ALA) grant designed to spark conversations about American history and culture through an examination of the women’s suffrage movement.
The competitive award comes with a $1,000 stipend to support programming costs and ten copies of five books covering the women’s suffrage theme. According to the ALA, more than 100 libraries applied for the opportunity. LTAI: Women’s Suffrage is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“We can’t wait to get started on this discussion project,” said Phillips Library Director Jessica J. Boyer, C’16. “The topic of women’s suffrage is not often examined closely, and there is no one better than Dr. Michelle Patterson to lead our discussions. Congratulations to our program’s cofacilitator Emily Holland, student success librarian, on her success in obtaining this prestigious grant.”
The program begins on Wednesday, March 9 at 5 p.m. in the library’s Father Redmond Room and via Zoom. Associate Professor of History Michelle Patterson, Ph.D., along with Emily Holland, will help bring The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote to life with insight and discussion. The subsequent discussions are all led by Patterson and Holland and are scheduled for the following Wednesdays at 5 p.m.: April 20, May 18, July 6 and July 27.
Patterson’s classes at the Mount are on U.S. women's history to 1877, U.S. women's history since 1877, African American women's history, and Native American history.
For more information on programming and to register, visit the library’s website. The program is open to the entire Mount community including alumni and the public. Current Mount students are being given first priority in receiving copies of the books to keep.
As part of the grant, Phillips Library will receive the books being discussed:
Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2022, Let’s Talk About It is a reading and discussion program that involves groups of people reading a series of books selected by national project scholars and discussing them in the context of an overarching theme.