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Professor Katherine Marino wins OAH Lerner-Scott Prize

April 14, 2014

Professor Katherine Marino wins OAH Lerner-Scott Prize

Katherine M. Marino, Ohio State University, was awarded with the 2014 Lerner-Scott Prize for the best doctoral dissertation in US women’s history.

The Organization of American Historians' press release read, "Marino’s work, “La Vanguardia Feminista: Pan-American Feminism and the Rise of International Women's Rights, 1915-1946” (Stanford University dissertation; advisor Estelle B. Freedman), is a remarkably original contribution. Truly transnational in approach, Katherine Marino’s dissertation engages US women’s history, the history of feminism and social movements in the Americas, and the history of human rights, putting these literatures in conversation to reveal the transformative effects of women’s transnational activism. Marino tells her story largely through the experiences of six women, including Doris Stevens, whom US historians will know mainly as a suffragist and activist in the National Woman’s Party. Drawing on archival sources from four countries, Marino explores differences and commonalities among Pan-American feminist agendas, showing how US feminism looks different through a transnational lens. Arguing persuasively for the transcendent significance of her story, Marino demonstrates the signal influence of interwar feminists in shaping the United Nations at its founding moment and laying the groundwork for later understandings of women's rights and human rights—while also establishing a precedent for envisaging women's rights as human rights. Impressively researched and beautifully written, "La Vanguardia Feminista" is a sophisticated and nuanced work that deserves a wide readership."

 

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORIANS

Founded in 1907, the OAH is the largest learned society and professional organization dedicated to the teaching and study of the American past. The OAH promotes excellence in the scholarship, teaching, and presentation of American history, and encourages wide discussion of historical questions and equitable treatment of all practitioners of history. Members in the United States and abroad include college and university professors, students, precollegiate teachers, archivists, museum curators, and other public historians employed in government and the private sector.