Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner to Speak at ESF Convocation

Wagner is executive director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation
4/20/2009

SYRACUSE Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, a nationally recognized lecturer, author and performance interpreter of women's rights history, will be the guest speaker at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestrys (ESF) convocation ceremony May 9.

ESFs convocation will be at 1 p.m., Saturday, May 9, at the Landmark Theatre, 362 S. Salina St. Bachelors, masters and doctoral degree candidates will be honored. On Sunday, May 10, joint commencement exercises with SU will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Carrier Dome.

Wagner, executive director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in Fayetteville, is one of the first women to receive a doctorate in the United States for work in women's studies. She earned the degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She is a founder of one of the first college women's studies programs at California State University at Sacramento. Wagner has taught in women's studies for 39 years and currently serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Honors Program at Syracuse University.

Wagner appeared in the Ken Burns PBS documentary, "Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony," for which she wrote the accompanying faculty guide for PBS. She was also a historian in the PBS special, "One Woman, One Vote" and has been interviewed several times on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" and "Democracy Now."

The author of numerous books and articles, Wagners work has focused on telling the untold stories. Her monograph, She Who Holds the Sky: Matilda Joslyn Gage, reveals a suffragist written out of history because of her stand against religious fundamentalism 100 years ago, while Sisters in Spirit: Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Early American Feminists documents the influence of native women on early women's rights activists.