Elisabeth Perry will deliver a 50 minute illustrated biographical presentation entitled "The Political Apprenticeship of Eleanor Roosevelt." According to Professor Perry, "This talk elaborates an aspect of a great American citizen's life that that is perhaps not well known to the general public." Integrating slides into her talk, Dr. Perry will explore the emergence of Eleanor Roosevelt into a prominent place among women's political networks in the United States prior to her husband's election as Governor of New York. "Eleanor established not only enduring friendships and contacts in this network but found in it opportunities for leadership independent of anything her husband had yet done in politics." This is the period of Eleanor Roosevelt's political apprenticeship, which "prepared her wonderfully for her roles as First Lady and later as United Nations' delegate and advocate." This program promises to be especially interesting given contemporary discussions of the appropriate role of First Ladies in American political life.
Elisabeth Perry earned her B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to joining the faculty at St. Louis University where she is now Professor of History, she taught at the California State University/Long Beach, SUNY/Buffalo, the University of Iowa, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Hartford, CUNY/Brooklyn College, Sarah Lawrence College, and Vanderbilt University.
Professor Perry is the author and editor of a number of books and essays, including: Women in Action: Rebels and Reformers, 1920-1980 (1995), The Challenge of Feminist Biography: Writing the Lives of Modern American Women (1992), Belle Moskowitz: Feminine Politics and the Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith (1987), "Training in Public Life: Eleanor Roosevelt and Women's Political Networks in New York in the 1920s," in Without Precedent: The Life and Career of Eleanor Roosevelt (1984), "Women's Political Choices After Suffrage: The Women's City Club of New York, 1915-Present," New York History (1990). In addition, Professor Perry has received numerous scholarly honors, including a Fullbright grant, and research grants from several prestigious academic institutions.