Infinite Women

Dr. Beth Hubble, professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Montana, tells us about 14th century Italian-French writer, philosopher and feminist Christine de Pizan.Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Beth-Hubble-on-Christine-de-Pizan-transcript.pdf

Dr Kate Culkin, author of Emerson’s Daughters: Ellen Tucker Emerson, Edith Emerson Forbes, and Their Family Legacy, introduces us to the sisters and their mother, Lidian Jackson Emerson.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Kate-Culkin-on-the-Emerson-women-transcript.pdf

Magda Keaney, Head Curator of International Art at the National Gallery of Australia, and former Senior Curator Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery London, joins us to discuss the work of photographer Francesca Woodman. The NGA recently purchased a work by Woodman called Blueprints for a Temple (II) that is on display now through the end of January 2027. https://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/blueprints-for-temples/Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Magda-Keaney-on-Francesca-Woodman-transcript.pdf

Melissa Chim, a librarian from Excelsior University, tells us about Hannah Cullwick, an 1800s maid of all work in the UK and how her unconventional marriage highlights the era's power dynamics and other realities life for working class women of the time. Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Melissa-Chim-on-Hannah-Cullwick-transcript.pdf

Lucy Haigh, a PhD student in history at the University of Sheffield, tells us about Alexandra of Denmark - Danish princess, British queen, fashion icon and multiply disabled woman.Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Lucy-Haigh-on-Alexandra-of-Denmark-transcript.pdf

Dr. Whitney Dirks, author of Monstrosity, Bodies, and Knowledge in Early Modern England, tells us about 1600s Englishwoman Mary Herring and her conjoined twin daughters, Aquila and Priscilla.Get the book: https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789462986671/monstrosity-bodies-and-knowledge-in-early-modern-englandRead the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr.-Whitney-Dirks-on-Mary-Herring-and-her-daughters-transcript.pdf

Author Gigi Berardi's latest novel, Bianca’s Cure, reimagines the story of Renaissance Italian noblewoman Bianca Capello. We discuss fact vs fiction and the lines between alchemy and science.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Gigi-Berardi-on-Bianca-Capello-transcript-.pdf

Dr Jill Inderstrodt, a Research Scientist at Regenstrief Institute, joins us to talk about the intersections of technology and maternal health.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Jill-Inderstrodt-on-maternal-health-and-data-science-transcript.pdf

Dr Jill Hasday, a distinguished professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, joins us to discuss her book We the Men: How Forgetting Women's Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality.Get the book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/we-the-men-9780197800805Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Jill-Hasday-on-how-forgetting-womens-struggles-for-equality-perpetuates-inequality-transcript.pdf

Lydia Reeder, who regular listeners may recall from our episode on the revolutionary Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, returns to tell us about the women from her first book, Dust Bowl Girls: The Inspiring Story of the Team That Barnstormed Its Way to Basketball Glory.Get the book: https://lydiareeder.com/dust-bowl-girls-overview/Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Lydia-Reeder-on-Dust-Bowl-Girls-transcript.pdf

Dr Rebecca Wilkin and Dr Angela Hunter, have recently reconstructed Louise Dupin's Work on Women, which is now available in English for the first time thanks to their efforts and “presents an in-depth feminist treatise of the French Enlightenment, featuring an original claim about the modernity of gender inequality that informed the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Dupin's secretary.” Get the book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/louise-dupins-work-on-women-9780190090104Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Rebecca-Wilkin-and-Dr-Angela-Hunter-on-Louise-Dupins-Work-on-Women-transcript.pdf

Dr Mary Spongberg, Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research at Southern Cross University, discusses how to fight entrenched biases in institutional settings, with a focus on on sexism in research, and how gender shapes who is studying what and how.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Mary-Spongberg-on-gender-bias-in-research-transcript.pdf

Dr Courtney Jarrett tells us about sharing the stories of incredible women from history and today through her children's book, Muncie Women A-Z.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Courtney-Jarrett-on-sharing-local-history-with-children-transcript.pdf

Cleo O'Callaghan Yeoman and Kate Ferrier, PhD candidates in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, tell us about Scottish author Susan Edmonstone Ferrier. Kate is also a distant relative of Susan’s.Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Cleo-OCallaghan-Yeoman-and-Kate-Ferrier-on-Susan-Edmonstone-Ferrier-transcript.pdf

Dr Vanessa R. Corcoran, a medieval historian and an advising dean at Georgetown University, joins us to discuss depictions of the Virgin Mary and how they reflect medieval society.Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Vanessa-R.-Corcoran-on-the-Virgin-Mary-in-medieval-art-transcript.pdf

Dr Zoë Burgess, Senior Research Fellow at the University of West London’s London School of Film, Media and Design and Film Curator at Wessex Film & Sound Archive. She tells us about her research into gender and class in the WFSA’s Amateur Film Collection, focusing on the early years of film from 1895 to 1950. Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Zoe-Burgess-on-mid-century-amateur-filmmakers-transcript.pdf

Dr Shaune Lakin, Senior Curator of Photography at the National Gallery of Australia, joins us to discuss Australian modernist photographer Olive Cotton. The exhibition "Olive Cotton and Her Contemporaries" (https://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/making-it-modern-olive-cotton-and-her-contemporaries/) will be at the Gippsland Art Gallery in Victoria through 22 February, then at Cowra Regional Art Gallery in New South Wales from 14 March to 10 May. Cotton’s work is also currently on display at the NGA as part of the "Women Photographers 1853–2018" (https://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/women-photographers/) collection display that will be up until 1 March 2026. Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Shaune-Lakin-on-Olive-Cotton-transcript.pdf

Dr Lisa Baer-Tsarfati joins us to discuss linguistic bias in artificial intelligence.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Lisa-Baer-Tsarfati-on-linguistic-gender-bias-in-AI-transcript.pdf

Dr. Beth Hubble, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies professor at the University of Montana, is back for round two! Regular listeners may recall that Beth previously joined us to talk about transgender histories, but her first love is French medieval literature. If you have listened to her first episode, she mentioned that she has a tattoo of a quote in old French - which she reads, and that is quite possibly the biggest nerd flex I’ve ever heard, and I talk to a lot of nerds. So she’s here to regale us with a more in-depth conversation about 12th-century poet Marie de France, the first named poet in old French, originator of her tattoo quote and the reason Beth has a crocheted werewolf wearing trans pants on her desk. Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Beth-Hubble-on-Marie-de-France-transcript-.pdf

Melissa Chim is the Scholarly Communications Librarian at Excelsior University in New York and co-author of the book Living Archives: A History of the Center for Christian Spirituality. She joins us to discuss influential priest Margaret Guenther and women's contributions to the Episcopal Church.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Melissa-Chim-on-Margaret-Guenther-and-the-Episcopalian-Church-transcript.pdf

Susan Abernethy is the author of Charles II's Portuguese Queen: The Legacy of Catherine of Braganza.Get the book: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Charles-IIs-Portuguese-Queen-by-Susan-Abernethy/9781036121648Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Susan-Abernethy-on-Catherine-of-Braganza-transcript.pdf

DeAnne Blanton is the co-author of They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War. DeAnne is also a retired reference archivist from the National Archives and Records Administration, where she worked for over 30 years and specialized in the Civil War and 19th century women’s history. Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/DeAnne-Blanton-on-women-in-the-US-Civil-War-transcript.pdf

Dr Victoria Wolcott, Professor of History and Director of the Gender Institute at the University at Buffalo. Dr. Wolcott is currently working on The Embodied Resistance of Eroseanna Robinson: Athleticism and Activism in the Cold War Era.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Victoria-Wolcott-on-Eroseanna-Robinson-transcript.pdf

Kristen Lopez is a journalist and author of the new book Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Disabled Representation in the Movies. Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Kristen-Lopez-on-disability-in-film.pdf

Terese Svoboda, author of the new book Hitler and My Mother-in-Law, shares the story of groundbreaking reporter, arts advocate and Svoboda's own mother-in-law, Patricia Hartwell.Get the book: https://orbooks.com/catalog/hitler-and-my-mother-in-law/Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Terese-Svoboda.pdf

Patricia Owens, Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and author of the new book, Erased: A History of International Thought Without Men, tells us about the women erased from the scholarship of international relations.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Patricia-Owens-on-the-erased-women-of-international-thought-transcript.pdf

Grace Beattie, creator, host and producer of Wicked Women: The Podcast, discusses how we perceive and depict famous women in real time and in retrospect.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Grace-Beattie-on-Wicked-Women-transcript.pdf

Biographer Lorissa Rinehart tells us about the U.S.’s first Congresswoman and the subject of her new book, Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress. Get the book: https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781250353047/Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Lorissa-Rinehart-on-Jeannette-Rankin-transcript.pdf

Dr. Doris Gutsmiedl-Schümann, co-Investigator for AktArcha, a project researching early female archaeologists from German-speaking areas, tells us about such women’s careers in archaeology, including as antiquarians, collectors, excavators, or museum workers.More about the project and various women's stories: https://aktarcha.hypotheses.org/Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr.-Doris-Gutsmiedl-Schumann-on-early-German-speaking-archaeologists-transcript.pdf

Dr Kimberly Voss, a professor of journalism at the Nicholson School of Communication and Media at the University of Central Florida. Her books include The Food Section: Newspaper Women and the Culinary Community, Politicking Politely: Well-Behaved Women Making a Difference in the 1960s and 1970s, Re-Evaluating Women’s Page Journalism in the Post-World War II Era: Celebrating Soft News, and Vivian Castleberry: Challenging the Traditions of Women’s Roles, Newspaper Content, and Community Politics.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Kimberly-Voss-on-women-in-US-journalism-in-the-1950s-and-60s-transcript.pdf

Dorina Pojani is an Associate Professor of urban planning at The University of Queensland and co-author of Early Planning Utopias: A Feminist Critique, which is available now from Anthem Press: https://anthempress.com/early-planning-utopias-pbRead the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Dorina-Pojani-on-the-gender-divide-in-urban-planning-transcript.pdf

Maggie Hennefeld is a Professor of Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota and author of Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria & Early Cinema. Maggie is also affiliated with the Women Film Pioneers Project (read about her Cinema's First Nasty Women project), and joins us to discuss women's laughter and film, and how the archives of feminist film comedy can help inspire creativity and resistance in our political culture today. Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Maggie-Hennefeld-on-womens-comedy-and-laughter-in-film-and-activism-transcript.pdf

Mayukh Sen, author of Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star, tells us about the life, career and complex legacy of this too-often-overlooked icon.Get the book: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324050827Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Mayukh-Sen-on-Merle-Oberon-transcript.pdf

Dr Quah Ee Ling, associate professor of Culture & Society at Western Sydney University, discusses her new book, Fire Dragon Feminism: Asian Migrant Women's Tales of Migration, Coloniality and Racial Capitalism.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Quah-Ee-Ling-on-Fire-Dragon-Feminism-transcript.pdfGet the book: https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/fire-dragon-feminism-9781350447820/

Sara Sheridan is the author of several novels including On Starlit Seas, inspired by the “brilliant Georgian travel writer” Maria Graham. We also discuss creative ways to memorialize women's lives beyond statues and plaques.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Sara-Sheridan-on-Maria-Graham-and-creative-memorialization-transcript.pdf

June Thomas, author of A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces That Shaped Queer Women's Culture, guides us through lesbian bars, feminist bookstores, softball pitches, communes, sex toy stores and holiday destinations. Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/June-Thomas-on-queer-womens-spaces-transcript.pdf

April White, author of The Divorce Colony, joins us to discuss How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/April-White-on-Sioux-Falls-Divorce-Colony-transcript.pdf

Meg Campbell, Vice-President of the Boston Women's Heritage Trail joins us to discuss the importance of local history and connecting geographically with history. Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Meg-Campbell-on-the-Boston-Womens-Heritage-Trail-transcript.pdf

Dr. Nina Baker, a historian of women in engineering, tells us about British aeronautical engineer and motorcycle and sports car racer Beatrice Shilling. Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Nina-Baker-on-Beatrice-Shilling-transcript-.pdf

Lydia Reeder is the author of The Cure for Women: Dr Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women’s Lives Forever. Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Lydia-Reeder-on-Dr.-Mary-Putnam-Jacobi-transcript.pdfGet the book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-cure-for-women-dr-mary-putnam-jacobi-and-the-challenge-to-victorian-medicine-that-changed-women-s-lives-forever-lydia-reeder/20981853?ean=9781250284457&next=t&aid=115788&listref=infinite-women-podcast-guests-books&next=t

Ann Foster is a Canada-based writer that people may recognize from her own podcast, Vulgar History. Her new book, Rebel of the Regency, about Caroline of Brunswick, is available to order now and joins us to discuss Caroline’s daughter, Princess Charlotte. As anyone who’s listened to Vulgar History, or Infinite Women's previous episode about the rise of the Hanoverians to the English throne will know, this is a family with a lot of drama, and Charlotte’s own life is no exception, starting almost from birth.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Vulgar-Historys-Ann-Foster-on-Princess-Charlotte-transcript.pdf

Rachelle Bergstein, author of several books including The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us, joins us to discuss how Blume impacted children like her, and the publishing industry as a whole.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Rachelle-Bergstein-on-Judy-Blume-transcript.pdf

Dr. Marsha Gordon, Director of Film Studies at North Carolina State University, tells us about the brilliant writer who is the subject of her book, Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life & Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott. Get the book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520391543/becoming-the-ex-wifeRead the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Marsha-Gordon-on-Ursula-Parrott-transcript.pdf

Dida Sundet, a PhD candidate at Edith Cowan University, tells us about her doctoral project on the theme of the “heroic” rapist in ancient mythologies and how this connects to today’s rape myths.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dida-Sundet-on-rape-myths-transcript.pdf

Dr. Sarah Bellows-Blakely, a Junior Research Group Leader in the History of Science at the Margherita von Brentano Center for Gender Studies at Free University Berlin, tells us about her new book, Girl Power? A History of Girl-Focused Development from Nairobi and how UNICEF helped shape decades of international policy (and not for the better).Get the book: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo245099273.htmlTranscript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Sarah-Bellows-Blakeley-on-issues-around-international-approaches-to-girls-education-transcript.pdf

Dr Rebecca Brenner Graham is a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University and author of the new book Dear Miss Perkins. While the book specifically focuses on Frances Perkins’s work to help refugees from Nazi Germany, Dr Grahamalso tells us more broadly about the first woman in the U.S. Cabinet, whose work as labor secretary and as the architect of the New Deal programs lives on almost a century later.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Rebecca-Brenner-Graham-on-Frances-Perkins-transcript-.pdfGet the book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/762819/dear-miss-perkins-by-rebecca-brenner-graham/Read more about Perkins on the Infinite Women site: https://www.infinite-women.com/women/frances-perkins/

Titaś Biswas, a Doctoral Candidate in sociology at University College Dublin, lecturer in Media Studies at Carlow College and a researcher at University College Cork, tells us about her work exploring how the human body has been analyzed in traditional histories, and reframing perspectives with feminist readings.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Titas-Biswas-on-the-female-body-taking-up-space-transcript.pdf

Anna Von Mertens is a visual artist and author of the book, Attention Is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Anna-von-Mertens-on-Henrietta-Swan-Leavitt-transcript.pdf

Katie Gee Salisbury, author of Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong, joins us to talk about Hollywood’s first Asian-American movie star. More about Katie and her work: https://www.notyourchinadoll.com/Read the episode transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Katie-Gee-Salisbury-on-Anna-May-Wong-transcript.pdf

Dr Barbara Winslow, professor emerita in women and gender studies at Brooklyn College and founder and director emerita of the Shirley Chisholm Project on Brooklyn Women’s Activism, joins us to discuss the parallels between the presidential campaigns of Shirley Chisholm and Kamala Harris. Read more about Barbara's books: Shirley Chisholm: Catalyst for Change https://www.routledge.com/Shirley-Chisholm-Catalyst-for-Change/Winslow/p/book/9780813347691Revolutionary Feminists: The Women’s Liberation Movement in Seattle https://www.dukeupress.edu/revolutionary-feministsRead the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Barbara-Winslow-on-Shirley-Chisholm-and-Kamala-Harris-transcript.pdf