A presentation by Nancy G. Rosoff ’78.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women engaged in a variety of athletic activities. They learned how to play various sports and dress for them by reading pieces in popular periodicals as well as from guides to sports and advertisements. Dr. Rosoff will discuss how popular culture shaped perceptions and beliefs about athletic women, using examples from Mount Holyoke's history.

Nancy G. Rosoff is a proud alumna of MHC, where she played field hockey and lacrosse as well as serving as an official for basketball games and swimming and diving meets. She also served as an officer of the Athletics and Recreation Association. She was a history major and did her senior thesis on the political activities of Mount Holyoke students between 1900 and 1920.

She is currently Dean of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies at Arcadia University. Her research interests include history of women; women’s athletic activity; sports, gender, and popular culture; history of education; and American and British cultural history. She is also a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the History of Women’s Education at the University of Winchester, UK, and has published on the history of girls’ culture, education, and sport, most recently her co-authored book British and American School Stories, 1910 – 1960: Fiction, Femininity, and Friendship (published by Palgrave last year).