Marian Mollin, an associate professor in the Department of History, edited Nasty Women:  Transgressive Womanhood in American History (Blacksburg, Virginia:  Virginia Tech Publishing, 2021), a collection of essays about American women protesting societal norms and breaking boundaries through the decades.  

The book features work by History majors in Mollin’s History Capstone Research Seminar (HIST 4914) in Spring 2020.  2020 graduates who contributed to the volume were:  Alicia Aucoin, “A Different Kind of Feminine:  How Marilyn Monroe Challenged Expectations of Womanhood”; Helen Hickman, History and Political Science, “Paving Her Own Best Way:  Lillian Gilbreth’s Journey from Housewife to Career Woman”; Kat McGowan, “Keepin’ It Movin’:  Appalachian Women’s Resistance through Music”; Madison Sheehan, English and History, “The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League:  The New Women of World War II”; Trenton Spilman, History and Creative Writing, “A Tight White Super Suit:  How Women’s Underground Comics Came to Be”; and Alyssa Thompson, “Resistance:  Strength of the Enslaved Women’s Spirit.”  Contributors who graduated in 2021 were:  Gillian Barth, English and History, “‘I feel O so lonely and desolate’:  White Northern and Southern Women’s Feelings of Loneliness and Sadness during the Civil War”; Grace Barth, History and Political Science, “Mary Tyler Moore:  The Unlikely Feminist”; Caroline McLean, History and International Studies, “The American Plan:  How Women Came to Be Viewed as Dangerous”; Elizabeth Sholtis, History and Professional and Technical Writing, “‘Funny Like a Guy’:  Women in American Standup Comedy”; Bethany Stewart, “Dolly Parton:  The Appalachian Advocate, Wild Wife, and Sexualized Singer”; Liv Wisnewski, History and Theatre, “Alice Roosevelt and the Rise of the Infamous American Woman”; and Olivia Wood, History and Classical Studies, “Seeing Eleanor:  The First Lady of the World.”  A current CLAHS contributing student was Savannah Lawhorne, “Fighting Nazis:  A Collective of Trailblazing American Women in the 1930s and 1940s.”   

Background information that describes how the volume took shape can be found here.