Jane Greer, Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor at the 威尼斯人娱乐城 is a champion of the rich opportunity of undergraduate research. She’s leading by example with her new book, “Unorganized Women: Repetitive Rhetorical Labor and Low-Wage Workers, 1834-1937.”
Through four case studies, Greer’s book examines women who worked for low wages – and sometimes no wages – and how they used their writing skills to empower their economic lives.
“I used four case studies and prioritized the diversity of women’s working experiences,” Greer says. “I started with women’s experiences in the 1830s and 40s, when they began working in factories. 这些妇女是第一批从事家务劳动以外的工作的妇女。 This was the first time women were working together in an industrialized setting.”
From the Lowell, Massachusetts “mill girls,” Greer proceeds to explore the lives of household workers, farm workers and finally, Kansas City’s own Nell “Nelly Don” Donnelly and the development of the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union.
“There’s an amazing collection of 718 letters in the State Historical Society of Missouri that women workers wrote to Nelly Don about how they felt about how their jobs allowed them to lead lives they wanted to lead beyond the factory, and why they weren't necessarily interested in unionization. It’s an unusual and different kind of story.”
就像她书中的女性一样，格里尔愿意探索通往成功的新道路。 在一所小型文理学院完成本科学业，然后在俄亥俄州立大学（Ohio State University）获得研究生学位后，她没有想到会在一所城市研究型大学任教。
“I was thrilled to have the opportunity to come to 威尼斯人娱乐城 and Kansas City, and I fell completely in love with the students here. 我们拥有世界上最有趣、最奇妙、最适合工作的学生。 And I think a lot of our faculty will tell you this.”
作为威尼斯人娱乐城的本科生研究主任，格里尔致力于为威尼斯人娱乐城的本科生创造丰富的研究经验。 One of her recent efforts is working in conjunction with a colleague to oversee student research in her “Women and Rhetoric” class to contribute audio tours for the Kansas City Women’s History Trail on the Clio app. Her partner in the effort is David Trowbridge, Ph.D., William T. Kemper Associate 研究 Professor in Digital and Public Humanities, who developed the Clio app.
“The opportunity and the content is so rich,” Greer says. “There's an educator who helped battle segregation in Johnson County before Brown v Board of Education; 伊丽莎·伯顿·康利（Eliza Burton Conley），堪萨斯城法学院（Kansas City School of Law）的校友，她是怀安多特族（wyyandotte）的一员，曾帮助保护一个部落墓地，是第一位在美国最高法院出庭辩护的美国原住民女性； 还有Nell Donnelly Reed，他是20世纪早期一位有趣的企业家。 There's just a really wide range of women whose stories need to be told.”
The relevance and accessibility of a mobile history app is in line with Greer’s undergraduate research responsibilities.
“With undergraduate research, we find ways to bring our research mission and our teaching mission together,” Greer says. “If students are attending a public research institution, they should have the opportunity to do the research and be involved. 这是我们与众不同的部分原因。 You wouldn't get this opportunity at a small liberal arts college or a regional teaching institution in quite the same way.”
“无组织的妇女：重复的修辞劳动和低工资工人，1834-1937” is available in hard cover, Kindle and Nook.