Education
Ph.D. American Civilization, Brown University
M.A. American Civilization, Brown University
M.A. English, Carnegie-Mellon University
B.S., cum laude, University of Michigan, Natural Resources
Biographical Notes
Mary K. Trigg is Associate Professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers University. She served as Department Chair from 2017-2020. She is also the Director of Leadership Programs and Research at the Institute for Women’s Leadership. Her books include the edited anthology Leading the Way: Young Women’s Activism for Social Change (Rutgers University Press, 2010), Feminism as Life’s Work: Four Modern American Women through Two World Wars (Rutgers University Press, 2014) and Junctures in Women’s Leadership: Social Movements (co-edited with Alison R. Bernstein, 2016), also from Rutgers University Press, which was selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title. Her new book, under contract with Routledge, is titled Mothering, Time, and AntiMaternalism: Motherhood Under Duress, 1920-1960. She is currently writing an autoethnography about care.
Trigg is the founding director of the Leadership Scholars Certificate Program, a leadership education honors program for undergraduate women, and has co-founded four additional leadership programs for women at Rutgers. Her scholarship focuses primarily on U.S. women’s history, including the history of feminism in the United States; motherhood studies; and women’s/feminist leadership. Trigg has published in Liberal Education, the Journal of Women’s History, Signs, Initiatives, Transformations, American National Biography, and Community, Work & Family. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in American Civilization from Brown University, an M.A. in English from Carnegie-Mellon University, and a B.S. from the University of Michigan.
Awards, Fellowships, and Grants
- Winner of 2016 Choice Outstanding Academic Title for Trigg and Bernstein, eds., Junctures in Women’s Leadership: Social Movements (Rutgers University Press, 2016).
- School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education 2015, Rutgers University
- Institute for Research on Women Fellowship, Rutgers University, 2007-2008
- Nominee, Outstanding Woman Educator, Rutgers Women on the Rise, 2007
- Program Officer’s Grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, for “Re-imagining Work and Community: Perspectives from Professional Women in Dual-Earner Families,” 2001-2003
- NHPRC Fellow in Historical Documentary Editing, 1995-1996
- Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship in Women's Studies, 1984
- Brown University Fellowship, 1981-1985
- Carnegie Corporation Grant, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1979-1980
- Woodrow Wilson Women’s Studies Dissertation Fellowship, 1983-1984
Selected Publications
Books
Junctures in Women’s Leadership: Social Movements. Rutgers University Press, 2016. (Edited with Alison R. Bernstein).
Feminism as Life’s Work: Four Modern American Women through Two World Wars. Rutgers University Press, 2014.
Leading the Way: Young Women’s Activism for Social Change. Rutgers University Press, 2010. (Edited anthology.)
Articles
Professor Trigg’s articles and reviews have appeared in leading journals including:
- The American Historical Review
- American National Biography
- Community, Work & Family
- Initiatives
- Journal of Women’s History
- Liberal Education
- Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society
- Transformations
