About This Site
My Story
Hello and welcome to my blog, Guts, Grit, and Glass Ceilings! This project started back in 2019 when I was invited to give a presentation about women’s war efforts at The Albert H. Small Normandy Institute. At first, it was a simple project: read some books, listen to some oral histories, hit a few digital archives, travel with a group of amazingly talented high school students and their teachers. Alas! As we all know, COVID came into the picture — and our trip was delayed for a year.
So, I kept reading. And researching. And thinking.
Soon, I had a theme: Guts and Grit. Grit and Guts. I’ve come to realize several things – women made great spies and resistance workers because they were unexpected participants, that women’s homefront contributions were a form of war work which we often discount, and that women’s work had an impact on the social norms of the day. I’ve also found an underlying theme from reading the diaries and memoirs of individual women: these women were good at their jobs because they all shared a commonality – they never gave up. Like Elizabeth Warren (who you may not agree with politically, but I digress), “Nevertheless [they] persisted.”
By this point, I had more information than I needed for an hour long presentation and the idea for an Honors Seminar was born. Depending on when you read this page, this seminar will — or has been — offered at the University of Southern Indiana where I am an Associate Professor of Political Science.
At the same time, I started taking courses in the Library Technical Assistant program at Ivy Tech, a community college here in Indiana. My preliminary goal is to obtain my LC4, which is basically an Indiana Public Library Certification that would allow me to be a branch manager or a department head (or the director of a really, really small library system). I love learning, so sometime when I have more funds, I might even go back and earn a Master’s degree in Library Science. As a part of this program, I took a class on Library Technology, for which I had to create either a screencast or a blog. By now, you have probably figured out that I chose the blog assignment.
This blog is an outgrowth of these projects. Although I am not a historian by degree or trade, I have a passion for women’s history, gender politics, and gritty women. In addition to my various blog posts, you will also find a list of primary and secondary sources that might be useful in doing your own research on these topics.
Enjoy!
Mary “MT” Hallock Morris, Ph.D.
September 29, 2021
My Educational Qualifications
- Ph.D. in Political Science, Indiana University: March 2004
- American Politics
- Public Policy
- Public and Environmental Affairs
- MA, Community and Environmental Education
Antioch University – Midwest: August 1997 - BS, Communication Arts with an emphasis in Journalism
The Defiance College: August 1991
My Professional Experiences
- University of Southern Indiana, August 2003 – Present
- Associate Professor of Political Science (2009+)
- Assistant Professor of Political Science (2003 – 2009)
- Director, University Core Curriculum (2014 – 2021)
- Department Chair (2009 – 2015)
- Acting Director of the MPA Program (2008 – 2010)
- Indiana University Southeast, August 2002 – July 2003
- Future Faculty Teaching Fellow, Political Science
- Southern Mutual Help Association, May 2001 – July 2002
- Life Quality Specialist
- Previously: Public Policy Intern, May – August 1999
- Mooseheart Child City, August 1996 – August 1998
- Family Teacher, Senior Boys Hall
- Mercer County Chronicle, August 1991 – August 1996
- News Editor and Management Trainee
Campus of George Washington University. Summer 2021.
Grit, Guts, and Glass Ceilings 