Martha Vicinus (born November 20, 1939) is an American scholar of

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

and

Women's studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppress ...

. She serves as the Eliza M. Mosher Distinguished University Professor of English, Women's Studies, and History at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. Prior to coming to the University of Michigan, Vicinus was a faculty member in the English Department at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

from 1968 to 1982. She has written several books about Victorian women as well as gender and sexuality. She earned a PhD from the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

in 1968. She has been noted for drawing attention to the Victorian double standards that were applied to women and to the Victorian ideal of women without sexual desires. She has argued that society often defines sexuality through a male heterosexual perspective. In addition to her career as a scholar, she has been active as an advocate of

anti-war An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to pa ...

and

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

causes.

Selected works

* Coeditor, with Caroline Eisner. ''Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism: Teaching Writing in the Digital Age''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008. . * ''Intimate Friends: Women Who Loved Women''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. . * Editor. ''Lesbian Subjects: A Feminist Studies Reader''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996. . * Coeditor, with Martin Bauml Duberman and George Chauncey, Jr. ''Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay & Lesbian Past''. New York: New American Library, 1989. . * Coeditor, with Bea Nergaard, ''Ever Yours, Florence Nightingale: Selected Letters''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989. . * ''Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women, 1850-1920.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985. . * ''The Ambiguities of Self-Help: Concerning the Life and Work of the Lancashire Dialect Writer Edwin Waugh''. Littleborough: George Kelsall, 1984. . * ''A Widening Sphere: Changing Roles of Victorian Women''. London: Methuen, 1977. . * ''Broadsides of the Industrial North''. Newcastle upon Tyne: F. Graham, 1975. . * ''The Industrial Muse: A Study of Nineteenth-Century British Working-Class Literature''. London: Croom Helm, 1974. . * Editor. ''Suffer and Be Still: Women in the Victorian Age''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972. Oxon: Routledge, 2013. . * ''The Lowly Harp: A Study of 19th Century Working Class Poetry''. Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1969.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vicinus, Martha 1939 births Living people Northwestern University alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Indiana University faculty University of Michigan faculty Women's studies academics Writers from Michigan Writers from Wisconsin Historians of LGBT topics American historians