Dr. Evins will discuss the public sphere efforts of Tennessee women at the turn into the last century, and their long-term impacts, taken from her anthologies Tennessee Public Women in the Progressive Era: Toward the Public Sphere in the New South (2013) and Constructing Citizenship: Tennessee Public Women in the Progressive Era (2026), both published by University of Tennessee Pre

She is a Professor Emerita in the Department of History at Middle Tennessee State University. She taught U.S. history at MTSU for 20 years, retiring just this past summer. For many of those years she was a resident, in-house faculty member with the MTSU University Honors College. For sixteen years, in addition to teaching history, Mary directed MTSU’s American Democracy Project, the university-wide, nonpartisan, student engagement initiative developed by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities to assist state universities in preparing knowledgeable, active citizens to connect through differing viewpoints and perspectives to drive collective progress—to graduate informed citizens who engage with agency, understanding, and personal commitment in our democracy.

 The meeting is open to the public. 

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