Ellen Carol DuBois

Ellen Carol DuBois
Name	Ellen Carol DuBois
Birth date	1947
Birth place	Wilmington, Delaware
Occupation	Historian
Education	University of Michigan (BA), University of Wisconsin–Madison (PhD)
Known for	Women's suffrage history, feminist historiography

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Ellen Carol DuBois is an American historian and scholar of women's suffrage and women's history. She served as a professor and department chair at major research universities and authored influential works on the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Susan B. Anthony, and the 19th Amendment. DuBois's scholarship intersected with movements and institutions such as Second-wave feminism, the National Organization for Women, and archival collections at Library of Congress repositories.

Early life and education

DuBois was born in Wilmington, Delaware and grew up amid the political currents shaped by events like the Civil Rights Movement and the aftermath of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. She completed undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan where she engaged with faculty from programs connected to scholars of Slavoj Žižek-era continental debates and American historiography, then pursued graduate work at University of Wisconsin–Madison under mentors informed by the historiographical traditions of the Progressive Era and scholars associated with the American Historical Association. Her doctoral research drew on manuscript collections in repositories including the Schlesinger Library, the New-York Historical Society, and the National Archives and Records Administration.

DuBois held faculty positions at institutions such as University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she taught courses that intersected with studies of Abigail Adams, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and the historiography surrounding the Seneca Falls Convention. She supervised graduate students who later joined faculties at universities including Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, and Rutgers University. DuBois contributed to curricular developments aligned with centers like the Schlesinger Library, the Berkman Klein Center-style digital humanities initiatives, and collaborative projects with the American Philosophical Society. She served on editorial boards for journals comparable to The Journal of American History, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, and university presses including Oxford University Press and University of North Carolina Press.

DuBois authored monographs and edited volumes that placed figures such as Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, and organizations like the National Woman Suffrage Association and American Equal Rights Association into broader narratives about the 19th Amendment and suffrage politics. Her scholarship employed archival materials from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the National Women's Party collections, and the papers of activists preserved at the Library of Congress. She examined intersections with political actors including Woodrow Wilson, legislative landmarks like the Nineteenth Amendment, and social movements connected to Temperance movement-era debates and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. DuBois's books engaged with theoretical frameworks developed by historians such as Joan Scott, Linda Gordon, Gerda Lerner, and Annette Gordon-Reed, and responded to revisionist arguments from scholars writing in forums like the American Historical Review and The Journal of Southern History.

Her major works include titles that analyzed the strategies of suffrage organizations, provided biographical reappraisals of prominent activists, and traced suffrage campaigns through legislative sessions in statehouses from New York to California. DuBois contributed chapters to edited collections alongside authors affiliated with Smith College, Barnard College, Radcliffe Institute, and the Schlesinger Library; she presented papers at conferences convened by the Organization of American Historians and the Southern Historical Association.

Beyond academia, DuBois engaged with public history projects and organizations like the National Park Service's sites related to suffrage, collaborated with museums such as the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of American History, and advised documentary filmmakers producing works for PBS and NOVA-style broadcasts. She participated in panels with activists from National Organization for Women, historians from Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and curators from the New-York Historical Society and the Museum of the City of New York. DuBois consulted on exhibitions addressing figures like Susan B. Anthony and events including the Seneca Falls Convention, and contributed essays to public-facing outlets affiliated with the New York Times historical series and radio programs similar to NPR.

Her public scholarship connected to legal histories involving cases adjudicated in courts such as the Supreme Court of the United States and state supreme courts, and to commemorative projects tied to anniversaries of the 19th Amendment alongside civic groups and foundations like the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

DuBois received recognitions from professional bodies including awards comparable to those given by the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and lifetime achievement acknowledgments in the field of women's history. Her work was supported by fellowships from institutions such as the American Council of Learned Societies, the Guggenheim Foundation, and residency awards at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the National Humanities Center. She was honored with prizes awarded by the Organization of American Historians and scholarly societies linked to the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic and the Southern Historical Association.