Brief Biography

 

Born and educated in New Zealand, Marion Roydhouse was awarded the James B. Duke Commonwealth Fellowship at Duke University – the first woman to be awarded this graduate scholarship – where she studied Southern and women’s history.  Her career since her Ph.D. has been in both higher education administration and in American history. 

 

At Thomas Jefferson (formerly Philadelphia University) she held positions as Dean of Liberal Arts, Interim Dean of Academic Affairs, Director of General Education (College Studies Program) and Founding Director of the Center for Teaching Innovation.  She led faculty teaching improvement, general education reform, and integrative learning efforts at the university with grants from NEH, FIPSE, the Carnegie Foundation for Teaching and the Association of American Colleges and Universities.  She retired in 2016 and is now Emerita Professor of History at Thomas Jefferson University.

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Dr. Roydhouse’s most recent historical writing is a new interpretation of the history of woman suffrage which brings up to date critical analysis of the current research and writing, while telling the story of the women who created the mass movement which won the vote. Votes for Women!: The American Woman Suffrage Movement and the Nineteenth Amendment, came out from ABC-CLIO in July of 2020. 

 

Marion Roydhouse has also written on women in Pennsylvania, on workers’ education and Southern women’s history. She is presently working on a special edition of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography on “Women and Politics” as joint editor with Emma Lapsansky-Werner which will be out in the Fall. 

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Marion is Emerita Dean of Liberal Arts and Professor of History and Founding Director of the Center for Teaching Innovation and Nexus Learning at Thomas Jefferson University. 

 

Dr. Roydhouse has held offices, including President, in the Pennsylvania Historical Association where she started the process of putting the association journal, Pennsylvania History online. 

 

Other Publications

Her volume for the PHA history series focused on Pennsylvania – Women of Industry and Reform: Shaping the History of Pennsylvania, 1865-1940.  The remainder of her writing has centered on women and Progressive reform, workers education and the Young Women’s Christian Association, and women in industrial work. 

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Consulting

Dr. Roydhouse has consulted on  social studies in the K-12 curriculum, and  writing across the curriculum.  She is also an expert on general education in the professional curriculum, and teaching development for higher education faculty, particularly centered on active learning.  She developed a university wide program, called Nexus Learning, to promote interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary learning, and interactive teaching, through a university wide initiative.