Finding Inspiration in the Dustbin of History

Entitled, "Finding Inspiration in the Dustbin of History: Tales of Teaching and Researching in the Past," DeWolfe’s lecture educates and entertains with insight gleaned from her experiences as chair of the UNE History Department, co-director of UNE’s Women’s Studies program, writer and researcher.

The Ludcke Chair

The Ludcke Chair, funded by a generous bequest from the estate of Eleanor Ludcke (Westbrook College class of 1926), is presented annually to a tenured member of the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences in recognition of their outstanding academic accomplishments. The Ludcke Chair recipient receives a stipend in support of his or her development as a teacher and scholar.

The chair holder must have attained the ideal of the "teacher/scholar," a dedicated educator and productive researcher who has given generously of his or her time to UNE over a significant period.

Professor De Wolfe

De Wolfe teaches courses in women’s history, communal societies, and American culture. 

She earned her Ph.D. in American and New England studies from Boston University in 1996, an M.A. in anthropology from the State University of New York/Albany in 1985 and a B.A. in social science from Colgate University in 1983.  In 2004, De Wolfe received the University of New England’s highest honor, the Kenneally Cup, in recognition of her excellence in teaching and service to the University of New England.

She is the author of Shaking the Faith: Women, Family, and Mary Marshall Dyer’s Anti-Shaker Campaign, 1815-1867 (2002), which was awarded the Communal Studies Association’s “Outstanding Book Award” for 2003.  She is also co-editor of Such News of the Land: U.S. Women Nature Writers (2001) and The Murder of Mary Bean and Other Stories published in 2007, which recently received awards in the True Crime category of the Independent Publisher Book Awards and in the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year competition.  The University of New England Department of History collaborated with the Dyer Library/Saco Museum to create a fascinating student-designed exhibition titled “Mary Bean: The Factory Girl or the Victim of Seduction.”