Wendy Rouse

Wendy Rouse is a Professor in the Department of History at San Jose State University's College of Social Sciences, specializing in LGBTQ and Women's History. Her work interrogates the intersections of gender non-conformity, queer identities, and social movements, particularly within the suffrage movement and Progressive Era.

Her research emphasizes the importance of integrating queer narratives into historical pedagogy, aligning with California's FAIR Education Act. Recent publications span topics from women's self-defense practices to the cultural construction of gender, with a focus on marginalized communities.

Key themes in her scholarship include:

• Queer suffragists' erased contributions
• Historical visibility of LGBTQ+ individuals
• Gendered physical training and resistance practices
• Racial and ethnic identity formation
• Intersectional approaches to historical analysis

Her 2022 monograph Public Faces, Secret Lives challenges sanitized suffrage historiography by centering queer women's experiences, while her 2025 work explores self-defense training during WWII as both physical and political empowerment.