Maxine Wagenhoffer

Maxine Wagenhoffer, Ph.D., director of the Hankey Center for the History of Women's Education and assistant professor of history at Wilson College, teaches U.S. history courses and is particularly focused on writing and exhibiting women’s history.  

Wagenhoffer earned a doctorate in modern U.S. history from The Ohio State University in August 2023, following a master’s degree in history from Ohio State in 2018 and a bachelor’s degree in history from Rutgers University in 2016. Her dissertation focused on the intersections of celebrity, politics, and gender through the lens of Alice Roosevelt Longworth.  

She is a 2025 recipient of a Kathy Chamberlain Research Award from the Women Writing Women’s Lives seminar group and has presented her research at several academic conferences, including the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Association, the Institute for Political History’s Policy History Conference, and the conference of the Ohio Academy of History.  

When she is not teaching, writing, or researching, you can find her at the Wilson College Fitness Center pumping iron. For more information regarding her approach to history and her teaching philosophy, see the Wilson Magazine Fall 2023 article “Call Me Max.”