Agonito, Rosemary

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Agonito, Rosemary

Personal

Born in Syracuse, NY; daughter of Mariangelo and Filomena Giambattista; married Joseph Agonito (a college professor), July 1, 1961; children: Giancarlo, Mae Lee. Education: Niagara University, B.A. (literature); M.A. (literature); Syracuse University, Ph.D. (philosophy). Politics: "Independent progressive."

Addresses

Home—NY. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Author and educator. Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, professor, 1973-75; Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, senior professor of women's studies and

director of program, 1976-83; self-employed consultant and trainer, 1983-2004; freelance writer, 2004—. Lecturer; has appeared as a gender-issues expert on television and other media. Member of board of directors, Planned Parenthood of Rochester/Syracuse; served on numerous community boards and task forces, including New York State Task Force on Sex Equity in Education, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Foundation, Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, and Syracuse, NY, Task Force on Women Business Enterprises.

Awards, Honors

Elected Woman Who Makes a Difference, Minorities and Women in Business magazine, 1989; Women in Business Advocate of the Year Award for New York State, U.S. Small Business Administration, 1992; (with Joseph Agonito) Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Western Novel, 2006, for Buffalo Calf Road Woman.

Writings

History of Ideas on Woman, Putnam's (New York, NY), 1976.

Promoting Self-Esteem in Young Women, New York State Education Department (Syracuse, NY), 1987.

No More "Nice Girl": Power, Sexuality, and Success in the Workplace, Adams, 1993.

Your Dream Made Easy: How to Start a Successful Business, New Futures, 1999.

Dirty Little Secrets; Sex in the Workplace, New Futures, 2000.

(With husband, Joseph Agonito) Buffalo Calf Road Woman: The Story of a Warrior of the Little Bighorn, Globe Pequot Press (Guilford, CT), 2005.

Sidelights

A former educator and advocate of women's rights and workplace gender issues, Rosemary Agonito is the author of several books that focus on her area of expertise. In addition, her novel Buffalo Calf Road Woman: The Story of a Warrior of the Little Bighorn, a collaboration with husband and fellow educator Joseph Agonito, won the Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Western Novel in 2006.

Buffalo Calf Road Woman was the result of over two decades' work; its inspiration lay in the mid-1970s and Joseph Agonito's reading of Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Agonito, a professor of American history who specialized in the American West, found Brown's book notable because it approaches history from the perspective of Native Americans. One character who particularly attracted Agonito's notice was a Cheyenne woman named Buffalo Calf. Mentioned only briefly in Brown's book, this woman, in an effort to save her brother's life, joined the fight against U.S. General George Custer and the 7th Cavalry that culminated at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Fought in June of 1876 in Big Horn County, Montana, the battle—which has become known as Custer's Last Stand—was a victory for the Lakota and northern Cheyenne tribes as they repelled the 7th Cavalry's efforts to encircle them and force them back to a government reservation.

In addition to traveling to libraries, archives, and the same terrain Buffalo Calf traversed in life, Agonito researched original diaries, mined the National Archives, and conducted numerous interviews to piece together the few facts remaining regarding the woman's life. Drawing on several years' worth of her husband's research, Rosemary fashioned a fictional story from this information, staying true to the facts while introducing readers to life as it was lived by the Plains Indians in the years after the U.S. Civil War. Praising the Agonitos' book, Edna Boardman wrote in Kliatt that readers of Buffalo Calf Road Woman will learn "what life was like for the Indians as their hunting grounds were destroyed, their living area was taken over by white settlers, and their free-roaming way of life was reduced to existence on reservations."