Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Newsbriefs, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Back Matter, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Was The Glass Half Empty Or Half Full? A Report On Prek-12 At Kansas, Anne Chapman

Women's Studies Quarterly

Most people are familiar with the multistable image: what you look at remains the same but your perception of it changes. Some people have trouble "seeing" the alternative image, until it is pointed out to them; thereafter, their vision will switch between the two images.

For preK-12 teachers, the NWSA Convention was an experience in multistability. Nine sessions listed in the program dealt specifically with curriculum, methods, and approaches at the precollege level; and seven were actually held. Most were scheduled when public school teachers were free to attend. A few drew audiences of nearly twenty people. Yet of the …

"Going National" Together, Ann Fitzgerald

Women's Studies Quarterly

...At the Bernice Reagon/Meg Christian concert on Friday evening, a young KU woman sitting beside me asked, pointing to the audience: "Do you all teach women's studies?" I hesitated, choosing my words carefully: "We are all women's studies educators with both of those terms taken in the widest sense. We represent...." I stopped, realizing that I could not say that we represent the various professions, though in a technical sense some of us did. I stopped, because in the aggregate it was not true; most of us had not come together to represent either professional or institutional affiliations. I was …

Back Matter, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Lesbian Research Projects, Charlotte Criste

Women's Studies Quarterly

As a new member of NWSA, I was unprepared for but delighted by the number and quality of the lesbian-centered sessions. At Kansas, lesbian culture was not only superficially acknowledged, but validated and treated with respect as a significant aspect of women's studies.

The Friday morning panel, "Voices of the Lesbian Community: A Workshop on Researching, Archiving, and Teaching," presented a wealth of images. From the Cambridge Women's Center, we heard Chris Czernik report on a teacher's responsibility to include all aspects of women's culture in her courses: "If I am doing an introductory section on AfroAmerican women," Czernik noted, …

Nwsa Research Committee, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

At its February 1979 meeting, the NWSA Coordinating Council established an Ad Hoc Committee on Research and Grant Sponsorship. Its initial mandate was to propose guidelines for relationships between NWSA and its members, subgroups, and outside groups regarding endorsement or cosponsorship of ongoing or new women's studies research; and to outline for the Council priorities for NWSA's own longterm research and grant-writing. This work is now in progress.

American Indian Women Meet In Lawrence, Rayna Green

Women's Studies Quarterly

Twelve American Indian women held a special meeting at the NWSA Convention, partly to participate in a symposium on Indian women, and partly to formalize the organization of a network of academic Indian women. Not only did the Convention bring together some of the most active and distinguished Indian women in the country, but it offered a framework for discussion and planning that will have a positive impact on women's studies and Native American studies.

When, with Peg Strobel's strong encouragement and support, Clara Sue Kidwell (Chippewa-Choctaw) and I (Cherokee) began to plan the state-of-the-art symposium on Indian women, we …

The Regional Women's Art Exhibit At Kansas, Estella Lauter

Women's Studies Quarterly

The Regional Invitational Women's Art Exhibit at the University of Kansas was a solid demonstration of talent and artistic proficiency. Chosen by a committee of women artists at the university, the show emphasized variety in medium, style, and subject in the work of nearly 50 artists. Although there were a few explicit (and very good) explorations of female subjects, e.g., M. K. Baumgartel's sculpture "She—Apsaras II," Vicki L. Bourek's vaginal stoneware wallhangings, and Marilyn Murphy's "Tornado Pattern" in which a piece of a sewing pattern suggests a seamstress's perspective on tornadoes, most of the works were not concerned directly with …

All About Indiana, Jean Robinson

Women's Studies Quarterly

It is with pleasure that we at Indiana University/Bloomington look forward to welcoming the National Women's Studies Association's Second Convention.

The Convention will be an exceptional highlight to the history of women in Indiana. Both the state of Indiana and the university have had a long history in the struggle for women's rights. In 1851, the first Indiana State Women's Rights Convention was called to order; resolutions at that meeting reinforced the sentiments expressed by women at Seneca Falls. More recently, women (and men) of Indiana were able to convince the State Legislature to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Indiana …

Front Matter, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

International Programming, Peg Strobel

Women's Studies Quarterly

The NWSA took several important steps in international programming at its First Convention. Those participating in sessions included women from Argentina, Britain, Ghana, Holland, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Senegal, and Zanzibar. Three national leaders of the All China Women's Federation of the People's Republic of China spent a day touring the Convention. But more important than the mere presence of foreign visitors were the information and issues generated by an international perspective.

In the first place, the Convention provided a forum for exchange of information. International sessions covered such topics as the educational needs of immigrant women in capitalist systems; …

Meine Mutter Sagte Zu Mir / My Mother Said, Ute Reich, M. Grunwald

Women's Studies Quarterly

Poem.

Courage, Emma: You Can Read Two Feminist Magazines Each Month In The Federal Republic Of Germany!, Sandra Abelson Zagarell

Women's Studies Quarterly

Emma—a traditional German name, a name which sounds "round and energetic," but transforms tradition in the direction of "Amazon" and "ema/ncipation," according to Alice Schwarzer, the magazine's founder and publisher. Courage—for the seventeenth-century German writer Grimmelshausen's heroine, whose experiences transfigure her from camp-follower to a self-sufficient woman who fights for her rights with joy and humor. These are the names ofthe Federal Republic of Germany's two feminist magazines. Courage, published in West Berlin, was begun in June 1976; Emma, located in Koln, in February 1977. Each is about sixty pages long.costs three marks (about $1.50), is …

Teachers' Institute For Equality In Education Held At The University Of Arizona, Myra Dinnerstein, Brenda Even, Betty Newlon, Sherry O'Donnell

Women's Studies Quarterly

Women from the Tucson community and the University of Arizona collaborated to design a two-week Teachers' Institute for Equality in Education. Held last June on the university campus, the Institute was designed to help Arizona teachers of grades K through 12 develop nonsexist classroom methods and materials. The many inquiries we have received from other educators and women's studies personnel throughout the country suggest that information about our program will help others design similar institutes in their own regions.

We planned our Institute for the summer, since there is little time or money for bringing women's studies information to elementary …

Debate On Graduate Women's Studies At George Washington University, Rosemary Beavers, Carol Bros, Patricia Mcdonough, Terry Savage, Lois West, Phyllis M. Palmer

Women's Studies Quarterly

The M.A. program in women's studies at George Washington University is undergoing dramatic changes in focus and structure. As students and graduates, we believe these changes raise questions about the quality of our Women's Studies Program, especially its lack of feminist focus and content.

A radical feminist believes that women are a distinct group, restricted by custom and law from complete participation in society. Moreover, feminists believe that women's lives—and the female experience—have worth and should be preserved. Therefore, feminists strive for equity, recognition of the importance of the female world, and fundamental change in the social order.

Nwsa News And Views, Elaine Reuben, Emily Abel, Deborah Rosenfelt, Peg Strobel, Shirley Harkess, Kathleen Blumhagen, Loretta Seppanen, Sandy Rubaii, E. R.

Women's Studies Quarterly

It's been a little more than a year now that I've been reporting on the Association in these columns, a little more than two years since there has been a National Women's Studies Association to report on. When friends and supporters ask, "How is it going?'" I've been forced to give a rather cryptic-seeming reply: "It's going steadily better, so even more is expected; but we hardly have resources to meet the original expectation, so sometimes it feels like it's going worse."

Often the next question from members has been, "When are we going to have the Convention?'" A Convention, …

Farewell To Joan Malory Webber, Nancy Nowik

Women's Studies Quarterly

Joan Malory Webber died last year on October 14 in a climbing accident near Mt. Rainier. She was a Professor of English at the University of Washington and a respected Renaissance scholar, whose death calls to mind the deaths (in the same month) of the two women on the American Women's Anapuma Expedition and the recent death of another great scholar, Jane English, also in a climbing accident. Each of these four deaths sends those of us who do not climb back to Adrienne Rich's poem "Phantasia for Elvira Shatayev," the leader of a women's expedition that perished in a …

Graduate Programs In Women's Studies, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

Women's Studies Programs offering graduate degrees recently responded to the following questions: 1. What is the curricular shape and major emphasis of your program? How flexible is it? How many (and which) credits and other requirements must be completed for the degree? Name your degree(s). 3. What is the cost of your program? Are forms of financial aid or teaching assistantships available? Is housing available or especially difficult or expensive to obtain? 4. Can you estimate the number of graduates of your program, as of Summer 1978, and can you describe what they have gone on to do? 5. What …

Back Matter, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

No Longer "Just Us Chickens", Annette Niemtzow, Paula Mayhew

Women's Studies Quarterly

Dear Women's Studies Newsletter:

We read the Summer issue (Vol. VI, No. 3) with real interest and enthusiasm, gleaning vital information about NWSA events and organizational meetings and enjoying the longer articles and reports, especially Hester Eisenstein's piece on the Barnard Women's Studies Program.

We are writing out of deep concern, however, that the pages of the Women's Studies Newsletter—and other feminist news sources—not be limited to the retelling of our success in feminist areas, and in women's studies in particular. It has become clear to us, as it is to all of you, that Women's Studies Programs, …

Newsbriefs, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Editorial: "But What "Is" A Women's Studies Program?", The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

Oberlin College, October 1, 1978 "But What IS a Women's Studies Program?"

In several respects a Women's Studies Program is more difficult to define today than it was eight or nine years ago, when there were two of them—at San Diego State University and Cornell. Those two programs had a couple of characteristics in common: They were campus-based, academic programs that offered courses for credit to undergraduates. They had been begun by faculty and students conscious of the "political" statement inherent in announcing that a group of courses had become a "program."

The Coming Of Age Of The Berkshire Conference, Alison Bernstein

Women's Studies Quarterly

Over twelve hundred people attended the Fourth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, which took place on August 23-25, 1978, at Mt. Holyoke College. The program included more than eighty different papers, topics, and presentations. Clearly, the Berkshire Conference, which this year celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the original group, has come of age. It has become an acceptable way for historians to make their reputations in the profession, and people are eager to list their participation on their resumes. Since 1973, when the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians orchestrated the first of these gatherings at Douglass College and …

Women's Studies Programs, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

Most of the programs listed below are interdisciplinary, i.e., they combine courses in literature, language, or culture with work in sociology, anthropology, economics, political science, history, philosophy, psychology, biology, and related fields. Some programs offer minors (denoted by Min) or certificates (denoted by Cer); others award the A.A. degree or the B.A. degree; still others offer the M.A. or Ph.D. Programs listed without a specific label offer a roster of elective courses. Where no coordinator, director, or chairperson is listed, either the program is still in the process of organization or it has chosen to function through a …

Front Matter, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Back Matter, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

No abstract provided.

More Bad News From Virginia, Suzette Henke

Women's Studies Quarterly

Dear Professor Howe:

As you may recall, I wrote to you describing the state of women's studies at the University of Virginia in the summer of 1975 (Women's Studies Newsletter, Vol. IV, No. 1). Since that time, there has been almost no perceptible change in the administrative policy at Virginia; things seem to be getting worse rather than better. In the last two years, the university has denied tenure to all female and black assistant professors under consideration. The statistics I will quote are almost exactly the same as those cited in 1975.

Graduate Programs In Women's Studies, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

Women's Studies Programs offering graduate degrees recently responded to the following questions:

1. What is the curricular shape and major emphasis of your program? How flexible is it? How many (and which) credits and other requirements must be completed for the degree? Name your degree(s).

2. What kinds of students are you interested in? What are your official (and unofficial) requirements and expectations of students? Provide relevant information about application deadlines, interviews etc.

3. What is the cost of your program? Are forms of financial aid or teaching assistantships available? Is housing available or especially difficult or expensive to obtain? …

Are They The First Two Women's Studies Ph.D.'S?, Sally Wagner, Karen Rotkin

Women's Studies Quarterly

Dear Ms. Reuben:

In June we both graduated from the History of Consciousness program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The History of Consciousness Board of Studies is interdisciplinary, and it is possible within the program to concentrate in an established discipline. Both of us concentrated our study within the area of women's studies; we had women's studies faculty on our oral and dissertation committees. Karen's dissertation was "The Social Construction of Female Sexual Experience," and Sally's was "That Word is Liberty: A Biography of Matilda Joslyn Gage" (a nineteenth-century American feminist).