WOMEN'S STUDIES
BULLETIN

August/September 2003

Table of Contents:
ASSOCIATE OF THE MONTH
MOTHER’S MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND
SPRING COURSES REMINDER
NEW TO THE PROGRAM
NWSA UPDATES
UPCOMING EVENTS
WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH THEME
T-SHIRTS ON SALE
CONFERENCE INFORMATION
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WEBSITE FOR WOMEN
SAFE PASSAGE IS SEEKING VOLUNTEERS AND INTERNS FOR THE FALL SEMESTER

ASSOCIATE OF THE MONTH

This bulletin’s spotlight features Lucy Townsend, Professor of Educational Foundations. Townsend specializes in the history of education, and particularly on women educators. She is also the curator of the Blackwell History of Education Museum on campus.

Townsend became interested in the history of women teachers when she was a doctoral student at Loyola University of Chicago; a feminist professor introduced her to the possibility that research could focus on the history of women in education. Quickly, Townsend became engrossed in researching the founder of Rockford College, Anna Peck Sill, which blossomed into her dissertation.

Townsend finds research on women educators very satisfying because women’s contributions are often ignored and marginalized in textbooks. Indeed, Townsend’s most consuming project, spanning the last 13 years, was developing a collection on Emma Hart Willard, a 19th century pioneer in educating young women in the "difficult” subjects of science and math. Collections on historical women make a tremendous impact because they enable researchers to gather information quickly that is normally widely dispersed and often hidden under the husband’s name. Townsend’s collection spans 15,000 pages and 23 reels. She went to over 50 repositories, 24 states, and the United Kingdom in order to gather all of the papers on Willard. As the project comes to a close, she hopes that this collection will set a precedent for more collections on other women and research on Willard.

Townsend makes it clear that the process for this tremendous project was a rewarding, but difficult road. Because she had to focus on tenure and publishing, she had to make the project more of a “hobby,” but really she had a double workload while she pursued more traditional routes in academics.

Yet, Townsend feels it is vital to continue research on women and to offer encouragement to younger women, especially her doctoral students, who rarely have heard the stories of women educators. Townsend deeply feels the need for women to celebrate and support other women’s accomplishments and believes her connection to the Women’s Studies Program offers this opportunity. This fall she serves as the convener of the faculty associates and hopes to support Amy Levin in her visions of the future of Women's Studies. For more information on Townsend, visit her website at http://www.cedu.niu.edu/epf/index_townsend.html.
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MOTHER’S MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND

We are closing in on our goal of raising $10,000 to endow the Mother’s Memorial Scholarship Fund, but we URGENTLY need to raise the final amount soon in order to be able to award the first scholarships in 2005. The scholarship is designed to help women students as well as to celebrate women who are or act as mothers. Donor forms are on the Women’s Studies website, http://www.clas.niu.edu/wstudies/mothersmemorialscholarship.html. Simply click on the donor form link.

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SPRING COURSES REMINDER
If you will be teaching a spring course that will count for WOMS credit, please notify us at 815.753.1038 as soon as possible.
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NEW TO THE PROGRAM
Lise Schlosser has been approved as our permanent secretary! Schlosser was a minor in our program and graduated in 1997 with a BA in Anthropology. She plans to pursue a graduate degree in English and is especially interested in Twentieth-Century women writers.

Sandi Caldrone is our newest teaching assistant. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology with a minor in Women's Studies from NIU. She is currently a graduate student in Anthropology.

Also, welcome back Rebekah Kohli and Siew-Sim Chin, returning teaching assistants, and Cassie Reuter, returning work-study student.
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NWSA UPDATES
Amy Levin attended the NWSA annual conference this June in New Orleans. As co-chair of the strategic planning committee, she is actively involved in the process of re-evaluating the goals and direction of NWSA. The committee collected questionnaire responses at the conference and is beginning the second round of data collection this fall. If you want to contribute to this process by filling out a survey or assisting with interviews, please contact our office. Some of the focus groups or interviews would no doubt form the basis for faculty or graduate student research.

Next summer, the NWSA’s Annual Conference will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from June 17-20, 2004. We hope to have a group representing our program. Proposals are due Sunday, November 9, 2003. Please visit http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/CWS/nwsa/ to download the proposal information.

Also, check out the NWSA website http://www.nwsa.org/ for new links, scholarships, funding opportunities, call for papers, and job postings.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
The Faculty Associates Fall Social is Tuesday, September 9, 2003, from 4:00-6:00 p.m. For more information, call 753-1038. We welcome new faculty at this event.

Our first Faculty Associates business meeting is September 18 at 3 p.m. in our conference room, Reavis 103. We hope to change the format of the faculty associates events and would welcome your suggestions at the meeting.

The Young Women’s Conference will be held Wednesday, October 29, 2003. Associates who are interested in having lunch with the girls or volunteering for the event should contact Jolene Skinner at 753-1044.
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WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH THEME
The theme for March 2004’s WHM is Women’s Movements. This theme encompasses such diverse topics as women’s historical activism, women in sports, women in dance, women exiles and refugees, and women’s careers overseas. We encourage you to discuss women’s movements in your spring courses and to develop relevant assignment options.
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T-SHIRTS ON SALE
We have T-shirts for sale in our office for a mere thirteen dollars. The attractive white shirts promote women volunteers and make great gifts for important women in our lives. Visit our office or website (http://www.clas.niu.edu/wstudies/tshirts.htm) for more information on the shirts. Proceeds benefit the Women’s Studies Program.
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CONFERENCE INFORMATION
The 13th Berkshire Conference on the History of Women is calling for papers by December 15, 2003. The conference will be held June 2-5, 2005 at Scripps College, Claremont, California. The program committee welcomes proposals that cross geographical, cultural, and disciplinary borders, and especially those which address the plurality of histories of transnational encounters and empires. For more information, please visit www.berksconference.org.

On Saturday, October 18, 2003, the Feminism and Social Action Conference will be held at the State University of New York, New Paltz. This year’s conference will examine the possibilities for future social movements. For more information, visit http://www.newpaltz.edu/wmnstudies/index.html.

Women’s Worlds 2005: 9th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women will be held in Seoul, Korea, from June 20-24, 2005. The Congress will feature the theme, “Embracing the Earth: East-West/North-South.” All proposals must be postmarked no later than midnight Wednesday, December 31, 2003. For more information, please visit http://www.ww05.net.

DePaul University of Chicago is sponsoring an international conference on The Black Body: Imagining, Writing, and (Re)Reading to be held April 23-24, 2004. The conference will explore the ways in which the Black body has been constituted as a site for the construction and maintenance of social and political power. Proposals should be submitted by Friday, September, 19, 2003. For more information visit the conference website: http://condor.depaul.edu/~diaspora/blkbody.
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WEBSITE FOR WOMEN
The Library of Congress is pleased to announce its latest addition to the American Memory Web Site, titled “American Women: A Library of Congress Guide for the Study of Women’s History and Culture in the United States”, available at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/. American Women provides easy entry to an online version of the Library’s recently published women’s history resource guide.
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SAFE PASSAGE IS SEEKING VOLUNTEERS AND INTERNS FOR THE FALL SEMESTER
Safe Passage is looking for volunteers and interns for both the domestic violence and sexual assault programs. A 60-hour training is required for anyone to volunteer. Fall training will be held September 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 2003 and is provided free of charge. For more information, contact 815.756.5228 (ask for Cynthia).
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