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MEN'S
STUDIES PROGRAM
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Northern Illinois University
WOMEN'S STUDIES
BULLETIN
April/May 2008
Table of Contents:
Women's Studies News
Letter from the Director
Mother's Day is May 11th
WS Cords for Graduating Seniors
Events
Women's History Month Wrap-up
Women's Rights Alliance Events Rescheduled
April is LGBT Awareness Month
Sexual Assault Awareness Month
People
Goodbye & Thank You to Our WOMS TA's
Welcome New WOMS Associates
Accomplishments
Students
Faculty
Opportunities & Announcements
LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
It’s hard to believe that we are already publishing the last bulletin
of the year! This has been a challenging spring, marked by sorrow but
also the comfort that comes from watching people pull together and help
each other. I particularly appreciate all the individuals who visited
our office in the first weeks after our return in February to share their
stories and give us courage.
This spring, the Women’s Studies program bids goodbye to Lynn Kamenitsa, who has been a member of our faculty since the mid-1990s. Kamenitsa’s Women’s Studies courses have been popular with minors and graduate students, who have especially valued her political analyses, not to mention her amazing talent for talking at top speed without taking a breath! We wish Kamenitsa well as she begins the next phase of her career.
Some NIU faculty members who do not regularly teach for Women’s Studies will be instructing courses for credit in our program next fall. These include Kate Cady (Communication), Kristen Meyers (Sociology), Rosemary Feurer (History), and Virginia Wilcox Gök (Economics).
I’m also pleased to announce that Barbara Burrell from Political Science has agreed to fill in for me while I take the second half of my sabbatical this summer. Together with my friendly office staff, she will be available to help students and answer questions.
If I don’t see you before then, have a restful summer.
MOTHER'S DAY IS MAY 11TH
For Mother's Day, consider giving to the Mothers Memorial Scholarship
Fund in honor of the mother figures in your life. For a contribution of
$5 or more, we will send a beautiful card to your honoree, letting her
know that you've contributed in her honor. For donations of $20 or more,
we have an array of other gifts that we can send to your honoree, including
bags and t-shirts, or you may choose to treat yourself to a gift. Visit
http://www.clas.niu.edu/wstudies/merchandise
or stop by our office for more information or to view the various gift
options.
WS CORDS FOR GRADUATING SENIORS
If you are graduating with a major or minor in Women’s Studies,
stop by Reavis 103 to pick up your special purple cord and show off your
achievements on graduation day!
EVENTS
WOMEN’S HISTORY
MONTH WRAP-UP
This year, our Women's History Month calendar listed 27
events. Due to the February 14th tragedy, 11 of the events were postponed
or canceled, including one of our colloquium speakers, Dr. Robin Roberts.
A wide variety of events remained on the calendar. Attendance at Women's
History Month events was approximately 750, which was down from last year,
but respectable considering the number of events that were canceled.
We kicked off this year's celebration on March 3 with a self-defense workshop offered by Lesley Rigg, as well as Diana Swanson's "What is Feminism, Anyway?" presentation, which was well attended. Both events were featured in the Northern Star, and the Mid-Week also covered the workshop. We then celebrated our fourth annual "This is What a Feminist Looks Like" Sticker Day on March 4, distributing nearly 1300 stickers.
One of the month's highlights was a presentation on March 5 given by Barbara Cole Peters, who talked about enterprising women in NIU's history. Our colloquium speaker, Benita Roth, Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at Binghamton University, joined us on March 25 and presented a seminar, "Racial/Ethnic Feminisms," and lecture, "Necessary Feminists: The Feminist Presence in American Politics." Once again, the Northern Star covered this event.
This year's essay contest winners will be recognized at the Outstanding Women Student Awards Ceremony on Sunday, April 20.
WHM Essay Contest Winners
Graduate—
1st Place: Sharon Hekman’s essay, “Othello, Desdemona, and
the Lovers as Text,” written for 17th Century English Drama (ENGL
642).
2nd Place: Josh Adair’s essay, “House Museums or Walk-In Closets?” written for Race, Class and Gender in Museums (WOMS 510).
Honorable Mentions: Carol Rich’s essays, “Beachy Head and Tintern Abbey: A Critical Comparison,” written for British Romantic Literature (ENGL 560), and “Jane Eyre and Sartor Resartus: How Brontë Declines Carlyle’s Everlasting 'Yea,'” written for Literature and Culture in the Victorian Age (ENGL 414).
Undergraduate—
1st Place: Lucy Sosa’s essay, “Gender–based Violence,”
written for Classical Sociological Theory (SOCI 301).
2nd Place: Saif Patel’s essay, “Carrying a Book of Myths: On Recognizing Modern Motherhood,” written specifically for the Women’s History Month Essay Contest.
Honorable Mentions: Paulette M. Bowman’s “Quilting: A Bibliographical Essay,” written for The American West (History 371) and Anne Yeglic’s, essay “The Wage Gap” written for Women’s Culture in the U.S. (WOMS 430).
We would like to thank everyone who helped to make this year's Women's History Month a success, including our many co-sponsors: NIU Alumni Association, Graduate Colloquium Committee, School of Art, LGBT Studies Program, Departments of Sociology and History, and the DeKalb Area Women's Center.
NIU WOMEN'S RIGHTS
ALLIANCE EVENTS RESCHEDULED
The NIU Women's Rights Alliance will sponsor two performances
of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues.”
The performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 19, and at
7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 20, in the Barsema Hall Auditorium. The events
aim to raise awareness of domestic violence. Ten percent of ticket sales
will benefit Eve Ensler's
anti-violence campaigns, and 90 percent of ticket sales will
go to Safe Passage,
an organization that provides services to victims of domestic and sexual
violence in DeKalb County. Tickets are available at the door, and are
$5 for students with ID and seniors, and $8 for the general public. For
more information, contact Rebekah Kohli at (815) 753-1044, or visit the
NIU Women's Rights Alliance website.
The two-part Vagina Seminar will take place at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 17 and April 24. Student members will address a variety of topics including safer sex and sexually transmitted infections, birth control, the female anatomy, menstruation, and everything else you have ever wanted to know about sex. Both seminars will be in DuSable 204 at 7pm.
APRIL IS LGBT AWARENESS
MONTH
NIU is celebrating LGBT Awareness Month with a variety of events.
Three featured presenters will visit campus:
5:00 p.m., Wednesday, April 2, Richard Meyer, Associate Professor of Art History and Fine Art at the University of Southern California, will present a lecture, "Art, Sex and Censorship from Paul Cadmus to the Patriot Act." Location: Art Building, Room 100.
10:00 a.m., Thursday, April 3, Richard Meyer will offer a seminar, "Outlaw Representation: The Morning After." Location: Reavis Hall, Room 211.
1:00-4:00 p.m., Sunday, April 6, Shane Windmeyer, founder of Campus Pride and Stop the Hate, will offer a leadership seminar for LGBT and ally students. RSVP 815-753-5428.
2:30-4:00 p.m. or 4:30-6:00 p.m., Monday, April 7, Shane Windmeyer will offer "The Impact of Hate" workshop. RSVP 815-753-5428.
7:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 8, Shane Windmeyer will present "Leaders and Allies." Location: Holmes Student Center, Duke Ellington Ballroom.
7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 9, Dylan Scholinski, author of The Last Time I Wore a Dress: A Memoir, will present a lecture, "Mental (ST)ealth, Part 1." Location: Campus Life Building, Room 100.
11:00 a.m., Thursday, April 10, Dylan Scholinski will offer a seminar, "Mental (ST)ealth, Part 2." Location: Reavis Hall, Room 211.
For more information, or for a list of the other exciting events, check out the LGBT Awareness Month calendar, contact the LGBT Resource Center at 815-753-LGBT, or email the LGBT Resource Centere.
SEXUAL ASSAULT
AWARENESS MONTH
April is also Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Among the
events being held are: "Jeans Day" on April 18; "Divas
& Desserts" at 6:00 in Neptune Central, Fireplace Room, on April
21; and, the "Latina Sexual Assault Program" at 6:30 p.m. in
the Latina/o Resource Center on April 23. "Silent Statistics,"
"Project Link," and the "Clothesline Project" will
also be on campus. For a list of all the events, visit the Sexual
Assault Awareness Month calendar of events.
PEOPLE
GOODBYE &
THANK YOU TO OUR T.A.s
We would like to thank Maggie Betscher and Alisa VonHagel
for their excellent work as Women’s Studies teaching assistants.
We wish them the best in their future endeavors! We are also grateful
to Ashley Berman for her wonderful contributions and look forward to her
return as a Women’s Studies teaching assistant in the 2008- 2009
school year.
WELCOME NEW
FACULTY ASSOCIATES
Georgia Brown (Computer Science); Reva Freedman (Computer
Science); Adrienne Holloway (NIU Center for Governmental Studies); Lichuan
Liu (Electrical Engineering); Diane Pospisil-Kinney (Counseling and Student
Development); Brian Sandberg (History); Kerith Woodyard (Communication).
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
STUDENTS
The following Women's Studies students received the 2008 NIU Outstanding
Women Student Award: Lisa Kay, Tara Lydon, and Caresse
John. For more than two decades, the Presidential Commission
on the Status of Women (PCSW) has recognized successful women students
with the Outstanding Women Student Awards. These awards acknowledge students
who assume leadership roles, pursue non-traditional career goals, overcome
significant obstacles, or whose accomplishments might otherwise go unrecognized.
This year’s recipients will be honored on April 20 at the PCSW-sponsored
ceremony. Congratulations!
Maggie Bergren received a USOAR grant to spend five weeks in Barcelona and Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain, this summer. She will be studying historical frame drumming techniques and researching the history of women playing these drums. Maggie gave her junior percussion recital on April 6th.
Lise Schlosser presented her paper, “‘The Mistris of the Feast’: Margaret Cavendish and The World’s Olio,” at the fifty-fourth annual meeting of the Renaissance Society of America conference in Chicago, IL. Her book review, “Mass Marketing and our Daughter,” appeared in Feminist Collections (28.4). Finally, her article, “Mrs. Dalloway and the Duchess: Virginia Woolf Reads and Writes Margaret Cavendish,” was published in Literature Compass (5.2).
FACULTY
Gulsat Aygen co-authored an article, “The production
of Turkish relative clauses in agrammatism: Verb inflection and constituent
order,” which was published in Brain and Language (Dec.
2007).
Adrienne Holloway was hired as a Research Associate at NIU’s Center for Governmental Studies.
Robin Moremen published “Best Friends: The Role of Confidantes in Older Women’s Health” and “The Downside of Friendship: Sources of Strain in Older Women’s Friendships” in the Journal of Women and Aging 20.1/2. Her review of Social Movements in Health (Phil Brown and Stephen Zavestos, eds.) is forthcoming in Social Forces.
Barbara Posadas will receive the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Asian-American Studies, at the Annual Meeting in Chicago, in April.
Kathleen Renk has had her essay, “Jane Eyre as Hunger Artist” published in the March 2008 issue of Women’s Writing (U.K.).
In March 2008, Tanuja Singh was Chair for the International Marketing Track at the Korean Academy of Marketing Science Conference in Shanghai, China. She also co-authored “To Blog Or Not To Blog: A Practitioner’s Guide To Blogging As A Marketing Communications Tool,” published in the Proceedings of the 2007 Academy of Marketing Science World Marketing Congress.
Sharon Sytsma presented her paper, “Socrates, the Absurd Lover,” at the Mid-South Philosophy Association's annual meeting in February, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Lucy Townsend co-authored Deconstructing and Reconstructing Lives: Using Auto/Biography in Educational Settings, with Gaby Weiner, Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh. The book has been accepted for publication by Althouse Press at the University of Western Ontario.
OPPORTUNITIES
& ANNOUNCEMENTS
Proposals are being accepted for the 18th Annual Women’s
Studies Conference, “Girls’ Culture & Girls’ Studies:
Surviving, Reviving, Celebrating Girlhood,” at Southern
Connecticut State University (SCSU). The deadline for submission is Thursday,
June 12, 2008. For more information, email the Women's
Studies Program at SCSU (Attn: Conference Committee), or call
(203) 392-6133.
The National Conference for College Women Student Leaders will be held June 5-7, at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Early-bird registration is $375 and is available until April 18; regular registration is $400 and goes through May 28. Visit the conference website for more information.
The National Women's Studies Association has instituted a program for professors and activists to mentor students going on the job market. Student Mentors will look over and give feedback to students on documents, including cover letters, CVs and/or resumes. To volunteer to be a mentor, or for more information, email Karlyn Crowley.
The 3rd International Conference on Women’s Studies, “Gender at the Crossroads: Multidisciplinary Perspectives,” is accepting paper, panel and event proposals that address various themes related to women and gender studies. The deadline for proposals is June 27, 2008. The conference will be held at the Center for Women’s Studies at Eastern Mediterranean University in Famagusta, North Cyprus, in April 2009. Visit the conference website for more information.
We invite submissions for future WS bulletins. If you know of any information that we should include in future bulletins, please email Rebekah Kohli at with subject heading “Bulletin.” You may also call 753-1044.