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College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Northern Illinois University

WOMEN'S STUDIES
BULLETIN

December 2007/January 2008

Table of Contents:

Women's Studies News
Improve the Lives of Students: Give to Women's Studies
Women's Studies Resources
Events
Women's History Month Update
Confernce for Young Women Update
Crafty Women Holiday Sale
People
Alumni News
Meet a New Faculty Associate 
Accomplishments
Opportunities & Announcements
Correction

WOMEN'S STUDIES NEWS

IMPROVE THE LIVES OF STUDENTS: GIVE TO WOMEN’S STUDIES
As you plan year-end charitable giving, please consider contributing to the Mothers Memorial Scholarship Fund or the Women’s Studies Program! Checks made out to the NIU Foundation may be sent to the Women's Studies Program office (address above). In the comment line, please specify which account you wish to have credited (Women's Studies Program or Mothers Memorial Scholarship Fund).

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WOMEN'S STUDIES RESOURCES
The Women's Studies program subscribes to three periodicals from the University of Wisconsin System's Women's Studies Librarian's Office, which we encourage faculty and students to use. Feminist Collections: A Quarterly of Women's Studies Resources reviews current print, electronic, and audiovisual resources for research and teaching in, women's studies. The latest issue focuses on Girls' Studies and includes reviews of related books, websites, blogs, and videos.

Feminist Periodicals: A Current Listing of Contents reprints the tables of contents from over 150 magazines and journals, including academic journals and special interest periodicals. According to the UW librarian, Feminist Periodicals is "the best key to (the) contents… (and) an invaluable aid for researchers scanning the current literature."

New Books on Women and Feminism offers "the most complete record of English-language feminist publishing available today." Published bi-annually, this periodical contains bibliographic citations on recent English-language books women's studies and gender studies related topics. In addition to providing information on authors, titles, and publishers, New Books also lists prices, ISBN numbers, references to book reviews, as well as hard to find addresses for small presses.

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EVENTS

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH UPDATE
We received a number of creative and high-quality applications for the Women's History Month poster designer position. After reviewing the submissions, our contest judges selected Kim Strom for the position. Strom is currently pursuing her MFA in photography and a graduate certificate in Museum Studies at NIU. She works as a graduate assistant in the NIU Art Museum and Jack Olson Gallery. Visit http://www.kimberlystrom.com to view examples of Strom's photographic work. Watch for her poster design advertising exciting Women's History Month events, which will be out in February!

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CONFERENCE FOR YOUNG WOMEN UPDATE
Thank you to everyone who helped organize, presented at, or contributed toward scholarships for the 2007 Conference for Young Women! Thank you also to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences External Programming office for co-sponsoring the conference. This year's conference was a true success. The participants' comments reflected their enthusiasm. One girl wrote, "It was a great experience and fun to connect with other girls that have goals a lot like ME!" Another wrote, "I learned a lot more than from my mother telling me.?" If you would like to contribute toward scholarships for next year's conference, please send a check to the Women's Studies Program.

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CRAFTY WOMEN HOLIDAY SALE
Once again, this year's CRAFTY WOMEN holiday sale was a real success, and we have many people to thank. We would especially like to thank Georgia Brown for donating her wonderful quilted items, which were a real hit, as well as all of the other crafty women who donated items. Thank you also to Diana Swanson for hosting the opening reception, and Josh Adair, Alex Bennett and Kathleen Turner for providing tasty treats for the reception. We are grateful to Jill Dunlap and the Women's Resource Center for covering the sale during the lunch hour. Finally, thank you to everyone who purchased items. We raised over $1000 to benefit the Mothers Memorial Scholarship fund.

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PEOPLE

ALUMNI NEWS
Jaime Modica graduated from NIU in 2003 with a major in history and Women's Studies minor. Modica won second place in the undergraduate category of our 2002 Women's History Month essay contest. We are thrilled to report that she will become a certified financial planner in December 2007. She is currently working with a colleague to put together a seminar that will focus on finances for women.

Melissa Hebert graduated with a M.A. in art history and a graduate certificate in Women's Studies in 2002. For the past three years, she has worked as a full-time instructor of art history at Black Hawk College in Moline, IL, where she recently received tenure. Last year, she presented "Using Digital Images in the Art Classroom," an online poster session, at the Illinois Online Conference for Teaching and Learning. Since 2005, Hebert has also been a docent educator and visiting lecturer at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, IA.

Sara Tompson was involved with the Women's Studies Program when it was first being established. She received her B.A. in English from NIU in 1979. Later, she received her M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. In 2004, she moved with her husband to Los Angeles, CA, to be closer to family and to enjoy a warmer climate. Currently, she is the head Science/Engineering Librarian at the University of Southern California, where she received the equivalent of tenure in June.

During the 1980s, Tompson learned to fly airplanes in DeKalb. Later, in 2000, she "relearned" to fly. She received her private pilot's license in August 2005, and she received her Aviation Medical Certificate III Class in May 2006. She has been a member of Women in Aviation, and is currently a member of the 99’s International Organization of Women Pilots.

Tompson says that the Women's Studies Program "was an important positive influence" on her when she was at NIU. Visit http://isd.usc.edu/~sarat/SRTCV.pdfto learn more about her many accomplishments.

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MEET A NEW FACULTY ASSOCIATE
Sabiha Daudi is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Education, Curriculum and Instruction in the Department of Teaching and Learning. She received her M.S. in Natural Resources Management (1995) and her Ph.D. in Natural Resource Development (2000) from Ohio State University. She is a life member of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) and an active member of their diversity committee. She gave three presentations at the recent NAAEE Conference in November.

As an environmental educator, her research focuses on female environmental literacy particularly in low literate communities. According to Daudi, it is important to focus on women's environmental literacy, since "women are the true managers of natural resources anywhere in the world." As a teacher educator, she hopes to reach out to low literacy communities through "formal education systems."

This fall, Daudi taught three courses in the Department of Teaching and Learning. In the spring, she will teach a number of courses, including "The Community: An Educational Resource" and "Curriculum Instruction and the Community." In all of her courses, Daudi includes elements of "culture-based and gender-based diversity."

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ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Barbara Burrell presented "Still A Gendered Process?: Men’s and Women’s Campaigns for the US Congress at the Millennium," a lecture on gender and women's political leadership, at St. Anselm College's Institute for Politics, in Manchester, NH, on November 1.

Kate Cady presented "Stop GATT: How Recent U.S. Pro-Labor Argument Reified an International Division of Labor" at the Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Association annual convention in October, in Kansas City, MO. In November, she presented a paper and was a panelist in a session at the National Communication Association annual convention in Chicago, IL. Her paper, "Single mothers of sons and neoliberal visions of work in 1990s U.S. public culture," concentrated on the "anxiety that emerged at the intersection of public discourse concerning neoliberal welfare reform and what antifeminist Christina Hoff Sommers labeled 'the war against boys.'" The Teaching gender beyond "Gender and Communication" session focused on "bringing critical perspectives on gender and sexuality to a wide range of communication courses for which gender is often not seen as a 'legitimate' topic."

Margaret Mbilizi gave two presentations at the American Association of Adult and Continuing Education annual conference that took place October 28-November 2 in Norfolk, VA. She presented "Ethnic Women Scholars in American Universities: Marginalization and Exclusion," which examined "coping strategies for minority women as they encounter prejudice and negotiate spaces in the academy." Her second presentation, "Struggling to Survive by Vulnerable Women and Girls in Malawi: Analysis from a Human Rights Perspective," focused on the challenges that women and girls in Africa face in accessing basic social services, the causes of these struggles, and the effects that they have on women's lives.

Helen Nagata presented “National/International Consciousness in Japan: Self, Place, and Society during the Nineteenth, Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries” on November 27 at the NIU Art Museum. This talk was related to an exhibit coming to the museum in the spring semester. The exhibit will contrast ukiyo-e prints (traditional woodblock prints) with modern Japanese prints. Additionally, the exhibit will include an installation by Ayomi Yoshida, a contemporary female artist trained in the art of woodblock prints. Nagata is also scheduled to chair a panel on Asian art at the Midwest Art History Symposium, which will be held in Chicago in April.

Leila Porter's article, "Habitat use and ranging in Callimico goeldii," which she co-authored with Sarah Sterr and Paul Garber, was published in the International Journal of Primatology, vol. 28. She also co-authored "Niche expansion of a cryptic primate, Callimico goeldii, while in mixed species troops" with Paul Garber, which was published in the American Journal of Primatology, vol. 69. Finally, her book review, "Parenting for Primates," was published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, vol. 132.

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OPPORTUNITIES & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Antioch University is offering a study abroad program on Comparative Women's and Gender Studies in Europe during fall 2008. Students can study in Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, or the United Kingdom. For more information, email Antioch Education Abroad, or visit their website.

Mariame Kaba and Michelle VanNatta are accepting submissions for their edited volume, Resisting Street Harassment (working title). The anthology will focus on "organized and collective efforts to resist" street harassment of girls and women. Email Mariame and Michelle at for more information. The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2008.

South Suburban Family Shelter, a domestic violence agency, is accepting applications for spring internships. For more information, contact Brianne L. Hetman at (708) 798-7737, or email her.

The Women's Studies Department at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, is accepting proposals for the Breaking Boundaries, Forging Connections: Feminist Interdisciplinary Theory and Practice conference, to be held April 11-13, 2008. All proposals must be submitted by Friday, January 04, 2008. For more information, visit the conference website.

The College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, MN, is accepting proposals for the Inclusive Science: Articulating Theory, Practice, and Action conference to be held June 16-18, 2008. The conference will focus on intersections of science and feminism. Proposals are due by January 15, 2008. For more information, visit the conference website, or email the conference organizers.

Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies is accepting paper abstracts for a special issue, "Knowledge that Matters: Feminist Epistemology, Methodology and Science Studies." Abstracts must be received by September 1, 2008. For more information and further submission guidelines, visit the journal online.

CORRECTION
In the "Alumni News" section of our September bulletin, Shanon (Fender) Dickerson's name was misspelled. We apologize for this error.

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.

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