Center
CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN IN  SOCIETY ?  UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
2001
AUTUMN
from the
INSIDE
centerview ............. 2
upcoming ............... 3
rigs ........................... 4
kudos........................ 5
creative center ...... 6
news ....................... 8
awards ................ 10
csws ..................... 11
author?s note ...... 12
By Lynne Fessenden, Ecological Conversations Program DirectorD
uring the final year of Ecological Conversations, CSWS welcomes another five resident
research fellows. The Rockefeller Foundation?funded program, Ecological Conversations:
Gender, Science, and the Sacred, has brought together a diverse group of scholars and
activists to engage in scientific, political, and spiritual discourses raised by the global nexus of
women?s and environmental movements. During the past two years, several UO faculty and
graduate students have joined the conversation via an ongoing program seminar, a public
lecture series, and CSWS-sponsored retreats and conferences.
Creating a context where a diverse cohort of scholars are given the opportunity to interact and
participate in an ongoing dialogue has had a catalytic impact on the work of all involved. In
addition to providing stimulation for individual research endeavors (collectively, six book manu-
scripts have been submitted and four journal articles published), this arrangement has sparked a
number of creative collaborations, including publishing opportunities for graduate students. The
participants, though rarely in agreement on issues, have gained a great deal in recognizing the
tangible value of bringing a variety of perspectives to the table.
The theme for this third and final year of conversations is the integration of scientific and
sacred epistemologies in investigations of ecology, cosmology, health, and healing. We intend
for the dialogue to aid us in reconceptualizing our relationships to place, land, and other living
beings. Two international fellows will be joining us fall term, Imelda Bacudo and Veronica
Brady (see page 9). During winter and spring term, three fellows from the United States will
visit. Nimachia Hernandez, a Native American of Blackfoot descent and a scholar of linguis-
tics and human development, has spent the past several years interviewing Blackfoot elders
about their creation stories, cosmology, and views of nature. Philosopher Edrie Sobstyl is
researching ways in which science and the sacred are entwined and reconciled in ecofeminist
science fictions. And religious studies scholar Sarah Taylor is currently documenting and
analyzing the growing movement of environmentally active Catholic nuns in North America?
specifically the green nuns? adical resistance to biotech and genetic engineering technologies
as spiritual crusades. (See public lecutre schedule on page 9.)
The Rockefeller Foundation has generously provided funding so that all fifteen of our
Ecological Conversations fellows will return to the University of Oregon for a program finale
next May. This event will allow the fellows from different years to meet one another, as well as
offer the public and the greater university community a chance to hear some of the culminat-
ing ideas from the three-year project.
This final gathering of fellows will focus our collective insight toward a dialogue of re-
imagining. Even as we critique current environmental discourses for their limitations and
exclusionary practices, we will imagine paradigms and power structures that are inclusive of all
life forms; that take diverse spiritual beliefs and nontraditional ecological practices seriously as
ways of knowing; and that aim to nourish more just and sustainable relationships among
humans and other forms of life, men and women, those who currently over-consume the
earth?s resources, and those whose basic needs for food, shelter, health, safety and dignity are
unmet. We will pivot the focal point among the triad of terms that have guided our three-year
conversation: gender, science, and the sacred?as we work to build a provocative vision
connecting ecological sustainability and social justice.
For more information and continual updates, visit the Ecological Conversations Program
website at: http://ecocon.uoregon.edu, or call Lynne Fessenden at (541) 346-5399.
A Crowning Year of Conversations
Creating a context
where a diverse
cohort of scholars
are given the oppor-
tunity to interact and
participate in an
ongoing dialogue has
had a catalytic
impact on the work
of all involved.
2
centerview An Ecological Conversation
with Giovanna Di Chiro
Giovanna Di Chiro is assistant professor
College in Pennsylvania. Her research
focuses on the transformation and produc-
tion of environmental science by women
environmental justice activists engaging in
community-based politics. She was a
Rockefeller Humanities fellow at CSWS last
spring and is currently at work on a book,
Uncommon Expertise: Women, Science, and
Environmental Politics.
Q: Your research focuses on women who
work along the ?margins? vironmen-
tal policy arena due to their race, class,
ethnicity, and nationality. How are such
activists gaining access?
A: What I?ve been seeing in this country
and many others around the world is the
phenomenon that women community-based
activists are the dominant force in the rank
and file of most environmental organiza-
tions. The women activists I?ve seen aren?t
necessarily the ones with the microphones in
front of their faces, but they?re the ones with
the staying power beyond the time when it
becomes frustrating or when it?s no longer
flashy in the media.
One of the reasons ordinary women get
involved in environmental struggles is due to
the daily experiences and observations they
make while fulfilling their responsibilities to
take care of their families?they recognize
when things aren?t going well, when things
are starting to deteriorate: the quality of the
water; the capacity of the fields to grow food;
the health of the farm animals or pets; the
health of children, the elderly, etc. These are
the kinds of things that women notice. And,
that kind of knowledge, which is conven-
tionally viewed by the scientific establish-
ment as anecdotal or not very systematic, is
very important in understanding how our
environment and our relationships to it can
be made more sustainable.
Q: Are these women part of a new
movement?
A: The environmental justice movement
is, I think, an extension of the civil rights
movement and other social justice struggles
with a more explicit focus on human rela-
tionships with the environment. It thinks
about the environment as a very basic
relationship with nature?eating, breathing,
drinking, making a living, raising children?
that insists that humans are part of nature.
This is different than the more rarefied,
upper-class notion of environmentalism that
separates humans from nature. A big irony in
my mind is that ?saving nature?
mainstream environmentalist sense is about
separating yourself from nature. It?s a way of
occluding close-to-home, everyday nature
and justifying that by protecting ?wilderness?
or exotic, out-there nature.
Q: That means you write-off what?s in the
city.
A: And the city is coded as a place where
poor people live, factory workers, and people
of color, what was termed in the nineteenth
century as the ?dangerous classes.?So the
urban environment is already  ?lost to
nature;? it?s considered dangerous.  ?Nature?
becomes the domain of the middle- and
upper-middle classes. The environmental
justice movement, again, largely a movement
of women, is showing that, rather than being
separate, humans are profoundly a part of
nature.
Q: Do women have a special ability to
grasp such issues and to work together in
ways that men can?t?
A: I think that it?s a historical and socio-
logical phenomenon, not a biological or
hormonal one, that has placed many women
where core environmental planning is felt
most strongly. It has to do with who has
responsibility for what in the society; histori-
cally, women?s social roles have included the
task of figuring out what people need. As a
result, the focus of women?s organizations
tends to put people at the center.
Q: I guess women working together
within these emerging networks, trying to
live harmoniously with nature and make
their communities healthier is a hopeful sign.
We get so much doom and gloom regarding
the environment.
A: I certainly think the environmental
justice movement is driven by hope. That is
one of the things that has inspired me. I?ve
traveled around the world and interviewed a
lot of women, including women who live in
really terrible circumstances. But, because they
have adopted an activist standpoint, these
women have a sense of hope. One woman
activist I spoke with puts it this way, ?This is
not revolution. This is evolution.? s a kitchen-
table, person-by-person form of change.
Giovanna Di Chiro
CSWS FACULTY AND STAFF
Sandra Morgen, director
Judith Musick, associate director
Marie Harvey, director of research
Shirley Marc, office coordinator
Lin Reilly, accountant
Diana Taylor, office specialist
Cheri Brooks, dissemination
specialist
Meredith Roberts Branch,
administrative assistant
Research Assistants and Associates
Ecological Conversations
Program: Lynne Fessenden,
Tina Richardson
Feminist Humanities Project:
Jan Emerson, Dan Gillfilan,
Eric Lawson
Welfare Project: Joan Acker,
Kate Barry, Lisa Gonzales,
Terri Heath, Jill Weigt
Women?s Health Research
Initiative: Sheryl Thorburn Bird,
Judy Hibbard
Special Projects: Barbara Sutton
For more information:
(541) 346-5015
http://csws.uoregon.edu
From the Center is published three
times per year by the Center for
the Study of Women in Society at
the University of Oregon. It is
designed by Lori Howard
(University Publications) and
edited by Cheri Brooks, with
assistance by Shirley Marc.
3
upcoming
OCTOBER
5?7: Conference: Gender in Motion: Divisions of Labor and Cultural Change in Late Imperial and
Modern China. Gerlinger Lounge, University of Oregon. Contact Lori O?Hollaren for informa-
tion, 346-1521, loholl@oregon.uoregon.edu.
10: Brown Bag: ?For the Love of the Tune: Irish Women and Traditional Irish Music,? ol
Spellman, folklore. 330 Hendricks Hall, noon?1:00 P.M.
Teaching and Tea: ?Minding the Gaps: The Feminist Humanities Project Does England,? udith
Musick and Dan Gilfillan, CSWS, 330 Hendricks Hall, 4:00?5:30 P.M.
15: Reception: CSWS affiliates and new women faculty members, Collier House (1170 East
13th Avenue, across from the EMU), 3:30?5:30 P.M. RSVP: 346-5015.
17: Brown Bag: CSWS Grants Workshop, S. Marie Harvey, CSWS research director, 330
Hendricks Hall, noon?1:00 P.M.
25: Ecological Conversations Public Lecture: Imelda Bacudo, ?Healers in Contemporary
Third-World Economic Realities,? y Browsing Room, 7:00 P.M. (See page 9.)
NOVEMBER
7: Teaching and Tea: ?Po?sie en ligne: Po?tes du Qu?bec,? en McPherson, Romance languages,
330 Hendricks Hall, 4:00?5:30 P.M.
8: Ecological Conversations Public Lecture: Veronica Brady, ?Recovering Sacred Ground,?
Knight Library Browsing Room, 7:00 P.M. (See page 9.)
14: Brown Bag: ?Native Women, Identity, and Cultural Survival,?  international studies
(2000 Laurel Award recipient), 330 Hendricks Hall, noon?1:00 P.M.
28: Brown Bag: ?Transparence and Transcendence in a Dance Aesthetic: The Language of Self
Portrayed in Contemporary Concert Dance,? ennifer Knight Dills, dance instructor, 330
Hendricks Hall, noon?1:00 P.M.
DECEMBER
4: Teaching and Tea: ?Hints from Hildegard: Medieval Medical Recipes from Hildegard of
Bingen,? an Emerson, CSWS, 330 Hendricks Hall, 4:00?5:30 P.M.
Events
CSWS is continuing its
schedule of interesting
talks and workshops by
faculty members and
graduate students who are
recipients of CSWS
Research Grants. These
?brown bag lunches?
place on Wednesdays at
noon. We invite you to
join us. Call 346-5015 if
you have questions.
Do Conspiracy Beliefs Foster High-risk Behaviors?
CSWS research associate Sheryl Thorburn Bird is pursuing an exciting research project
ceptive services. Along with colleague Laura Bogart, an assistant professor of psychology
at Kent State University who is a CSWS affiliate, Bird has looked at patients? eports of
discrimination by health care providers on the basis of race and socioeconomic status. Not
surprisingly, they have found evidence that such experiences affect both utilization of and
satisfaction with medical care.
Bird and Bogart now are looking more specifically at the relationship between race-
based discrimination and reproductive health care. Their preliminary work suggests that
perceiving discrimination when seeking family planning or birth control services can affect
or limit contraceptive choices.
A related issue is the prevalence of conspiracy beliefs among African Americans regard-
ing birth control and HIV/AIDS. Bird says the notion that HIV was engineered by the
government or that AIDS medication is a form of crude experimentation is not surprising
given the historic context. ?It?s not bizarre when you look at real things that have hap-
pened,? ys. For instance, in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, public health workers
studied the effects of untreated syphilis in African American men for forty years. And even
in recent years, initiatives have tried to force the Norplant device onto poor mothers.
A previous study showed that one-quarter of African Americans in a sample believed
that family planning programs were a form of genocide. Prior research has also found that
as many as 70 percent of African Americans endorse conspiracy beliefs regarding HIV/
AIDS. Bird and Bogart now want to examine whether such beliefs are associated with
high-risk sexual behaviors and, thereby, pose a barrier to HIV prevention.
4
rigs
The Gender in Historical and
Transnational China RIG is holding an
interdisciplinary conference October 5?7, 2001,
in Gerlinger Lounge. Two years in the plan-
ning, Gender in Motion: Divisions of Labor and
Cultural Change in Late Imperial and Modern
China offers an international forum for more
than twenty invited scholars across the social
sciences and humanities to share their research
on the changing definitions of gender bound-
aries and the spatial division of labor in late-
imperial, Republican, and the People?s Republic
of China. For information on the conference,
contact Lori O?Hollaren, 346-1521,
loholl@oregon.uoregon.edu.
The interdisciplinary ?China?
together those interested in Chinese culture
and society. It focuses on the study of the
interaction between the representation of
gender, ideology, and cultural practices in all
periods of Chinese history. Typically, members
meet once a month to discuss recent publica-
tions in the field or their own works in
progress. Contact Maram Epstein, 346-4017,
maram@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Members of the Native American Com-
munities RIG will be attending the All Women
of Red Nations: Weaving Connections conference
at Southern Connecticut State University in
New Haven, Connecticut, in October. Five RIG
members from different disciplines will be
holding a panel on Native women in higher
education. The RIG engages in topics related to
American Indian/Alaskan Native research
issues, including literature, film, and academic
works. Contact Zelda Haro, zelda157@juno.com.
The Social Sciences Feminist Network
has been awarded a RIG Development Grant
($6,000) and has designated two new coordi-
nators for the upcoming year. Members will
continue working on a CSWS history project,
hold three retreats throughout the academic
year (one each term), and develop the RIG?s
website (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/
~ssfnrig/). Contact either Hava Gordon,
hgordon@darkwing.uoregon.edu, or Mara
Fridell, mfridell@darkwing.uoregon.edu.
The Jewish Feminist Reading Group
meets monthly to discuss specific readings,
including literary, historical, and theoretical
works, which contribute to the ongoing
discourse on the changing roles and historical
understandings of women in Judaism and in
Jewish life and culture. Over the year, RIG
members may share their work and the group
may host speakers from other institutions. An
initial meeting will take place in October to set
the reading list for the year. Contact Judith
Baskin, 346-5984, jbaskin@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Last year, the Sex, Gender, and the Law
RIG sponsored three visiting scholars:
Adrienne Davis, a leader of the emerging field
critical race feminism; Hendrick Hartog, a
leading legal historian; and Eileen Boris,
professor of women?s studies at the University
of California, Santa Barbara. The RIG plans to
continue the visiting seminar series during
2001?2, sponsoring one visitor each term. Fall
term?s visitor is feminist legal theorist
Katherine Franke of Columbia Law School,
who will discuss her newly published article on
conceptions of sexuality, ?Theorizing Yes.?
Contact Peggy Pascoe, 346-3406,
ppascoe@darkwing.uoregon.edu.
The Violence, Gender, and Society RIG
promotes research, community collaboration,
and information dissemination in the area of
violence and gender. This year members are
engaged in a program evaluation of the
Transitional Program, a component of
Womenspace, the local agency responding to
domestic violence. This year RIG members plan
to finish this evaluation, use it as pilot data for
grant writing, and bring in speakers of interest
to the research community relative to gender
and violence. Contact Deborah Olson, 346-
2483, dlolson@oregon.uoregon.edu.
The Women and Economic Development
RIG has existed in suspended animation for
some time, as some of its members have been
consumed by a research project on welfare
reform in Oregon (see http://csws.uoregon.
edu/welfare/welfare.shtml). That work is
ongoing, but they plan to hold a general RIG
meeting this fall. For information, contact Joan
Acker, 344-5727, jacker@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Other RIGs
The Reclaiming the Past RIG supports
scholars and students working in all humani-
ties disciplines with a focus on the past.
Contact Gina Psaki, 346-4042, rpsaki@oregon.
The Wired RIG provides collaborating
opportunities for people interested in exploring
the web?s use in promoting research on women
and gender. Contact Judith Musick, 346-5099,
musick@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Do you want to join a RIG
or start a new one?
Get the details on the
CSWS website,
http://csws.uoregon.edu,
or contact Shirley Marc for
materials and information,
(541) 346-5084.
5
kudosKudos!
Judith Baskin, Judaic studies and religious
studies, gave several invited papers last year,
including the plenary presentation, ?Religious
Marginalizaton and Personal Empowerment:
The Elements of Jewish Women?s Piety in Early
Modern Central Europe,? Attending to Early
Modern Women: Gender, Culture, and Change,
sponsored by the Center for Renaissance and
Baroque Studies at the University of Maryland.
She produced a number of publications (in
both English and Hebrew), among them:
?Women in Contemporary Judaism,? in The
Blackwell Companion to Judaism (Blackwell,
2001), and ?Women Saints in Judaism: Dolce of
Worms,? Women Saints in World Religions
(SUNY Press, 2000).
Liz Bohls, English, received a Humanities
Center Research Fellowship for fall term to
work on her book, whose working title is
?Caribbean Crossings: Identity and Place in the
British West Indies, 1770?1833.?
Lorriane Brundige, philosophy, organized
the first annual conference for the Center on
Diversity and Community last spring. The
Office of Multicultural Affairs gave her an
Excellence Award and she was one of three
recipients of the UO Award for Graduate
Service. She also co-organized Aboriginal Rights
and Philosophy in Winnipeg, Canada, last June,
where she gave a presentation on ways in
which academic philosophers can continue to
dialogue with Aboriginal people regarding
issues of ?human rights.?
Barbara Cook, English, contributed
?Enclosed by Racist Politics: Space and Place in
Harriet Jacob?s Slave Narrative? The African
American Environmental Imagination (Rutgers
University, forthcoming). She also contributed
to two composition conferences, presented a
paper at the Association for the Study of
Literature and the Environment (ASLE)
conference, and was appointed as 2001?03
graduate liaison to the ASLE.
Jennifer Knight Dills, dance, received a grant
to help fund the presentation of the second
annual concert of her contemporary dance
company, the Performers Project, this February.
Bonnie Doren and Mike Benz, College of
Education, published ?Gender Equity Issues in
the Vocational and Transition Services and
Employment Outcomes Experienced by Young
Women with Disabilities? Double Jeopardy:
Addressing Gender Equity in Special Education
(State University of New York Press).
Joy Gall, College of Education, co-author of
Educational Research: An Introduction, was
honored, with co-author Meredith ?Mark?
by the translation of their book into Chinese for
use in mainland Chinese education.
Amalia Gladhart, Romance languages,
presented ?The Performance of Memory or the
Memory of Performance?? Performance and
Politics in the Americas: Memory, Atrocity, and
Resistance held in Monterrey, Mexico, in June
(with the help of a CSWS faculty travel grant).
Margaret Hallock, Wayne Morse Center for
Law and Politics, is receiving the Woman of
Achievement Award this year from the Oregon
Commission for Women.
Susan Hardwick, geography, has a new
book out, Mythic Galveston: Re-inventing
America?s Third Coast (Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity Press), and was recently appointed to serve
on the National Council of the American
Geographical Society.
Ellen Herman, history, was awarded a
major research grant for 2001?2003 from the
National Science Foundation Science and
Technology Studies Program for her project
?Kinship by Design: Adoption Science and
Scientific Adoption in Modern America.? s
also participating in a Mellon Foundation
seminar on ?Contested Childhood in a Chang-
ing Global Order?
Michigan?s Advanced Study Center.
Kathleen Karlyn, English, presented her
paper ??I?m Not My Mother?: Third Wave
Feminism, Girl Culture, and SCREAM?
Console-ing Passions, an international confer-
ence on feminism, video, and television in
Bristol, England.
Karen Kelsky, anthropology, has her first
book coming out this fall from Duke University
Press, Women on the Verge: Japanese Women,
Western Dreams. She?s also giving the keynote
address at Transforming Cultures/Shifting
Boundaries: Asian Diasporas and Identities in
Australia and Beyond, a conference at the
University of Queensland in Brisbane this
November.
Sonya Lawson, music, is now an assistant
professor of music history and viola at Middle
Tennessee State University, where she will be
teaching American music, undergraduate music
history, and private lessons to viola students.
Judith Raiskin, women?s studies, received a
Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Research
Fellowship at the University of Hawai?i, Manoa,
where she will be working through the Office
for Women?s Research on their initiative,
?Gender and Globalization in Asia and the
Pacific.? The fellowship will allow Raiskin to
spend time in library collections of the Pacific
Islands and Hawai?i in support of her forth-
coming book, Navigating the Narratives of the
New Pacific.
Tina Richardson, English, presented
?Ecofeminist Literary Activism: An Emerging
Tradition? Association for the Study of
Literature and Environment meeting and
?Corresponding Realities: The Letters of Rachel
Carson and George Crile Jr.? Annual
Writers? ence in Honor of Rachel Carson.
She also has a paper forthcoming in The African
American Environmental Imagination.
Janet Wasko, journalism and communica-
tion, has two new books in print: Understanding
Disney: The Manufacture of Fantasy (Polity Press)
and Dazzled by Disney? The Global Disney
Audience Project (Leicester University Press),
edited with Mark Phillips and Eileen Meehan.
Overwhelmed?
Because of all the incred-
ible things CSWS affiliates
are doing, we had to save
some announcements for
the winter issue. But keep
the good news coming.
E-mail notices to Cheri
Brooks, cbrooks@
darkwing.uoregon.edu,
about papers published,
awards won, presenta-
tions made, and honors
bestowed.
creative center
6
creative By Judith Musick, Associate DirectorT
he entire core group of the Feminist
Humanities Project (FHP)?seven of us?
went to England this summer on a research trip
with the combined support of FHP and a
Research Interest Group (RIG) development
grant. Barbara Altmann and Gina Psaki from
Romance languages, Louise Bishop from the
honors college, and Stephanie Wood from
history (all members of the Reclaiming the Past
RIG) joined FHP staffers Dan Gilfillan, Jan
Emerson, and me in what was a truly unique
experience in collaborative humanities research.
Our purpose was to look at medieval manu-
scripts and refine a number of research ideas for
which we could seek external support and to start
the process of expanding our virtual resource
bank to include material on women in medieval
Europe. We spent most of our time at the
Wellcome Trust Library of Medical History in
London and the Bodleian Library at Oxford, with
a few shorter visits to the British Library, the
Imperial War Museum, and the British Museum.
That we went at all was the partial fulfillment
of a dream Stephanie Wood and I first articu-
lated last summer when we visited the Bodleian
in search of images for our first women in
history database,  ?Women and Gender in
Ancient Mesoamerica.? We agreed that it would
be grand if others in FHP could come to Oxford
for a couple of weeks and spend days in the
manuscript collections and evenings in informal
seminars. And we were right?it was grand.
At the Wellcome we discovered many
incredible slides, medical recipes, and other
texts. We found so much that we will probably
have to spend at least a month or even two just
to make a clear listing of it all. On July 11, Jan
enthusiastically recorded in her travelogue:
?Stephanie, Dan, and I found great stuff in
the iconographic catalogs. Looked at the first
amazing MS. It?s a star! Has . . . wound man and
diagrams of female reproductive organs. It?s in
bright colors?we?ve only seen black and white
reproductions until now. The small painting of a
caesarian operation stood out?especially the
red. I can?t imagine such operations being
performed 800 years ago.?
The medievalists among us were thrilled to
go to the Bodleian and to see so many wonder-
ful manuscripts firsthand. Barbara Altmann
wrote on July 16:
?Oxford and the Bodleian! We all got chills
going into the Duke Humphrey manuscript
room. These preeminent collections have such a
reputation, and are such cornerstone resources
for medievalists, that getting access, obtaining a
reader?s card, is a pilgrimage of sorts. Louise was
visibly moved?it is, above all and not surpris-
ingly, a shrine of English materials.?
LIBRARY LOGISTICS
I wasn?t completely na?ve about the complexi-
ties of starting this project, but I did underesti-
mate just how much time and effort it would
take to sort out each library?s rules and learn
their systems. I am glad we concentrated on only
two. Jan?s journal entry (July 12) about our trip to
the British Library reminds me of one of my
doubting moments.
?Judith and I went to the British Library to get
reader cards and file the recommendation letter
with manuscripts so we can gain access. A long,
long wait. It was hard for Judith to not think of it
as a waste of time. It could be more efficient?
we sent all the material ahead of time. But they
still do individual photos and processing onsite.
The manuscript people seemed very open to our
accessing the manuscripts?a very different
attitude from that in the e-mails. So now anyone
in the project can come here for individual and
project research for the next five years.?
In every case, meeting and talking to the
library staff personally was invaluable. It helped
ROAD N
The Feminist
Project Doe
TEACHING AND TEA
A monthly series of informal
seminars whose purpose is to
facilitate teaching about
women past and present,
encourage collaboration
among high school and
university teachers, and make
use of new digital technologies
to enhance the teaching of
gender in history. 330
Hendricks Hall, University of
Oregon; 4:00?5:30 P.M.
FALL SCHEDULE
Tuesday, October 10
Minding the Gaps: The Feminist
Humanities Project Does England
Judith Musick and
Dan Gilfillan, CSWS
Wednesday, November 7
Po?sie en ligne: Po?tes du Qu?bec
Karen McPherson,
Romance languages
Tuesday, December 4
Hints from Hildegard: Medieval
Medical Recipes from Hildegard
of Bingen
Jan Emerson, CSWS
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7
center
us gain access to actual manuscripts instead of
reproductions, and will aid in securing the
permissions necessary to publish the images on
our website (another dreadfully time-consum-
ing logistical process). I believe we have
initiated relationships that may well lead to
significant international collaboration.
GETTING TOGETHER
To me the most interesting part of our
summer came from trying to understand how
we each work and then experimenting with
ways to work together?to do collaboratively
what most of us had only done alone. On July
17, Barbara reflected:
?Something that has become apparent is
that most humanities scholars are used to
working alone, with a great deal of freedom and
independence, and are not in the habit of
sharing protocols, checking in with others on
their progress, etc. It really is like trying to herd
cats. It is a hard balancing act, to look at things
of interest to me but also to contribute to the
growing database.?
Balancing the needs of a database and the
thrill of scholarly treasure-hunting sometimes
was tricky, as Dan explained in one of his
journal entries:
?I feel that I have to curb their enthusiasm
and remind them of the needs of the database.
It is in this management capacity that I feel less
comfortable, because I understand the excite-
ment and awe that comes with looking at these
old manuscripts and discovering their richness.
The question I keep reminding myself of is:
How do we obtain the minimal bits of informa-
tion we need for the database without imped-
ing on scholarly research, without extinguishing
this excitement??
We spent a lot of time talking about what we
were doing and how to do it. It was fascinating
but sometimes frustrating. As Jan put it:
?We really do work individually most of the
time as scholars and writers. I feel we have too
many meetings, yet when we?re in them I see
the need for them?we have to keep correcting
goals and communications. We can go off on
our own, come back, meet together, disagree,
and work it out. Basically mutual support is
what I see, feel.?
Yet we continually taught each other about
fresh materials, vocabularies, approaches, and
sensibilities. On July 13, I wrote:
?It?s university in reverse?where I am the
lone student and my six colleagues are the
teachers. Imagine a classroom where the student
stands in front and asks the assembled faculty
any questions she wishes. It is the humanities
education that, as a student of sociology, I never
had.?
Because we all brought different backgrounds
and skills to the group, we learned the value of
collaboration, as Barbara explained:
?It occurs to me that this road show we are
producing as we go is really a faculty seminar. I
have learned a good deal from my colleagues on
any number of subjects, and I see that for those
of us who have done little or no manuscript
research before, this is hands-on training with
more experienced guides to help out. Louise is
the case in point. But Dan, too. He was obviously
thrilled to have touched a 600-year-old book. I
have become conversant, at least a little bit, with
the sort of medical texts that circulated in the late
Middle Ages. And I have watched Jan, Dan,
Stephanie and Judith make use of iconographic
archives that I would never have approached on
my own. I believe we?ve created a unique
training program.?
The next day she added:
?I have looked at types of manuscripts and
texts I knew existed but had never seen before,
have had to read and work with manuscripts in
Latin and Middle English as well as French, have
had to call on my colleagues to help explain,
decipher, evaluate. I feel better educated as a
medievalist for having done all this. It has caused
me to broaden, to leave my usual area of exper-
tise and investigate other vital areas of medieval
culture. In that sense, this is a rare privilege.?
In addition to gleaning enough material to
feed our collective and individual imaginations
for at least the next ten months, we also had a
great deal of fun. There was much laughter, a
birthday party (for Jan), good meals, and the
sharing of discoveries. It was an amazing adult
field trip. I am ready to do it again. Next time?
Italy?
NOTES:
t Humanities
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Photos?left to right:
Celebrating Jan?s birthday
in Oxford. Louise, Barbara,
Gina, and Jan in front of the
Bodleian Library. Barbara
and Louise at the Wellcome
Trust Library of Medical
History. An evening
seminar at Oxford.
The Feminist Humanities
Project (FHP) is dedicated to
advancing the historical
study of women and gender
in all areas of humanities
teaching and research.
Launched in the spring of
1997, FHP is a major
research initiative of CSWS
that grew out of the success-
ful collaborative efforts of the
Reclaiming the Past RIG.
Keep track of the progress of
FHP?s Virtual Resource Bank
on its website: http://server.
fhp.uoregon.edu/FHP/index.
html-ssi.
8
news
Beth Heads South to Stanford
CSWS?s newsletter
dissemination
specialist, Beth Hege
Piatote, has left
Oregon to join the
doctoral program in
Modern Thought and
Literature at
Stanford University.
Her work will focus
on Native American literature and compara-
tive ethnic studies. A highly sought-after
scholar, Beth has been awarded a prestigious
Ford Foundation fellowship for three years,
in addition to a Stanford fellowship.
Beth came to CSWS in 1997, where a part-
time appointment allowed her also to teach
journalism and English courses. A gifted
writer, she took on additional freelance
projects and held a ten-week writing resi-
dency in Joseph, Oregon.
Beth says, ?Working at CSWS helped me
to define my academic goals because I was
exposed to so many exciting ideas and great
thinkers on a daily basis.?
?I loved working at CSWS and
will miss my colleagues and
the stimulating environment a
great deal. I am especially
grateful to Sandra Morgen for
finding a place for me at the
center and for always support-
ing my work and interests.?
?Beth Hege Piatote
She adds, ?I had a lot of fun working on
the various publications of the center and
will miss collaborating with our amazing
designer, Lori Howard, who also became a
dear friend.?
Beth?s replacement, Cheri Brooks, has a
background in writing, editing, and communi-
cations. She has been handling publicity for
the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics
and has a master?s degree in environmental
studies. She is excited to be collaborating with
all the wonderful scholars and incredible
people at CSWS. Contact her at cbrooks@
darkwing.uoregon.edu or 346-2264.
2001?2
CSWS Executive
Committee
Barbara Altmann,
Romance Languages
Margaret Hallock,
Wayne Morse Center for
Law and Politics
S. Marie Harvey,
CSWS
Ellen Herman,
History
Leece Lee,
International Studies
Sandra Morgen,
director, CSWS
Judith Musick,
CSWS
Jane Gathoni Njoora,
Education
Martha Ravits,
Women?s Studies
Susana Salgado,
Counseling Psychology
Merle Weiner,
Law
Elizabeth Wheeler,
English
Shelley Winship,
Development
Naomi Zack,
Philosophy
Sandra Morgen Honored by Colleagues
In May, the University of Oregon recognized CSWS director
in education with the 2001 Charles E. Johnson Memorial
Award. First bestowed by the UO faculty in 1980, the award
honors faculty members who demonstrate exceptional
service to the university and its community and who exem-
plify the principles affirmed by former UO President Charles
E. Johnson.
The Johnson Award is the most prestigious award given to
any faculty member at the University of Oregon.
Morgen?s work reflects the confluence of research, public
service, and social change, such as her study of Oregon
families who left welfare and her subsequent testimony
before Oregon legislative committees. UO President Dave
Frohnmayer remarked that her ?tireless efforts to connect scholarly research with social
change and her valuable service . . . . make this a particularly fitting award.?
Linda Fuller, professor of psychology, noted, ?Sandra Morgen restructured CSWS and
opened the organization to graduate students, community members, and minority groups
whose voices weren?t being heard. She established research interest groups . . . that got
people who weren?t always talking to begin dialogues with one another.?
Morgen received the Johnson Award just after learning that she?
professor at the university. If that wasn?t enough, she also recently completed a book, Into
Our Own Hands: The Woman?s Health Movement in the United States (Rutgers University
Press), and edited an anthology with Nancy Tuana, Engendering Rationalities (SUNY Press).
Congratulations, Sandi!
9
news
The Ecological
Conversations Seminar?
the ongoing discussion
session between faculty
members, graduate
students, and the visiting
research fellows?will
meet fall term on alternate
Thursdays at 3:00 P.M. in
330 Hendricks Hall. If you
are interested in joining us
or in finding out the topics
for discussion this fall,
please call Lynne at 346-
5399, or e-mail lfessend@
oregon.uoregon.edu.
Read more about the
Ecological Conversations
Program online at
http://ecocon.uoregon.edu
By Lynne Fessenden, Ecological
Conversations Program DirectorC
SWS will host two visiting research
fellows fall term through the Rockefeller
Foundation funded Ecological Conversa-
tions Program. Imelda Bacudo will be in
residence the entire term and Veronica Brady
will join the center during the months of
November and December.
Imelda Bacudo is
currently working as
an assistant environ-
mental economist for
the National Inte-
grated Protected
Areas Programme
(NIPAP), a special
project of the
Philippine govern-
ment. She works
with multiple sectors (agri-fishing commu-
nities, indigenous people, women, govern-
ment, and tourism) to map out management
plans for protected areas of her country.
Holding a B.A. in communication and an
M.A. in women and development, Imelda
(who goes by Dada), has long combined her
activism with her scholarship by working for
several NGOs that advocate for women?s
issues in the context of third-world eco-
nomic poverty. After shifting to full-time
environmental work in recent years, she
maintains active links with the Philippine
women?s movement as a volunteer.
While in residence at CSWS, Dada will be
writing up her research on a precolonial,
matriarchal religious sect inhabiting the
sacred site of Mt. Banahaw in the Philip-
pines. The practice of this nationalistic,
matriarchal, and Christianized but animistic
religion is deeply connected with nurturing
the earth. Dada?s case study will trace the
movement?s roots and survival, determining
its prospects and contemporary role (as
natural resource managers) in modern third-
world economies.
Veronica Brady is
a senior research
fellow in the Depart-
ment of English at
the University of
Western Australia.
She is also a Roman
Catholic nun. Her
research interests in
Australian literature,
society, and culture,
combined with her theological perspective,
have led her to a decade-long involvement in
indigenous writing and culture. Her focus on
indigenous literature has gradually unfolded
into activism in the political struggle for
justice for Australian indigenous peoples,
and she is now in the forefront of commu-
nity and government coalitions working
within the movement for reconciliation.
Veronica works closely with the School of
Social Ecology at the University of Western
Sydney, and she has published widely on the
spiritual aspects of ecological and indigenous
issues.
The premise of her fellowship project
concerns an exploration within Western
culture toward recovering an authentic sense
of the sacred?for it is this lack of under-
standing of the sacred that she feels comes
between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
Australians. During her residency, she plans
to conduct an extended study of the sup-
pressed feminine strain within Western
mystical tradition, as well as insights into the
nature of reality offered by contemporary
science.
Ecological
Conversations
Public Lecture Series
Thursday Evenings, Knight Library
Browsing Room, 7:00 P.M.
October 25
Imelda Bacudo
Healers in Contemporary Third-World
Economic Realities
November 8
Veronica Brady
Recovering Sacred Ground
February 7
Edrie Sobstyl
Finding the Sacred in Ecofeminist Science
Fiction
February 21
Nimachia Hernandez
Mokakssini: A Blackfoot Theory of
Knowledge
April 18
Sarah McFarland Taylor
The Genetic Monastery: Green Nuns, Seed
Sanctuaries, and the Crusade Against
Biotech Colonization
Fall Fellows Hail from Pacific Nations
By S. Marie Harvey, Director of Research, and Meredith Branch, Administrative AssistantC
SWS awarded fourteen research support grants, two Jane Grant dissertation awards, and
two Laurel Awards during the spring funding cycle. We extend our congratulations to the
awardees and thank the members of the review committees.
Sherrie Barr, associate professor, dance: $5,797??The play of narrative in performance:
Autobiography in the contemporary dance solo.? ecent development of
solos in contemporary dance and how autobiographical themes are represented through this
choreography.
Kathy Becker, graduate student, psychology: $2,500??Precursors of men?s physical and
sexual abuse of women and girls.? s study aims to gather new information on the ways
that men?s early abuse experiences are related to adolescent and adult offenses of sexual and
physical abuse against women and girls.
Charli Carpenter, graduate student, political science: $2,500??Gender norms in interna-
tional society: Men, ?women and children? vention.?
examine the ?women and children? ope in justifications for humanitarian interventions, and
evaluate the impact of these gender beliefs in political responses to complex emergencies.
Debra Eisert, associate professor, Center on Human Development/Institute on Violence
and Destructive Behavior: $5,839??Reducing academic and social risks in middle school girls.?
Eisert will develop, implement, and evaluate a girl-specific program aimed at reducing risks of
school disaffection in at-risk sixth grade girls.
Tina Eskes, graduate student, creative writing: $1,313??River in the Sea: A novel-in-
progress.? s novel focuses on her mother?s childhood in the Netherlands and her family?s
involvement in the Resistance to the Nazi occupation in Holland.
Elke Heckner, assistant professor, Germanic languages and literature: $6,000??Unruly
bodies: Displacements of modernity.? ward to work on her book, which
recasts modern German representations of gender as articulated in selected literary, historical,
philosophical, and psychoanalytical texts, into a broader, transnational reworking of modernity.
Marcy Hunt-Morse, graduate student, counseling psychology: $1,198??Adolescent
mothers? velopment: Implications for parenting.?
adolescent mothers in Ohio and Oregon in order to increase our understanding of how specific
developmental factors influence individual differences in adolescent mothers? enting.
Florence Ramond Jurney, graduate student, Romance languages: $2,500??Telling their
own stories.? urney will use her award to complete a chapter of her dissertation that focuses
on women constructing a female community within which they can express themselves.
Linda Kintz, professor, English: $6,000??An evening with dead whiteness: Adrienne
Kennedy and the return of the Southern repressed.? s project examines the work of
African-American playwright Adrienne Kennedy and asks how her work historicizes the
unconscious imagery at the very origins of signification, psyche, body, and social order.
Shannon Parrott, graduate student, history: $2,486??Female incarceration and the correc-
tion of mind and body: Women at the Oregon State Penitentiary and Oregon State Hospital
from 1854?1917.? arrott?s work will focus on women who spent time at the penitentiary with
particular attention given to women who were sent to the hospital while at the penitentiary.
Amada Powell, senior instructor, Romance languages: $2,500??Translation and study of
love poems to women by Sor. Juana Ines de la Cruz.? owell?s project will shed new light on
central, but previously ignored or distorted, aspects of these love poems.
Ramonu Sanusi, graduate student, Romance languages: $2,500??Representations of Sub-
Saharan African women in colonial and post-colonial novels.? e the depiction
of women in francophone Sub-Saharan African literature and its evolution throughout the
colonial and post-colonial periods.
Shelly Withrow, visiting assistant professor, creative writing: $5,947??Burning daylight:
Life histories of women sharecroppers, their daughters, and granddaughters.?Withrow will
research women?s stories imbricated with the economic and social histories of literacy, class,
and race in Alabama and Texas.
Amanda Wright, graduate student, art history: $2,350??The patronage of Qidan imperial
women and its impact on Liao Dynasty Buddhist sculpture.?Wright will use her award to travel
to China to investigate Buddhist sculpture from the Liao Dynasty.
10
awards Spring 2001 Research Support Grants
Grant Deadlines for 2001?2
CSWS provides support for research,
travel, or scholarship within a wide
range of disciplines and a variety of
topics that focus on some aspect of
gender, feminist theory, or women?s
experience (with the exception of the
Stanton Scholarship*).
Executive Grants
Open deadline (last request by May 1,
2002): Awards up to $100 to UO
graduate students, faculty, or CSWS
affiliates
Speakers and Events Grants
Open deadline (last request by May 1,
2002): Limited supplemental financial
support ($100?$300) for speakers and
events addressing scholarly or creative
work relating to gender
Travel Grants
October 22, 2001 and April 15, 2002:
Awards up to $500 for UO graduate
students, faculty, and staff
Research Support Grants
November 12, 2001 and April 8, 2002:
Awards up to $2,500 for UO graduate
students; up to $6,000 for UO faculty
and staff
RIG Development Grants
November 19, 2001; February 18,
2002; May 6, 2002: Awards up to
$6,000 for CSWS-sponsored RIGs
*Stanton Scholarship for Health
Research
April 1, 2002: Award of $1,000 for a
UO graduate student in the social and
behavioral sciences who is conducting
research in disease prevention, health
education and promotion, women?s
health, epidemiology, or related areas
Jane Grant Dissertation Fellowships
April 8, 2002: Awards of $10,000 for
UO doctoral candidates
CSWS Laurel Awards
May 6, 2002: Awards of $2,500 for UO
graduate students
Applications must be received by 5:00
P.M. on dates stated. For grant
applications stop by CSWS at 340
Hendricks Hall; request a copy by
campus mail (e-mail
csws@oregon.uoregon.edu or call
346-5015); or download and print
from our website, http://
csws.uoregon.edu. Continued on page 11
11
cswsStill Rockin? at Thirty
By Sandra Morgen, DirectorD
o you remember that saying from the ?60s: Never trust anyone over thirty? Some of
us who once smiled at that probably cringe now that we are one or two or three or
more decades past thirty. Yet that phrase is running through my head now as I think about
an upcoming milestone. In 2003, CSWS will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary!
Think about it?thirty years of promoting research on women and gender at the University
of Oregon. Given how far ahead we have to plan in academia, CSWS staff and executive
committee members have begun thinking about our thirtieth anniversary celebration,
scheduled to take place during the 2002?3 academic year. And we want and need your ideas.
Many newsletter readers have helped build CSWS and encouraged it to fulfill its lofty
and still critical mission. Some of you have received research grants, others have served on
committees; some of you have attended or helped plan events, others have worked in our
office. A few of you know us exclusively through print. But we are seeking input from one
and all on how you would like us to honor this important event.
Speaking of anniversaries, the University of Oregon is celebrating its own this year?
number 125. CSWS has been part of the university for almost one quarter of its institu-
tional life. In musing on our intertwined histories, we?ve been recognizing important
milestones for women at the UO. For instance, Ellen ?Nellie? as the first woman
to graduate at the university, in its first class of 1878. Mary Boise Spiller was part of the
UO?s first faculty (she taught from 1876?1887), and she was the first to lead a fight for fair
wages. Alice Bahrs was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. at the UO in 1930. She later
became a physician in Corvallis.
Many fascinating and accomplished women have taught and been taught at the
University of Oregon, such as Mary Josephine Shelley (?26), a pioneer of modern dance.
But 1973 was a pivotal year for women in Oregon higher education. Not only was the
Women?s Studies Program launched, the Center for the Sociological Study of Women was
also founded in the Department of Sociology, with Joan Acker named as its director. That
center grew into CSWS, with the help of donor William Harris (who gave in honor of his
wife, Jane Grant), as well as subsequent generous donations from some of you.
For our thirtieth birthday, we want to remember, commemorate, and celebrate. But we
also want to envision and plan for a vibrant future. Please take a few moments and think
about possible aspects of a CSWS anniversary celebration. And then communicate your
ideas. You can e-mail us at csws@oregon.uoregon.edu, or give us a call, 346-5015. We?
love to hear from you.
Sandra Morgen,
Director, CSWS
Would you like to help
support CSWS? For
information on getting
involved as a donor,
contact Judith Musick,
(541) 346-5099,
musick@oregon.
uoregon.edu
Change of address:
Contact Diana Taylor,
(541) 346-5015,
csws@oregon.
uoregon.edu
Publications and
information on CSWS
programs: Check out our
new and expanding
website: http://
csws.uoregon.edu
JANE GRANT DISSERTATION AWARDS
Barbara Cook, English: $10,000??Southwestern Ecotone: A zone of literary resistance and
environmental justice.? s dissertation, she will trace the development of southwestern
regional writing by women as it relates to the land itself. Cook also seeks to understand how
literary texts reveal environmental justice issues as they impact race and gender.
Jill Weigt, sociology: $10,000??The work of mothering after welfare reform.?Through in-
depth interviews, Weigt?s dissertation will focus on the process of mothering in poverty,
particularly when combined with the work or work activities mandated by welfare reform.
LAUREL RESEARCH AWARDS
Jane Gathoni Njoora, education: $2,500??Teenage Mothers in School Tell Their Stories.?
Through her research, Njoora seeks an understanding of how teenage mothers are supported
in continuing their schooling in the local school district.
Susana Salgado, counseling psychology: $2,500??Reactions of Ethnic Adolescent Females
to Feminist Theory.? s project will examine how the pedagogy of feminist theory
affects adolescents; more specifically, she will explore how the feminist identity development
process is facilitated for an adolescent female of color.
Continued from page 10
12
author?s note
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of Women in Society
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An equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution
committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the
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Address Service Requested
Check out the CSWS website:
http://csws.uoregon.edu
w
Constituting Workers, Protecting Women: Gender, Law,
and Labor in the Progressive Era and New Deal Years
Printed on 100% recycled paper
During the Progres-
Deal years, courts often
invalidated generalized
protective legislation, but
frequently upheld
measures that limited the
terms and conditions of
women?s labor. In
focusing on the impor-
tance of gender as an
analytical category for the legal system, Julie
Novkov, assistant professor of political
science and CSWS affiliate, explores the
reasoning within court cases decided
between 1873 and 1937.
Novkov?s study analyzes reported state
and federal opinions, as well as materials
from the women?s movement and briefs filed
in the U.S. Supreme Court. Her book shows
that considerations of cases involving
women?s measures ultimately came to drive
the development of doctrine.
Novkov rejects purely political interpreta-
tions of the so-called Lochner era, in which
the courts invalidated many legislative efforts
to ameliorate the worst effects of capitalism.
By addressing the dynamic interactions
among interested laypersons, attorneys, and
judges, she demonstrates that no individual
or institution has complete control over the
generation of constitutional meaning. Rather
than abstract struggles over laissez fair
economics, constitutional considerations of
protective laws for women were the analyti-
cal battlefield on which the legal community
reworked the balance between private liberty
and the state?s authority to regulate.
By Julie Novkov. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001.
Other new books by
CSWS affiliates:
Mythic Galveston: Re-inventing
America?s Third Coast, by
Susan Hardwick, geography
(Johns Hopkins University
Press)
Women on the Verge: Japanese
Women, Western Dreams, by
Karen L. Kelsky, anthropol-
ogy (Duke University Press)