Download a copy of the November/December 2009 Bulletin (PDF)
The fifth annual “Crafty Women” Holiday Art & Crafts Sale will take place on Wednesday, November 18 and Thursday, November 19, from 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. in the Women’s Studies Program’s conference room in Reavis 103. We will be holding a closing reception for the sale on Thursday, November 19 from 5:00-6:30.
The sale offers an excellent opportunity to stock up for holiday gift-giving! We would like to thank everyone who has contributed items to the sale. We have already been given a large hand-made quilt and other quilted items, jewelry made with buttons, handmade soap, knitted catnip toys, and pottery, along with many other handcrafted items!
All proceeds from the sale will go towards the Mothers Memorial Scholarship and Austin Sawicki Scholarship Funds. We raised nearly $2000 toward the scholarships at last year’s sale, and we are hoping to top that number this year. For more information about the sale, call 753-1038 or email WOMENST@niu.edu. For more information about the scholarships, visit out scholarship webpage.
A range of courses are available this spring that count toward the Women’s Studies minor and graduate certificate including the following:
Click here for more information about these courses and other courses being offered in the spring, or stop in our office in Reavis Hall, Room 103.
We are excited to announce the formation of a Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Student Association. The association will be composed of graduate students from a wide range of disciplines who are interested in any area of women’s, gender, sexuality and/or queer studies. The benefits of joining this association include:
You don’t have to be currently enrolled in the Women’s Studies graduate certificate to join the association, though we would certainly like you to consider enrolling!
If you are interested in joining the Women’s and Gender Studies Graduate Student Association, please contact Cortney Barko, Elizabeth Bowman, or Kathleen Turner at womsgrad@gmail.com, or stop in the Women’s Studies Program office in Reavis 103. We hope to hear from you!
This year's Women's History Month (WHM) theme will focus on “Women’s Voices/Women’s Visions.” Women’s Studies graduate students have voted to bring in two exciting colloquium speakers during WHM. Frances Aparicio is a Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies and director of the Underrepresented Faculty Mentoring Program at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Professor Aparicio’s presentations will focus on Latina culture in the U.S. Channy Lyons is founder and director of the Illinois Women Artists Project, an online database and upcoming book which focus on a group of women artists who were active in Illinois between 1840 and 1940.
The Women's Studies Program is accepting proposals to include on the WHM calendar until Monday, December 14. Each year the Women's Studies Program and Presidential Commission on the Status of Women sponsor a poster calendar to advertise the events that take place during WHM in March. The poster is a great publicity resource as it is widely distributed to campus offices and buildings as well as to the local community. Additionally, if your event/activity is accepted for inclusion on the poster calendar, we will also include it on the online calendar of events.
We particularly encourage submissions that relate to this year's WHM theme. However, depending on the space available, we will consider including any events that are related to women.
To submit an event/activity for possible inclusion in the WHM poster calendar, click here and complete the Activity Proposal Form. Email the form to Rebekah Kohli or send it to her in Reavis Hall, Room 103. The deadline for calendar submissions is Monday, December 14, 2009.
Please note that while we will help publicize your events and the Women's Studies office can offer suggestions for event locations, we do not have the staffing power to organize or plan your events.
We have rescheduled the Conference for Young Women for Friday, April 23, 2010. Please encourage any high school women you know to register for this exciting opportunity! Registration will begin in mid to late February. The early-bird registration fee is only $45. A number of scholarships are available to help students afford the conference.
This year’s conference will include presentations by faculty and professionals on topics related to women’s collegiate experiences and career options; a panel discussion on career opportunities for women; and lunch with NIU faculty, professionals, and students. For the first time, the conference will also include a career interest workshop which will provide participants with the opportunity to assess their interests and explore career possibilities. This year’s speakers will focus on career opportunities in fields ranging from computer science, biogeography and law enforcement to health education, recycling and athletics.
Given the state of the economy, we anticipate greater student need for scholarships. If you wish to contribute to a scholarship, send a check made out to NIU with "CYW" on the memo line to the Women's Studies Program.
For additional information about scholarships or the conference, email our program or call 753-1038.
We have a number of exciting new videos in our growing video library!
Faculty may check any of these videos out for class use; students may watch these videos in the Women’s Studies Program’s library. For a list of other items in our library, visit our online catalog.
Four WOMS students joined Acting Director Diana Swanson in a visit to the Women’s Discussion Group at Oak Crest Retirement Community in DeKalb. Amanda Cox, Sarah Girdzius, Maimouna Konate, and Alicia Wozny spoke with eight residents of Oak Crest about various aspects of women’s lives. Alicia said that “What I was most impressed with was the number of women who had college educations and took care of family after WWII.” Most meaningful to Amanda was “the interest and support that we received from the women. They showed such an interest in our program and in each of us as well, and that meant a lot to me.” Maimouna agreed that “meeting with older women and sharing our experiences with them and listening to their stories” was “fruitful and informative.” Ann Werhane, coordinator of the Oak Crest women’s group, said that the visit “broadened our world more than you can know” and invited WOMS students to return. If you are interested in participating in a future intergenerational conversation, please email Diana Swanson.
As many of our readers are aware, the Women’s Studies Program has made a number of changes in the way that we communicate information about events, calls for papers, important announcements, etc. In an effort to minimize the number of emails you receive from us, we are now sending out an email digest once a week that includes Women’s Studies announcements and information about upcoming program events. We are posting WOMS-related calls for papers, events, resources, and job announcements, as well as WOMS-related NIU events on our new Electronic Bulletin Board (eBB). If you have items that you would like us to include on the eBB, please email them to WOMENST@niu.edu. We will update the eBB on an ongoing basis. We will no longer include calls for papers, conference information and job announcements in our Women’s Studies Bulletin. If you have any suggestions and/or questions about our new communication formats, please feel free to email us or call us at 815-753-1038.
The Student Column is a space where Women's Studies students can share essays, poetry, and reviews of literature and/or popular culture. If you are a WOMS student, please submit something for consideration. If you are a faculty member, please encourage your WOMS students to submit successful assignments for possible publication. Email your submission to Rebekah Kohli, or send it to the Women's Studies Program, ATTN: Rebekah Kohli, Reavis Hall, Room 103.
The following submission was written by Women's Studies minor Candis Nikolic. She read her poem as the talent portion for the 2009 NIU Miss Latina Pageant.
“I have grown to admire one of the greatest achievers and conquerors of challenging times. She dedicated herself to the poor and working class (people) not only of Argentina but in areas worldwide. Witnessing this empowering woman speak out with all odds against her has inspired me to become something greater. I would like to dedicate this to her.”
Viva Evita! Cry the Peronistas…
Si, vive Evita
In the hearts of our compañeros from Argentina,
Her passion lives,
Although many may question who she is,
In times of need she helped many.
When the poor felt hunger pains, she fed plenty.
She was envied by the upper class, despised by the military
Simply because she created a woman’s political party and strived for democracy.
Even in the event of her demise, her foundation fights for the people endlessly.
Although she granted women the right to vote and rights in divorce,
She was still forced to decline the seat of vice presidency.
But hear no cries, sigh no worries,
For in Buenos Aires remains her legacy.
Her greatest fear was to be forgotten, and time was her only enemy.
And even as her body rests, fear not, because her memory is left.
Por siempre vive Evita, Exhalt the Peronistas!
-Candis Nikolic
This month, we are turning the spotlight on Heather Samariniotis, who is in her first year as an M.S. student in Sports Management. She is also pursuing a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies and works as a graduate teaching assistant for the Women’s Studies program. Samariniotis graduated with a B.A. in applied sociology, a minor in Women’s Studies, and a certificate in LGBT Studies from NIU. During her undergraduate program, she was a recipient of the Mothers Memorial Scholarship. In the future, she hopes to “own (a) sports performance facility which trains athletes from as young as 8 years old up to 18 years old.” She is also considering pursuing a Ph.D.
Samariniotis’s current research focuses on “the under-representation of female head coaches in men’s and women’s sports,” especially in Division I intercollegiate athletics programs. She has been interested in issues related to women in leadership positions since she was in her undergraduate program. She is pleased that she is now able to integrate her sociology and women’s studies background with her interest in sports management.
Samiriniotis says that she has been a feminist all her life but she did not really call herself a feminist until she became involved with Women’s Studies. “Women’s Studies is a place which has given me a voice,” she says. “I feel comfortable expressing my views, and calling myself a feminist because of the support I have received from the wonderful people in Women’s Studies at NIU.” Samariniotis recommends that students take Women’s Studies courses and get involved with the program because Women’s Studies can give students “an extra edge when applying to graduate schools or jobs” and Women’s Studies courses teach students “extremely beneficial” critical thinking skills. She particularly enjoyed the Sociology of Gender course she took with Professor Mary Landeros during her undergraduate program. She also enjoyed taking numerous courses with Dr. Diana Swanson, who Samariniotis says is “full of knowledge and her number one priority is her students.”
Samariniotis recommends that students “take advantage of your education.” She adds, “By being proactive, you get so much more out of the (educational) experience. While there may be specific facts or information from a particular class you may never use, chances are there is going to be something bigger you can take from that experience.”
This month’s Faculty in the Spotlight is Linda Saborio, Assistant Professor of Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages & Literature. She received her B.A. in Spanish and Comparative Literature from the University of California-Irvine and her M.A in Spanish at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She came to NIU after completing her Ph.D. in Spanish American Literature at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2006. Her dissertation is entitled “Staging Race in Latina/o and Mexican Transborder Theater.”
Professor Saborio teaches a variety of courses at NIU, including all levels of Spanish grammar, conversation, and composition. She also teaches courses in Spanish American culture, Mexican literature, and Latin American Literature. She is looking forward to teaching Latin American Women Writers again in the future.
Saborio’s research focuses on “contemporary Latin American literature with a specialization in Mexican and U.S. Latina/o theater and culture.” Recently, she received a Faculty Research Grant from the Center for Latino and Latin American Studies to conduct research on contemporary Mexicana playwrights in Tijuana, Mexico. She is particularly interested in the examination of “identity, immigration and gender, and the effects of globalization on the borderlands between Mexico and the United States.” As a border studies scholar, her research also includes borderlands theory, transborder literature, and U.S. Latina/o and Chicana/o theater.
Saborio is currently revising her manuscript entitled, “Embodying Difference: Scripting Social Images of the Female Body in U.S. Latina Theater,” which “examines the configuration of a Latina body that challenges assumptions about ethnic multiculturalism, racialized ‘others,’ and political correctness, and explores an often uneasy site of representations of the body, including phenotype, sexuality, obesity, and the body as a political marker.” Her second research project “explores contemporary female playwrights from the Tijuana, Mexico region and the way in which their theatrical productions provide insight into gender identity formation along the U.S.-Mexico border. She has presented and published numerous papers on her research, including “The Authorship of Gender Roles in Early Twentieth-Century Mexican Theater,” presented at the Latin American Studies Association 2009 Congress, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and “The Mexican Boom Femenino and the Production of Gendered Theater in Sabina Berman’s El suplicio del placer” is forthcoming in The Boom Femenino: Reading Contemporary Mexican Women’s Writing (Cambridge Scholars Publishing).
Saborio became interested in Women’s Studies while taking a comparative literature course as an undergraduate. The course included readings by Gertrude Stein and Maxine Hong Kingston. Later, while studying Spanish literature, she was introduced to “some extraordinary female dramatists, such as Sabina Berman and Griselda Gambo,” whose work influenced her decision to focus on women and theater. She believes that Women’s Studies is of great value to NIU. “From courses on feminist theory and political issues to special events and organizations involving women,” says Saborio, “Women’s Studies contributes tremendously to the education of both males and females and provides students the opportunity to explore issues that are not addressed in other courses or organizations.”
She recommends that students take Women’s studies courses because “Women’s Studies courses provide students the opportunity to explore issues regarding gender from different theoretical and cultural perspectives.” Furthermore, she says students should consider enrolling in the Women’s Studies minor and graduate certificate program because, “as a Women’s Studies student, you are not tied to one discipline but rather have the opportunity to address social issues regarding women in a variety of fields of study.” Furthermore, “students from a variety of fields can come together and share their experiences, theories and ideas with others.”
To learn more about Professor Saborio, visit her webpage.
ACCOMPLISHMENTSCongratulations to Elizabeth Bowman for passing her Ph.D. candidacy exams with distinction!
Lise Schlosser’s paper, “’Nature’s House’: Margaret Cavendish and the Country House Poem Tradition” has been accepted for the New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, which will be held in Sarasota, FL in March 2010. Schlosser completed the LGBT Ally Training in October.
Alisa Von Hagel presented her paper, “Executive and Legislative Influence in USAID to International Family Planning Programs,” at the Illinois Political Science Association Conference in Chicago on November 7. Andrea Messing-Mathie and Von Hagel presented their co-authored paper, “Do Gender Quotas Encourage Political Efficacy? Revisiting Symbolic Representation in Sub-Saharan Africa,” at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference on November 12, in Atlanta, GA.
Josh Adair, who is in his first year as an Assistant Professor at Murray State University, has been awarded a spring course release for 2010, in order to travel to local and regional archives to complete research for his project “Queering the Monthlies: How Gladys Taber and Beverly Nichols Revolutionized Women’s Magazines.”
Congratulations to Sim Chin, who recently accepted the position of Associate Director of International Undergraduate Admissions at NIU!
Louis Ciallella presented “Princesas-pantalla: proyección de deseos de cambio en definiciones de género sexual en la España del fin de siglo” (“Screen princesses: the projection of desires for change in gender definitions in fin-de-siècle Spain”), at the Mid America Conference for Hispanic Literatures at the University of Kansas, November 5-7, 2009.
During June and July, Valerie Garver conducted research in western Europe under the aegis of a Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Society and an NIU Research and Artistry Grant. In late August, she presented a paper entitled “Women’s Provision of Liturgical Textiles in the Carolingian World” at the Passages from Antiquity to the Middle Ages IV: Religion, Society, and Participation conference in Tampere, Finland.
Wanda H. Giles and James R. Giles have published Twenty-First-Century American Novelists, their sixth volume of The Dictionary of Literary Biography, for Bruccoli Clark Layman/GaleCengage. James Giles is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in English and an early professor in the WOMS program, and Wanda Giles is a former member of the President's Commission on the Status of Women who has taught in the English department and served as managing editor of the University Press. The book contains thirty-eight essays on contemporary American novelists. Nineteen of the writers are from NIU's English and WOMS programs, including Jim Giles, who wrote on James Lee Burke, Kevin Baker, and Bruce Olds; Wanda Giles, who wrote on Julia Glass, Gail Godwin, A. Manette Ansay, Joshua Henkin, Ann Patchett, and, with 2002 NIU Fulbright scholar Mirian Carballo as coauthor, Helena Viramontes; Amy Levin, who wrote on Jane Hamilton; and Mary Lamb Shelden, who wrote on Annie Proulx.