The following events will be held at the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center, 83 College St., South Hadley, on the Mount Holyoke College campus unless otherwise noted. All events are free, open to the public and fully handicapped accessible.
On Thursday, October 2 at 5pm, Berna Turam, Associate Professor of Sociology and Middle Eastern Studies at Hampshire College, will give a talk entitled ‘Turkish Women Divided by Politics: Secularist Activism vs. Pious Non-Resistance." The disagreement on political reforms (2002-2005) between the pro-Islamic government and other branches of the secular Turkish Republic had polarizing effects on social groups. Among many, the polarization of two groups of women, ‘pious’ and ‘secularist’, deserves particular attention. Instead of bringing Turkish women together, the contested gender reforms, particularly the government’s lifting of the headscarf ban in universities and the high courts’ reinstatement of it, have divided women, and created disarray in society. This talk reveals and compares the two dramatically different patterns of political leadership by women, radical secularism and pious non-resistance.
On Monday, October 6 at 4pm, Maia Harris, Five College Women’s Studies Research Associate and documentary film producer/writer, will give a talk entitled ‘The Legacy of Women War Reporters During WWII." Harris introduces a PBS documentary in progress about how women reporters during WWII reshaped the way the story of war is told, shifting its focus from the battlefield to the human costs of war. The examines the experiences of three women, one well-known and two nearly forgotten: Martha Gellhorn, Ruth Cowan and Dickey Chapelle.
On Thursday, October 16 at 5pm, Nina Scott, Five College Women’s Studies Research Associate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will give a talk entitled ‘Painted Nuns: Dead, Live and Learned.’ This presentation deals with the importance which portraits of nuns had in the colonial Americas, especially in Mexico and Colombia, given the fact that most nuns came from influential white families and thus high social circles. There are many more portraits of nuns than of secular women, a fact which attests to their importance in colonial society. Scott’s research deals with classifying these portraits by theme and function, and pays special attention to the seven oil portraits painted of the famous Mexican poet/nun, Sor Juana Ins de la Cruz (1648/51-1695).
On Thursday, October 23 at 5pm, Barbara Krauthamer, Assistant Professor of History from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will give a talk entitled ‘Dolly: Portrait of an Enslaved Woman.’ This talk presents the life of a young, enslaved woman named Dolly and the dramatic events that prompted her to run away from her owner, a prominent South Carolina rice planter, in 1863. A photograph of Dolly, one of the few existing photographs of an enslaved woman, reveals as much about her life as it obscures. The photograph and Dolly’s bold attempt to free herself from slavery are discussed as examples of valuable but often overlooked sources and life stories central to women’s history.
On Thursday, October 30 at 5pm, Beena Rani, Five College Women’s Studies Research Associate from Maharajas College, will give a talk entitled ‘Mahatma Gandhi on Gender Justice.’ This presentation explores Gandhi’s concern towards the ethical status of women and the contemporary relevance of his wordings like, ‘To call women the weaker sex is a libel, it is man’s injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then indeed is women less brute than man&. If by strength is meant moral power, then women is immeasurably man’s superior&. If non- violence is the law of our being, the future is with women.’
On Monday, November 3 at 4pm, Lillian Dunning, Five College Women’s Studies Research Associate from the University of California San Diego, will give a talk entitled ‘From Liminal to Limelight: Women Writers of Color and the Contemporary British Novel.’ A new generation of women novelists of color is currently at work in England. These writers–including Zadie Smith, Monica Ali, and Andrea Levy, among others–share a global consciousness, and tend to engage a politics of difference in their work. Unlike previous generations of black women writing in England, they claim positions not at the margins, but very much as cultural "insiders" in a 21st century post-imperial nation. Dunning explores the changing shape of that most vaunted of literary forms, the British novel, suggesting that a strictly ‘national’ British literature is now a thing of the past–and that this new generation of writers will have a role in determining what it becomes in future.
On Monday, November 10 at 4pm, Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, Five College Women’s Studies Research Associate from the University of Connecticut Storrs, will give a talk entitled ‘The Impact of Activism on the Legislation Process.’ Haghighatjoo analyzes the impact of women’s rights activists and their initiations on policy makers and particularly on members of the Iranian parliament, Iran’s legislative body. Because legal amendments to any law in Iran must go through a carefully standardized legislative policy, it is important to examine the response and attitudes of policy makers in the Parliament in relation to activists’ efforts.
On Thursday, November 13 at 5pm, Babette Faehmel, Five College Women’s Studies Research Associate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will give a talk entitled ‘Beyond the Bell Jar: College Women, Sexuality and Identity, 1940 – 1965.’ This presentation looks at female students as participants in the marriage and baby boom of the post World War II period. Drawing on their diaries and letters, Faehmel examines how college women’s social, intimate, and academic experiences combined with political events to shape their identity and influence the decisions they made after graduation. Especially non-traditional college women, Faehmel argues, came to college with plans for post-graduate professional careers. In her talk, she will offer a new interpretation of why many women ultimately did not pursue their goal and instead opted for early marriage. She will also argue that to understand the meaning these women attributed to their decisions, we need to consider the intellectual and political debates of the time to which they had access and that gave their private choices a distinctly political meaning.
On Monday, November 17 at 4pm, Darcy Donohue, Five College Women’s Studies Research Associate from Miami University, will give a talk entitled ‘Adventures in Iberia: U.S. Women Travelers in Spain, 1875-1900. ‘ This presentation explores the varied versions of Spain, which emerge in the accounts of women travelers of varied background and purpose. More specifically, Donahue will examine these writings in the light of nineteenth century stereotypes of Spain as an exotic and even uncivilized nation of alien values and customs, and of U.S. relations with Spain. The writings of these authors will be compared with the image of Spain put forth by writers such as Washington Irving and Henry Longfellow. The works examined include a journalistic account of Spanish politics and politicians, a short novel for young girls, an account of Protestant missionary activities in Spain, and a travelogue of Spanish ‘highways and byways.’
On Thursday, November 20 at 5pm, Gulay Toksoz, Five College Women’s Studies Research Associate from Ankara University, will give a talk entitled ‘Possibilities and Restrictions on the Right of Work: Women in Turkey.’ Toksoz highlights the issue of women’s decreasing labor force participation and employment rates in Turkey, despite the dominant tendency of growing female employment all over the world. She discusses this situation within the frame-work of macroeconomic developments creating low demand for female labor as well as socio-cultural factors limiting the supply of female labor. Toksoz argues that even though gender equality is recognized in legislation in Turkey, women are detained from joining the labor market because of a gender-based division of work and gender roles based on this division.
On Monday, December 1 at 4pm, Yafei Hou, Five College Women’s Studies Research Associate from Beijing Administrative College, will give a talk entitled ‘Research on the Desire and Behavior of Childbearing Urban Women from One-Child Families in Beijing." Women in Beijing who used to have little desire to have more than one child are now showing an increasing interest in having two children. However, there is still much ambivalence and great uncertainty in this trend. Marriages and the birth of the first child are taking place at a later age for many women. More new couples are also choosing to live separately from their parents, although children continue to mostly be cared for by grandparents. This paper suggests that, according these trends, the government should encourage only-child couples to give birth to two children in order to change the rapidly aging population structure.
The Five College Women’s Studies Research Center, founded in 1991, is supported by a consortium of Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The Center provides visiting residencies for feminist researchers from the United States and abroad, and draws on one of the largest concentrations of women’s studies scholars and activists in the country to sponsor lecture series, faculty seminars, and conferences. The Five College Women’s Studies Research Center has become a lively site for scholarly activity in women’s studies, attracting large and diverse groups of participants, including faculty, students, and members of the local community.
For more information, see www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/fcwsrc or telephone 413-538-2275.
