WEBER STATE WOMEN'S STUDIES NEWSLETTER
COORDINATOR'S CORNER
This month's issue profiles Dr. Judy Elsley of the English department, another long-time supporter of the program who has served previously as a member (chair in 1991) of the Executive Council. She teaches both core and cross-listed classes, adding immensely to the quantity, and especially, to the quality of courses available to our minors as well as to the general student population at Weber.
Our attention at this time of year tends to be focused on finishing the quarter and preparing for holiday festivities. We will sponsor two activities that I hope some of you might fit into your busy schedules. On 1 December, the last day of classes, I will be available (along with some refreshments) in Room 113 of the Social Sciences Building from 9 AM until noon to talk informally with anyone who would like to know more about the program, discuss activities or classes that we already (or might) offer, or anything else that's on your mind. This time is intended primarily for students, but anyone is welcome, and I would encourage any Women's Studies faculty to drop in and enliven the conversation. On 7 December, from 3:30 until 5 PM, we will have the first of our 1995-96 Open Meetings in Room 154 of the new Student Services Center (SSC). This event is open to all interested persons also. It conflicts, unfortunately, with a First-Year Experience activity, but I hope that there will be some folks who can drop by for cookies, drinks and conversation, as well as a look at the new building. Our winter and spring quarter open meetings will feature formal presentations and will explore some alternate times in an effort to discover the elusive "optimum."
Winter quarter also means our annual Video Series, which we will co-sponsor this year with the office of Services for Women Students. The topic will be Women in Science and we will have a prelude on Wednesday, 17 January, featuring a live(ly) lecture by a real person or persons, yet to be determined and who will be announced in the January newsletter. From 24 January until 28 February, each week we will present one of the films from the PBS "Discovering Women" series; showings will be at 2 PM in Room 154 of the SSC and light refreshments will be served. Please join us and bring your friends!
Let me end with a note of thanks for all of you who brought your love and respect for Patti O'Neal to her memorial celebration on 3 November or to the Orchesis Concert, 31 November - 2 December. We will continue to collect contributions for the Patti O'Neal Memorial Fund as long as anyone cares to give; call the office (626-7632) for information.
FACULTY PROFILE
Dr. Judy Elsley is an Associate Professor of English and has been at Weber State since 1990. Although she made the transition to full-time university teaching right out of her PhD program at the University of Arizona, she had previous experience as a teaching assistant, both at Arizona and at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, where she received her M.A. in 1985. While at UNLV, she also taught classes and workshops for their Continuing Education program and as part of the Southern Nevada Writing Project. Her dissertation, "Semiotics of Quilting: Discourse of the Marginalized," has been accepted for publication by Peter Lang Publishing and has inspired a coauthored book (with Cheryl Torsney), published by University of Missouri Press in 1994. She also has presented her work analyzing quilting as text at conferences and in the form of journal articles. Other publications examine women in the west, historically and personally. Judy received the Weber State Exemplary Teaching Award in 1993 and has been awarded several grants and prizes for her scholarship. She has pursued her continuing professional growth by participating in retreats and conferences on a variety of subjects from academic feminism to writing autobiography. Judy has provided professional service to Weber State in a multitude of ways, as Director of the Writing-Across-the Curriculum program, member of the Teaching and Learning Forum, and Co-coordinator of the First-Year Experience, to name a few. She teaches English department courses in literature and composition, as well as being a member of the faculty in the Honours Programme and the Women's Studies Program. Several of Judy's courses have been cross-listed with English, Honours and Women's Studies; she has taught Feminist Theories in the past and will team-teach it again this coming winter quarter with Sally Bishop Shigley.
Judy was born in Oxford, England, while her father was a student there. She grew up in Bedford, in a rambling Victorian house that served as a boy's boarding school for which her father was house master. She received her baccalaureate degree in education at St. Mary's College in Cheltenham but decided that her practicum experience was the last teaching she should ever contemplate doing. Nonetheless, before she moved to the U.S. in 1979, she twice found herself an teacher, first in a high school near Cambridge and later in an elementary school in Banbury. She says that those adventures provided her with&127; many opportunities to make mistakes and learn about teaching. Although her first visit to the U.S. occurred in 1974, when her 6-week coast-to-coast trip convinced her that she would like to live here, she returned to England for her "trial-by-fire" teaching experiences before relocating permanently and becoming a U.S. citizen in 1993. During vacation trips before her move west across the Atlantic, she met the man with whom she would have her first spousal incarnation as well as the camping and hiking adventures that nurtured her love of the west. She struck out on her own to begin her graduate school and teaching career and, after 9 years, found herself "unexpectedly and pleasantly" married in 1994 to Alan Livingston, Director of Communication Arts and Technologies at Weber.
CALENDAR
1 December - Open House for Women's Studies students and faculty, 9 AM - noon, SS113.
7 December - Executive Council (3 PM) & Open Meeting (3:30 - 5 PM), Room 154, Student Service Center.