JANUARY 1995

VOL. 1, NO. 3

COORDINATOR'S CORNER

This month, our faculty profile features Dr. Wangari wa Nyatetu-Waigwa, the current chair of the Women's Studies Executive Council. She has been one of our most active faculty, supporting the program in teaching both core and cross-listed courses. I have had the pleasure of working with her in the Teaching Partners project and I have also enjoyed her language teaching skills over the past year and half as a student in introductory Swahili. To her, from all of us, I say "Asante sana, Mwalimu Wangari!"

Dr. Wangari wa Nyatetu-Waigwa has been a strong contributor to the Women's Studies Program from its inception. She earned her B.A. in 1974 from the University of Dijon in Burgundy, France, and her Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 1989. She is a native of Nyeri, Kenya. All of her education leading to her B.A. was completed in Kenya, where she taught high school prior to coming to the U.S. She has experience also teaching high school in Salt Lake City, while pursuing her graduate education. Wangari came to Weber State in 1990, joining the faculty in Foreign Languages. In that department, she teaches French language and literature and Swahili. She has taught courses that are cross-listed in the Honors Program and Women's Studies, as well as participating in several teams teaching the core courses WS105 and 305. Her research interests lie in Francophone women's literature, particularly Caribbean and Belgian, and she has attended conferences from local to international levels to present her work. Currently, she has a book manuscript on the Liminal Novel: Studies in the Francophone African Novel of the 1950's accepted for publication in 1995 and a manuscript accepted for publication in the African (-American) literature journal "Callaloo." She will be teaching a new Honors class on Belgian Francophone women writers (cross-listed with Women's Studies) in winter quarter. She is organizing a study abroad program for East Africa (Kenya) to take place late summer, 1995. She has been the recipient of several grants and awards to support her research and teaching efforts, including a University of Utah research fellowship during her graduate work. She received a scholarship for her undergraduate study in France as well. Her community service commitments include being a board member of the Utah Humanities council. She is married to Dr. Chris Stone, who has taught in the W.S.U. physics department, and they have two children (Laikwan and Wachira) and a brand-new dog.

CONGRATULATIONS (!) are in order for one of our adjunct faculty. On 18 December 1994, I attended the ordination of Gwyneth MacKenzie Mary Joan Murphy to the Sacred Order of Deacons of the Episcopal Church. Gwyneth taught WS 481, Feminist Theologies in the Western Tradition, last winter quarter. Everyone in the program sends support and good wishes to Gwyneth for her always-enthusiastic and compassionate pursuit of her calling.

We have an exciting month to kick off the Winter Quarter, with the opportunity to meet and learn from two scholars who will be visiting our campus. Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias, pediatrician, consultant in health programming, and past-president of the American Public Health Association, will be here on 19 January. Dr. Rodriguez-Trias will deliver a presentation entitled "Women and World Politics: In Search of a Common Voice," at 10:30 a.m. in Room 101 of the Marriott Health Sciences Building. That afternoon, beginning at 2:30 p.m., she will be available for a coffee-and-conversation session in the Alumni House; she will be happy to discuss her morning presentation and other issues of interest. (Please note that this presentation will serve as the first in our Winter Quarter video series and that it has been relocated from the Library Special Collections Room.) Our deepest thanks to Dr. Marilyn Harrington, Dean of the college of Health Professions, for arranging Dr. Rodriguez-Trias' visit. The following week, on Wednesday, 25 January, we will be pleased to host Professor Bhuvan Chandel from the Department of Philosophy, Panjab University, India, who is a feminist scholar in political science. She will be involved in a series of activities at the University of Utah on 23 and 24 January. Her Weber State visit will include a class presentation at ______in _____, as well as a 2 p.m. reception and a 2:30 lecture, sponsored jointly by Women's Studies and Asian Studies. Please take advantage of these opportunities and encourage other interested persons to attend also.

Our apologies to those of you who have requested an electronic subscription to the newsletter. We hope, by the beginning of the quarter, to have resolved the "minor technical difficulties" encountered with the December issue. If not, however, we will continue to work on them and send you a paper copy until the network begins to cooperate.

The second annual conference of faculty, staff, and students involved in the state-wide academic, support, or research programs focusing on women will be held at the University of Utah on Saturday, 4 March 1995. Dr. Julia T. Wood, a researcher and writer on gender and communication and a distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will deliver the keynote address. More information will be available in future newsletters, and I encourage all interested members of our programs to block out that date on your calendars.

CALENDAR

2 January - Executive Council and Curriculum Committee Meetings, 2:30 p.m. SS137.

19 January - visit with Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias (see "Coordinator's Corner")

Reading and Discussion Series Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. Chapman Branch Library, 577 S 900 W SLC, with speaker Dr. Eduardo Elias from U.of U. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel.

25 January - visit with Professor Bhuvan Chandel (see "Coordinator's Corner")

26 January - second Video Series presentation