Vol I No 5

March 1995

COORDINATOR'S CORNER

This month we are profiling Dr. Kathleen Herndon, Assoc. Professor of English, who is teaching a cross-listed course on Middle-Eastern women writers for the first time this quarter. Student response has been enthusiastic and she plans to continue the course in the future. The Middle-Eastern focus will be maintained next quarter when Dr. Anisa Hanania offers a course through the Honours Program on the culture and history of that area of our world. This month is National Women's History Month and begins with Women's Emphasis Week. There are a multitude of activities planned, coordinated by the Women's Educational Resource Center; schedules have been posted on campus and specific information is available also by calling W.E.R.C. at (626)-6090 or Women's Studies at -7632. This month also features the Broomstick-sponsored poetry contest and reading, entitled "Reawakening" and honoring Dr. Lee McKenzie. Dr. Judy Elsley and Ms. Priti Kumar will be discussing their research collaboration at the Thought Continuum on 29 March, continuing a "tradition" begun 16 February, when Dr. Angelika Pagel presented a video work-in-progress. On 30-31 March (the first week of next quarter), we will be pleased to co-host with the Asian Studies Program a visit by Dr. Chizuko Ueno, Professor of Sociology, University of Tokyo. She will be addressing the topic "Twenty Years of Japanese Feminism" in classroom and public presentations. Please take advantage of as many of these activities as possible and encourage students to attend as well.

FACULTY PROFILE

Dr. Kathleen Herndon is a new member of the Women's Studies teaching faculty although she has been at Weber State since 1989. She hails from Oregon, where she received her baccalaureate and master's degrees and taught high school in Salem. Her curiosity about other cultures and countries led to her discovery of International School Services, an agency in Princeton, NJ, that matches teachers and jobs in independent schools outside the U.S. After taking advantage of an opportunity to teach in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for 2 years, she found herself bidding goodbye to her family again and boarding the first of a series of flights that took her to Isfahan, Iran. She remained in the Middle East for ten years, teaching (and learning) in Iran and Dubai, The United Arab Emirates. During her Middle East sojourn, she met her husband, and she worked, socialized and lived with Iranian and traditional Dubai women. Being in the area at the time of the Iranian Revolution, she observed women returning to seclusion after only recently joining public life. Many questions arose in her mind about the veiled women around her and their embrace of conservative Islam, but answers were difficult to find. She returned to the U.S. from Dubai and earned her Ed.D. at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) in English Education. Her work in English education demands infusion of multicultural literature in her courses and the English Department's support and interest in focused literature courses rekindled the questions of a decade ago and a continent away. She has begun exploring, through the words of Middle Eastern women themselves, their concerns and their balancing of traditional Islam and progressive movements. Kathleen wants "to introduce my students to the richness of the cultures from Morroco to Iran, to encourage them to appreciate the eloquence of the women's literary voices, and appreciate (their) variety... And most of all, I want my students to ask their own questions."

On 10 and 11 February, the regional campus coordinators for SIROW (Southwest Institute for Research on Women) met in Las Vegas, NV. Those in attendance represented Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Texas, and Utah. The topics of discussion included problems and progress in our individual programs, information about resources, and suggestions to each other for addressing specific issues. It was a very worthwhile experience and it was simultaneously depressing and validating to discover how many of the challenges faced at Weber State are shared across programs.

Several of our faculty attended a multicultural conference held in Washington DC, the week of 13 February. Forrest Crawford, Kathleen Herndon, Priti Kumar and Linda Oda returned with renewed enthusiasm and expanded resource bases to continue their already impressive efforts at modeling multicultural scholarship and pedagogy for our campus and community. MANY THANKS (!) to Ada Hardenbrook and Karen Wimmer for their roles in the evolution of our newsletter masthead.

CALENDAR

27 February - 3 March - Women's Emphasis Week. Contact W.E.R.C. (-6090) or Women's Studies (-7632) for details on individual events.

1 March - Discussion of "Like Water for Chocolate," Dr. Marta Acosta, Weber County Library, 7:00 p.m.

2 March - International Women's Day

4 March - Statewide Meeting, Utah Women's Studies Programs/Women's Centers, University of Utah.

8 March - "Reawakening" poetry contest and reading in memory of Dr. Lee McKenzie, Thought Continuum, 7:00 p.m.

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

29 March - "Living Between Cultures," Dr. Judy Elsley and Ms. Priti Kumar, Thought Continuum, 7:00 p.m.

30-31 March - Visit with Dr. Chizuko Ueno. Co-sponsored with Asian Studies.

Note: We have been asked to publish the fax number for the University of Utah newsletter "Strengthening Ties." That number is 801-585-7387.

Gloria Wurst, Coordinator; Norma Hassell, Secretary Weber State University Women's Studies, Ogden UT 84408-1217