VOL III, No 7

MARCH 1997

COORDINATOR'S CORNER

This month's newsletter gives me the joyous opportunity to introduce our program's soon-to-be-leader, Dr. Diane Krantz, of the English Department. She will take over as Coordinator at the end of June this year.

Since this is Women's History Month, there are many things of interest to announce. I'll mention here only those planned for emphasis week on our campus, but please consult the calendar for other events you might wish to attend. Tuesday, 4 March, Services for Women Students will host a luncheon to honor "Women of Significance" from our community and attendees will have the pleasure of hearing an address by Betty Sawyer, President of the Ogden N.A.A.C.P. Wednesday, 5 March, will give us the oppportunity to listen to the work of the winners in all categories of the writing showcase at 12:30 p.m.; at 2 p.m. in Special Collections, Linda Gordon will deliver a public lecture on her work on the welfare system. The convocation on 6 March will be presented by Katie Koestner, who will discuss sexual assault on campus. In addition to the activities on our campus, there is a full slate of opportunity available at the University of Utah as well; events are in the calendar. The week will end with Saturday's 4th annual statewide conference of women's programs, "Continuing Collaborations," in the U. of U. Union Building. For further information on any of these events, please call the office at 626-7632. Lastly, I'd like to call your attention to a conference scheduled for Friday evening, 21 March, from 7 - 9 p.m. Pam Harrison, our first (although unofficial) Women's Studies graduate is involved in planning the event, entitled "Wings of Freedom: Beyond Abuse." It will be held in the Dillon Spikers Room of the Ogden Park Hotel; admission is free and light refreshments will be served. For further information, contact Janet at 392-2409.

A word of thanks to those of you who were able to take advantage of last week's visit by Michael Kimmel. I was delighted to see the enthusiastic audiences for his presentations. Perhaps we can look forward to inviting him back on another occasion.

FACULTY PROFILE

Dr. Diane Krantz is the newest "Chosen One" for the leadership of our program. She is relatively new to our campus, having joined the English faculty in 1995, but she brings with her a wealth of "life experience" that I'm confident we'll all find helpful over the next few years. I had occasion to attend a program administrators' conference with her in mid-February and it has made me even more secure in our decision.

Diane hails originally from northeast Pennsylvania and a small coal-mining town (appropriately named Carbondale), although her family moved to Connecticut when she was a teenager. From her earliest years in school, she knew that she wanted to pursue religious life as a Catholic sister, so, immediately after high school, she entered the convent. She received her B.S. in Mathematics from St. Louis University and her M.A. in Mathematics Teaching from Fairfield University in Connecticut and, for a dozen years, she taught math in Catholic high schools, enjoying the opportunity to impart knowledge about one of her two academic loves. During that time she also served as Title II coordinator and Department Chair of Mathematics, the latter at schools in both Connecticut and Missouri. However, the desire to pursue further education finally became too great to ignore and she entered a graduate program at the University of California, Davis. This time, she switched her allegiance to the other object of her affection and joined the ranks of the English graduate students. Diane holds both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English Literature. After completion of her dissertation on Julian of Norwich, she remained at Davis for a year as a lecturer in English before accepting her positon at Weber State. During the course of her graduate work, Diane traveled to Germany on a Fulbright award and served as a visiting lecturer at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz as well. She has presented and published her work in both mathematics assessment and English, with her most recent scholarly contribution being a book on her dissertation,currently in press with Peter Lang Publishing.

At Weber, Diane teaches several introductory English courses as well as Medieval literature. This quarter she was initiated into the Women's Studies faculty ranks as a teaching partner with Homa Firouzbakhch in WS 305, Feminist Theories. We look forward to the possibility that she might be able to revive a course in Feminist Theologies, given her interest in and knowledge of the relationships between women and spirituality.

In the course of her graduate work and faculty tenure at Weber, Diane has served on numerous committees. She also maintains membership in scholarly organizations at the state, regional and local level. Her graduate work was supported by a University of California Regents' fellowship, Miller Fund scholarships, as well as her Fulbright Travel Award that supported study and teaching in Germany. She also received a WSU RS&PG award in Fall 1996.

In the Coordinator's application, Diane expressed her philosophy about the purpose of Women's Studies "... to introduce students to the multidimensional, multicultural aspects of what it means to be a woman of the twenty-first century, what the roots of that meaning were, and what its implications will be." Her diverse life experiences, her commitment to continued scholarship, her enthusiasm for teaching, and her many talents (including a working knowledge of French, German, Latin, Old and Middle English) will provide both grounding and vision for everyone involved with Women's Studies over the next few years; her sense of priorities and her sense of humor will help keep us sane. I am very grateful to her for her willingness to make this commitment. However, after having learned a little more of her personal history in the course of our trip to Arizona, I will be insisting that she take the driver's safety training course before we rely on her to provide any automotive transportation for colleagues or students!

CALENDAR

3 March: Julia Alvarez presents "Between Gladys and the Tias", noon, U. of U. Union Building, Saltair Room, & a reading at 7 p.m., A Women's Place Bookstore, SLC.

4 March: Women's Award Luncheon (SWS), UB 338, 11:30 a.m. (Tickets required; call 626-6090.)

Lois Weis presents "Neither Seen nor Heard: Domestic Violence in White Working Class Women's Lives", noon, U. of U. Union Building, Panorama East, SLC.

5 March: SWS Writing Showcase winners present their work, 12:30 p.m., UB 338.

Linda Gordon presents "Women and Welfare: Historiography and Policy", 2 p.m., WSU Stewart Library Special Collections.

Linda Gordon presents "How Welfare Became a Dirty Word", 7 p.m., U. of U. Marriott Center for Dance.

Readings by writers from the WSU Writing Center, 7 p.m., Thought Continuum.

6 March: Executive Council meeting, SS137, 3:30 p.m.

8 March: "Continuing Collaborations" - 4th annual conference of Women-Centered Programs, 8 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., U. of U. Union Building, call 581-8094 for more information.

19 March: Readings by winners of WSU Writing Center, 7 p.m., Weber Co. Library.

21 - 30 March: Quarter Break

21 March: "Wings of Freedom:Beyond Abuse" Conference, Ogden Park Hotel, 7 - 9 p.m., call 392-2409 for more information.

31 March: Welcome Back! Spring Quarter begins.