duct their research and teaching in what we are calling “dangerous places” in which their work is undervalued, mis-understood and/or not supported, and young scholars are particularly vulner-able to the ramifications that can result from pushing boundaries and working at the margins of their academic loca-tions. In response, “Dangerous Places, Potential Spaces” will highlight and celebrate the scholarship of graduate students in Women’s Studies and re-lated interdisciplinary academic loca-tions who are working to transcend di-vides, dichotomies and boundaries of all sorts in their activisms, research, and teaching. The Conference is now being planned, but potential themes may in-clude: career concerns (publishing, job searching, feminist/critical pedagogies, etc.), globalization and transnational feminisms, transcending the activist/academic divide, and popular culture Continued on Page 2

The Women’s Studies Depart-ment is pleased to announce “Dangerous Places, Potential Spaces: Emerging Feminist Connections and Activisms in Local and Global Con-texts,” a three-day conference to be held on campus March 10-12, 2006. The conference is designed to bring together graduate students and professionals from various interdisciplinary academic locations to discuss issues currently driving the field of Women’s Studies and fe mini s t / c r i t i ca l po l i t i c s . “Dangerous Places, Potential Spaces” will provide a space where graduate students and established scholars from across the country and around the world can engage in meaningful conversations about the future of the field, learn from each other about emerging research, and present and discuss their own work with each other and with significant feminist theorists in a comfortable and intellectually rigorous environment. Interdisciplinary scholars are courageous risk-takers; they often con-

“DANGEROUS PLACES, POTENTIAL SPACES”

PATRICIA HILL COLLINS JOINS MARYLAND FACULTY; RECEIVES 2005-06 ELKINS PROFESSORSHIP

Noted feminist sociologist, Patricia Hill Collins joined the faculty of the Department of Sociology this fall. Professor Collins received her BA. and Ph.D. degrees in Sociology from Brandeis University, and M.A.T. degree from Harvard University. She has pub-lished many articles in a plethora of professional journals. In addition, Pro-

fessor Collins is well-known for writing a number of ground breaking books including the award winning Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Con-sciousness, and the Politics of Empow-erment, Fighting Words, and her most recent book: Black Sexual Politics.

Continued on Page 2

Special points of inter-est:

• Assistant Professor Opening

• Patricia Hill Collins

• Faith Ringgold

• Conference Reports

B R I D G I N G Uni v e r s i t y o f

Ma r y l a nd

Fall 2005/Spring 2006

Inside this issue:

Faith Ringgold 2

New Graduate Cohort

3

NWSA 4

Dissertations 5

International Conference

6

CRGE Colloquium 6

Department Chair 7

Job Announcement 8

Department of Women’s Studies

FAITH RINGGOLD TO VISIT CAMPUS

Patricia Hill Collins Joins Maryland Faculty, Cont’d

“Dangerous Places, Potential Spaces” Cont’d

Faith Ringgold, the renowned artist, will visit cam-pus on October 5th, 2005. Ringgold’s art focuses on issues related to the life, culture, and identities of African Ameri-cans. She explores social issues including slavery, femi-nism, women’s work, craft, and world politics.

During her visit Faith Ringgold will give a lecture entitled “Faith Ringgold: Jazz Stories,” to be held on Octo-ber 5, 2005 at 5PM in the Tawes Theater, followed by an opening reception and book signing from 7-9PM in the Art Gallery on the second floor atrium of the Art-Sociology Building.

Ringgold will unveil an exciting exhibit entitled “Faith Ringgold: Mama Can Sing, Papa Can Blow,” featur-ing the artist’s latest series, Jazz Stories 2004, including story quilts, paintings, drawings and prints. This exhibition is organized in conjunction with ACA Galleries, New York and will be displayed through December 10, 2005. Though the lecture and reception are free and open to the public, an RSVP is required for both events by September 28th. You can RSVP by calling 301-405-2763 or through email at theartgallery@umd.edu. For more information please visit the website for the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at driskellcenter@umd.edu.

Professor Collins is a wonderful addition to the University of Maryland intellectual community. In addition she has also been chosen for the Wilson H. Elkins Profes-sorship—an endowed professorship awarded to outstanding teachers and leaders. Professor Collins’ international prominence in several fields—including Women’s Studies, Afro-American Studies, and Sociology—make her an excel-lent choice for an Elkins Professorship since this honor is reserved for distinguished scholars who can extend their talents across the University System of Maryland (USM). Plans for her year as the Elkins Professor, include dedicating some time to giving lectures at other USM col-leges during the fall of 2005 and spring of 2006 and playing a key role in organizing a conference, co-sponsored by the

Sociology Department and the Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity, on intersectionality at the University of Maryland College Park (UM). This is an outstanding opportunity considering Professor Collins’es expertise as a pioneer in the area of intersectionality—the way in which systems of race, class and gender are interwoven, shaping experience, identity and social organization. As an Elkins Professor, Professor Collins will help foster a more collaborative relationship between UM and the other USM institutions as well as strengthen UM’s lead-ership on racial, gender, and ethnic diversity and inclusive-ness, and work with others on campus to provide a major intellectual forum for discussions of these issues.

and public policy. Rather than follow the traditional format of most conferences in which panels of scholars present their work to a passive audience, this conference will re-main true to its feminist/critical roots in Women’s Studies by conducting a series of workshops, roundtables, and brownbag lunches in which the division between audience and presenter is collapsed. One of the highlights of the con-

ference will be a plenary session in which the invited schol-ars will be asked not only to prepare brief remarks address-ing one or more of the conference themes, but will also en-gage in an open conversation with each other and graduate student participants.

B R I D G I N G Page 2

Introducing The New Graduate Student Cohort

The department of Women’s Studies is pleased to introduce the seven incoming graduate students for 2005/2006. Rajani Bhatia is a member of the Committee on Women, Population and the Environment (CWPE). She is an activist and writer in the international movement for women's health, reproductive rights and justice. She is also a contrib-uting author in Jael Silliman and Anannya Bhattacharjee, eds., Policing the National Body: Race, Gender and Crimi-nalization, Boston: South End Press, 2002, and Abby L. Ferber, ed., Home-Grown Hate: Gender and White Supremacy,Routledge, 2004. Rachel Caidor was born and raised in Miami, Florida. Af-ter four years of college in Indiana, she moved to Chicago where she has been living and working at rape crisis centers since 1997. Rachel's research interests include: representa-tions of women in political resistance movements, postcolo-nial and transnational feminisms, performance theory as it relates to art activist practices, public space reclamation, studies of material and popular culture, and finding afford-able graduate student housing for herself, her turtle, and a small forest of houseplants.

B e t t i n a Judd gradu-ated from S p e l m a n College with majors in English and Comparative W o m e n ' s Studies. Her main inter-ests center on agency

and activism in the Arts—primarily African Diasporan and Latina artists and cultural workers. She is an activist, writer, and artist (both visual and performing) and is really digging pop cul-ture/scholarship right now, trying to mesh a black feminist consciousness with a love for Hip Hop and the Fine Living Channel. Ms. Judd also loves earth-bling and good vegetar-ian food. Mel Michelle Lewis is an artist, activist, and scholar focus-ing on the experiences, and expressions of women and girls of color. With a background in painting, dance, perform-ance art, drama, and creative writing, Mel's research inter-

ests include curriculum transformation, Black women art-ists, and the relationship between the creative class and economy of cities. Mel attended Goucher College and holds a dual degree in Sociology and Women's Studies. She ac-quired a master's degree in Women's Studies at Towson University in May of 2005. Safoura Nourbakhsh received her BA and MA in English literature from San Francisco State University and returned to Iran to work as a feminist university lecturer, translator and writer. She returned to US two years ago as a visiting scholar at women's Studies department, University of Mary-land College Park. She has published many articles in femi-nist and literary journals in Iran and is contributing two en-tries to the Encyclopedia of women and Islamic Cultures on Iranian women writers and representations of women in Modern Iranian fiction this summer. At present her re-search interests are Sufi women in Iran. Ana Perez received a B.A. in Women's Studies from the University of South Florida in 2004. She is interested in studying the intersection of race, class, and gender, with an emphasis on Latina women's lived experiences. Amy Washburn received her M.A. in English at the State University of New York at New Paltz. During her time at

SUNY New Paltz, she was the co-founder of Students Against Empire, Feminism Without Borders, Trans-Forming Feminism as well as the Chief Steward of SUNY Colleges and Medical Universities for the Graduate Student Employees Union of the Communications Workers of America, Local 1104. Her research interests include femi-nist and critical race theory, contemporary multiracial women’s literature, and women in social movements.

Page 3 Department of Women’s Studies

Bonnie Dill, Bettina Judd, and Rachel Caidor

Amy Washburn, Claire Moses, Mel Michele Lewis, and Ana Perez

THE 26th ANNUAL NATIONAL WOMEN’S STUDIES ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE

Grad Student Spotlight

The 26th Annual NWSA (National Women’s Stud-ies Association) Conference—Women and The Environ-ment: Globalizing and Mobilizing—was held June 9-12th in Orlando, Florida. Several University of Maryland doctoral students joined hundreds of scholars and activists from all over the world to exchange ideas about crucial issues women face around the globe. In a particularly interesting and well-attended session entitled Transgressive Teaching Practices: Approaches to Antiracist Feminist Pedagogy, Bianca Laureano (3rd year Women’s Studies), Ryan Shanahan (3rd year Women’s Studies), and Claire Jen (4th year Women’s Studies) discussed their approaches to anti-racist feminist undergraduate teaching and advocacy. Drawing from experiences and scholarship, they facilitated a roundtable discussion where participants were invited to share their pedagogical strategies, and to bring copies of syllabi and other learning tools they have created and/or taught from in order to compare/contrast various innovative approaches in the classroom. Simultaneously, in a room down the hall in the beautiful Renaissance Resort at Seaworld, Tanesha Leathers (2nd year American Studies), Anaya McMurray (2nd year Women’s Studies), Melanie Miller (2nd year History), and Manouchka Poinson (3rd year American Studies) sat on a panel entitled Intersections of Representations, Images, and Agency by Gender, Race, and Ethnicity. Dr. Ruth Enid Zambrana moderated this panel, which drew on the com-plex and varying relationships women of color have when negotiating their internal and external environments. Pres-entations focused on: Representations of Motherhood in Hip-Hop; African American Muslim Women’s Negotiation of Power in Islam; Historical Forms and Representations of

Violence Against Asian Women; and the Political Contribu-tion of Haitian Women. In addition to the workshops, panels, and roundtables taking place throughout the weekend, participants also had the op-portunity to hear an inspiring speech by the Keynote Speaker Dr. Vandana Shiva who discussed her life work and activism in India and other parts of the world. Also for the pleasure and intellectual stimulation of conference atten-dees, Be Boyd, an associate professor at University of Cen-tral Florida, gave a theatrical presentation of Ntozake Shange’s “Lavender Lizards and Lilac Landmines: Layla’s Dream.” This year’s NWSA Conference proved to be a wonderful space in which to share creativity, strategies, and

Third year Doctoral student Bianca Laureano had a fabulous summer of expanding her knowledge and com-munities of practice, working with migrant youth and youth in foster care, and representing the Department at an inter-national level.

In July Bianca attended the 17th World Congress of Sexology Conference in Montréal, Québec and arrived just in time to see the last few performances of the International Jazz Festival. The weeklong conference theme was “Unity in Diversity.” Bianca met several graduate students and pro-fessionals in the sexual science field and many of whom are interested and excited about the work and PhD program Women’s Studies offers.

In August, Bianca provided consultation to the Child Welfare League of America. She was first introduced to this group in 2003 when she published her book ¡Sí, Po-demos! for their DC Girls Summit. This summit provided

an opportunity for young women, many in foster care, to attended an advocacy training.

Following her work with the Child Welfare League, Bianca spent a week at Penn State University with the Pennsylvania Migrant Education Program Student Lead-ership Institute where she was one of two writing instruc-tors. In this role she assisted children of migrant workers living in Pennsylvania who are juniors and/or seniors and college bound to leave the Leadership Institute with a per-sonal essay they can use for their college and scholarship applications. Bianca continues to work with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) as a member of their Advisory Board for the Program in Health and Higher Education (PHHE) where she is providing a stu-dent voice and perspective to create a larger HIV/AIDS cur-riculum for institutions of higher education.

B R I D G I N G Page 4

From left to right, Anaya McMurray, Ryan Shanahan, Melanie Miller, Tanesha Leathers, Ruth Zambrana, Bianca Laureano, Claire Jen, and Manouchka Poison.

WOMEN’S STUDIES DISSERTATIONS-IN-PROGRESS

In 2004/2005, our first six graduate students suc-cessfully defended their dissertation prospectus. Their work promises to be exciting and innovative and make important contributions to the field of Women’s Studies. The names, titles of their dissertations, as well as brief descriptions are provided below. Na-Young Lee: Negotiating Boundaries of Nationalism, Colonialism, and Globalization: The Korean Women’s Movement against Prostitution in U.S. Camptowns (Kijich’on Movement)

This dissertation will examine the impacts and im-plications of the Korean women’s movement against mili-tary prostitution in the United States camptowns. The Ki-jich’on movement, which uses various means and strategies to end military prostitution, reflects the complexity and specificity of Korean society and history and reveals the multiple symptoms embedded within an androcentric cul-ture. My research, therefore, seeks to understand the multi-faceted aspects of the women’s movement as well as its complex navigation of androcentric societies across time and space. Luh Ayu Prasetyaningsih: The Maze of Race: Contex-tualizing Skin Color in the Lives of Indonesian Women

My dissertation will examine the importance and meanings of light skin to Indonesian women, both in Indo-nesia and, as travelers, students, or immigrants, in the United States. Heather Rellihan: Building Nation and the Buildingsro-man: Education in the Anglophone Caribbean

I am studying the role of religious organizations in the school systems of Antigua, Belize and Grenada. I intend to write a history of the role of religion in education in these countries using both traditional and non-traditional sources (novels). I will be looking at curriculum reform in the post independence era, and how religious organizations help or hinder these reforms. I will also look at the way religious ideology relates to gender equality in education.

Nikki Stewart: Visual Resistance: Vision, Power, and the Black Girl Mediascape

This dissertation examines African American girls relationship to black girl images within visual media. Black feminist intellectuals and creative artists have responded to the visual dimensions of black women’s oppression by cre-ating a multimedia alternative image movement. In contem-porary U.S. culture, black feminist alternative images of black girlhood circulate alongside mainstream media im-ages featuring black girls and together these comprise a contemporary black girl mediascape. This dissertation ex-plores African American girls relationship with the black girl mediascape by exposing a small group of middle school girls to the educational resources of black feminist visual media and image production technology. Sarah M. Tillery: Performing Fatness and the Cultural Negotiations of Body Size

Our cultural understandings about and personal relationships to fatness are informed by an intricate configu-ration of medical, legal, and political messages that convey notions of acceptable and unacceptable body size. This dis-sertation will examine multiple instances wherein the nego-tiation of these messages produces complicated subject po-sitions for bodies of size. Through an analysis of the perfor-mative texts of the film, Real Women Have Curves, the pho-tography collection of Women En Large, and the synchro-nized swimming performances of the Padded Lilies, this project will examine the representations of fat women to illustrate how fat subjectivities are neither merely accom-modating nor simply resistive. Kimberly Williams: Starring Russia as Herself: Icons, (Imagi)Nations and the Trans/National Traffic in Women

Through a number of specific examples in pop cul-ture and media, this dissertation explores the myriad ways in which women's bodies (both "real" and imagined) are used to justify and legitimate US imperialism in the post-Soviet period, specifically with regard to the gendered na-tionalisms that continue to stymie the diplomatic relation-ship between the US and Russia. Specifically, it interrogates the cultural conditions that make the United States the third largest destination country for women trafficked from Rus-sia and Eastern Europe.

Page 5 Department of Women’s Studies

UM WOMEN’S STUDIES REPRESENTED WELL AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Several Women’s Studies faculty and graduate stu-dents participated in the 9th Interdisciplinary Congress on Women held this past June in Seoul, Korea. Professor Claire Moses served on the organizing committee as an international advisor, and Women’s Studies department chairperson Bonnie Dill, graduate director A. Lynn Bolles and doctoral candidate Nikki Stewart teamed up with Afri-can American Studies chair Sharon Harley to offer their various approaches to teaching Black Women’s Studies. Professors Bolles and Harley then joined Women’s Studies professor Seung-kyung Kim and several other scholars from across the United States to present their collective re-search on meanings and representations of work in the lives of women of color. Professor Kim, along with Women’s Studies Ph.D. can-didate Na Young Lee, also took part in the embedded con-ference of the Korean Association of Women’s Studies, pre-senting their paper on the institutionalization of women’s studies in Korea. Lee then joined Women’s Studies doctoral candidate Kimberly A. Williams and certificate students Vrushali Patil and Gwyndolyn J. Weathers on a panel examining the gendered symbol systems integral to the con-struction of various ‘nations,’ ‘races’ and ‘cultures’ in trans-national circuits of power, capital, commodities and ideas.

In addition, UM Women’s Studies was instrumen-

tal in facilitating the third annual meeting of the Interna-tional Consortium for Graduate Studies in Women and Gen-der, an informal cooperative endeavor among eight member institutions from around the world directed by Women’s Studies professor Deborah Rosenfelt. Held in conjunction

with the larger congress, the Consortium’s day-long meet-ing resulted in a renewed commitment to and specific meth-ods by which to attain its goal of facilitating the transna-tional exchange of ideas and knowledge and contributing to the evolutions of women's and gender studies, especially at the graduate level.

B R I D G I N G Page 6

Sharon Harley, Seung-kyung Kim, Bonnie Dill, Claire Moses, Lynn Bolles

Members of the International Consortium for Graduate Study In Women and Gender.

The Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity (CRGE) is pleased to announce the Fall 2005 Graduate Col-loquium. This Colloquium is designed specifically for graduate students interested in the intersections of race, gender, ethnicity and other dimensions of difference. The Colloquium meets monthly to create interdisciplinary ties among graduate students interested in questions surround-ing the construction and perpetuation of categories of social difference. The Colloquium dates and topics are: October 20, 2005—CRGE Special Event: Patricia Hill Collins (Nyumburu Cultural Center’s Multipurpose Room) November 17, 2005—Interdisciplinary Job Talks December 1, 2005—Graduate Student Presentations Sessions meet on Thursday’s from noon to 2 p.m. in the Maryland Room of Marie Mount Hall. All are wel-come to attend. A light lunch will be served. For more in-formation please visit www.crge.umd.edu.

CRGE GRADUATE COLLOQUIUM

A Word from the Department Chair:

This past summer I studied the Islamic Diaspora in France, Germany and the Netherlands through a study abroad program offered by the School for International Training. The eight-credit, six-week program explored the social, political and cultural influences of Muslim immigra-tion in Europe, focusing in particular on issues of discrimina-tion and integration and comparing/contrasting Muslim com-munities in each of the three countries. I’m excited to say that the trip was a truly informative learning experience that broadened my worldview, taught me about the flexibility/complexity of the religion of Islam and brought to light many interesting points about today’s debates concerning the 11 million Muslims living in the countries of the European Un-ion.

The trip included lectures and meetings which fo-cused on broad topics relating to the Islamic Diaspora in Europe, but I attended the trip with the intention of learning specifically about European Muslim women and the head-scarf debate. I wanted to focus on this debate because of the controversial headscarf ban in France and also because the headscarf is widely seen as symbolic of women’s oppression. I was able to do this through an individual research paper that examined attitudes concerning the headscarf among European, Muslim women in France, Germany and the Neth-erlands. The paper was based on field research and inter-views.

Over the course of six weeks I got the opportunity to talk with many Muslim women about their thoughts regarding the headscarf and the debate surrounding it in the public arena. I found that European, Muslim women each had very different reasons for choosing to/not to wear the headscarf and I also found that many women, regardless of their feelings about the headscarf, focused on their rights as individuals to make choices about their bodies. Unfortunately, the political landscape in countries such as France, where extreme secu-larization mandates that any/all forms of religion be stricken from the public arena, prevents Muslim women from acting as free agents. Whether the headscarf ban in public schools is about religious neutrality or discrimination is the question at hand; many of the Muslim women that I interviewed felt that the ban was about the latter. It is hard to express all that I learned during my trip because I gained so much. The research that I conducted through interviews made me more aware of the diversity of opinion in the Muslim community and the fact that these opin-ions are often essentialized or misrepresented in the public arena. The dialogue concerning European Muslims is unbal-anced and often based on ignorance of the religion—if policy makers spent as much time as I did learning, sharing and speaking to people, Europe would be much closer to integrat-ing, not marginalizing, its Muslim populations .

-Jade Garza NDiaye

Page 7 Department of Women’s Studies

Undergraduate Spotlight

As this newsletter goes to press we are all sorting through the destruction and devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the challenge that this disaster provides to so many individuals and families as well as to our nation. First, I want to extend sincere and heartfelt sympathy to the people of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, especially to our family members, friends and colleagues in those areas. Though we cannot fully comprehend the extent of your losses, we grieve them with you and hope to be a source of support and reassurance in the future. From where I sit, what is clear is that Hurricane Katrina has blown the roof off the doctrine of color-blind racism and revealed the holes that have been rent in the eco-nomic safety net. It has demonstrated that racial discrimi-nation is alive and well and deeply enmeshed in a web of inequalities that include class, gender, age and ability. Thus, we enter the twenty-first century, with a vivid re-minder that the color line remains a problem for this century as it was for the last. And, we have another opportunity to

rebuild the gulf coast region through a process that is socially just, inclusive, and respects the rights, needs and wishes of all of those people – black, white, Latino; rich, poor, middle class; young, old and middle aged; straight, gay or questioning – who seek physical and environmental safety and security in their home communities. Or, our leaders can continue to repeat the mistakes of the past, protecting and lining the pockets of those who are rich, powerful and (mostly) White, leaving the poor, powerless, people of color to fend for themselves. I believe this is another watershed moment in U.S. history and achieving a just outcome in the gulf will have im-plications for the rest of the nation. The answers, however, are not immediate, nor are they confined solely to the Gulf of Mex-ico or even to the U.S. Poverty and discrimination in the U.S. must be understood as part of a global struggle for peace and social justice and these issues require our engagement and con-cern long after stories of evacuees and flooding have receded from the headlines.

-Bonnie Thornton Dill, Professor and Chair

The Department of Women's Studies at the University of Maryland seeks a tenure-track assistant professor whose work focuses on women of color and whose innovative scholarship and teaching transcend disciplinary boundaries. The areas of research and teaching in which we are inter-ested include but are not limited to:

• multiracial/multicultural and critical race femi-nisms

• local, national, regional and transnational femi-

nisms • lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer studies • work contributing to our departmental concentra-

tions: race and racialization; art, culture and social change; bodies, genders, and sexualities; gendered labor, households, and communities

We are particularly interested in applicants whose research and teaching link the U.S. and other areas of the world. Ph.D. in Women's Studies, Ethnic Studies, Area Studies, or related interdisciplinary fields of inquiry pre-ferred. Additional information regarding the University of

Maryland Department of Women's Studies may be obtained at: http://www.womensstudies.umd.edu. Email inquiries may be addressed to barkleyb@umd.edu, but the application materials must be sent by post. The University of Maryland is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. Women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply. The position is contingent upon funding.

Opening for Assistant Professor of Women's Studies

Support Women’s Studies at UM…

Contributions in support of Women’s Studies are always wel-come. Your donations help extend programming and opportu-

nities for staff and students.

All contributions are tax deductible.

Please make checks payable to: UM College Park Foundation Mail to: Annie Carter, Business Manager

Department of Women’s Studies, Woods Hall 2101 University of Maryland

College Park, MD 20742

Non-Profit Org. US Postage

PAID College Park,

MD Permit #10

Department of Women’s Studies University Of Maryland 2101 Woods Hall College Park, MD 20742

Phone: 301-405-6877 Fax: 301-314-9190 E-mail: womensstudies@umd.edu

Visit us on the web at www.womensstudies.umd.edu

BRIDGING is a publication of the Department of Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland and was designed by Anaya McMurray and Patrick Grzanka