newsletter of the ucla Center for the DEC07 study of women

by A. JANET TOMIYAMA CSW

DIETING Does it really work? “Everyone knows diets don’t work. All they do is stress you out.” This judgment, uttered by the inimitable Oprah Winfrey, characterizes a vast number of women’s experiences with dieting. The weight comes off initially and then seems to rebound right back, making the entire miserable experience for naught. The common perception that diets don’t work seems to be acknowledged (if not accepted) by women everywhere. Contrast this to the world of medical research, which operates on the “calories in, calories out” principle. If one reduces the calories going into one’s body and increases the calories that are burned, the net loss in calories must necessarily lead to weight loss. To the medical world, this is biology, and biology is irrefutable. This is why a vast number of physicians recommend dieting as a treatment for obesity and why a large body of medical research exists that puts people on low-calorie restrictive diets to treat obesity. I, along with my advisor Traci Mann and other collaborators, noticed this contradiction and decided to figure out once and for all whether calorie-restricting

1 DEC07 in this issue

, 13-14

4-8 9-12

DEPARTMENTS Faculty Notes:

News ...... 17

2 DEC07 DIRECTOR’s Commentary

Bloody Footprints: Turning Advertising to Activism

This fall, CSW’s programming focused on and the sexual exploitation of women . economy, and accessibility of Galindo’s art and activism and featured, among Galindo uses her body for these actions, work . The artist takes the impulse of others, Guatemalan performance art- walling herself into a coffin-like space; advertising–to publicize and make a ist Regina José Galindo . Though still a cutting the word “perra” (“bitch”) into her brand or product instantly familiar – young artist, Galindo’s prize-winning thigh; hanging herself from a balcony, and its economic discipline–to use the work has been recognized worldwide . It her body draped in white cloth . After minimum of text and maximum of visual confronts the excessive violence perpe- her presentation, when she was asked impact to convey the product message trated against civilians, frequently wom- about the capacity of art to effect politi- quickly and powerfully–in order to make en and children, in her home country . cal change, Galindo immediately and her internal responses to the trauma of In one of her most well-known pieces, passionately responded that she did not Guatemala external and public . She uses “Who can erase the traces,” Galindo believe art could change the world . She her body as medium, as the public terri- walked barefoot through the streets of explained that she makes art for her own tory where the fiction and reality of her Guatemala City, stopping intermittently conscience, to witness and give voice to work meets, to publicize the things done to dip her feet into a basin full of human the violence and suffering that she sees to bodies in Guatemala . blood . Her bloody footprints testified to everyday . As there are no art schools the thousands of civilians killed in Guate- in Guatemala, Galindo came to her art CSW thanks Jennifer Sternad and Profes- mala during years of civil unrest . Other and performance work from a career in sor Charlene Villaseñor for facilitating pieces grapple with imprisonment, advertising . Her background in advertis- Galindo’s visit . torture, cruelty toward the mentally ill, ing explicates the dramatic visual force, − Kathleen McHugh

3 COUNTERING AGEIST by Myrna A. Hant

IDEOLOGY Jennifer Abod’s new award-winning film, Look Us in the Eye: The Old Women’s Project, is a groundbreaking work in women’s studies, a video that links ageism and sexism . It is a topic that is rarely studied and even less likely to be filmed . Abod expertly cap- tures the zest of three old women (they specifically want to be called that) who started the Old Women’s Project in San Diego in 2000, an organiza- tion created for old women activists . The film focuses on interviews with the three founders, Cynthia Rich, Janice Keefaber, and Mannie Garza and shows footage of their demonstrations against war, nu- clear proliferation, low-income housing, and many other issues of social justice . The Old Women’s Project claims that old women are part of every social justice issue: child care, homelessness, prison reform, violence against women, and war . Too frequently old people are assumed to care only about age-related issues like social security and Medicare . The women’s very exuberance and activism, adeptly cap- tured by Abod’s film, belie so many of the unexamined assumptions about what older women want and can do . These “truisms” are so pervasive that

DEC07 4 CSupdateW deconstructing them is not enough . Abod’s should be portrayed as declining, feeble, visual evidence astutely targets the prevail- and certainly not mentally alert . Adding ing ageist ideology: old woman as “other,” further to the denigration of older people old woman as invisible, and old woman as is the loosening of beliefs that the elderly a metaphor for disease, isolation, worth- are somehow more closely connected to lessness, vulnerability, dissatisfaction, and the eternal . “In a society which had lost its decrepitude . fear of the afterlife, and in which awareness The entrenchment of ageism, particularly and contact with death was not integrated directed at women, has a long history in the into everyday life (for death no longer held United States . Ageism, a term defined by a mythical power over the living) there was Robert Butler in 1975, is a “process of sys- no reason to fear any potential revenge tematic stereotyping of and discrimination from old people ”. 2 One of the goals of the against older people because they are old, Old Women’s Project is to make it desirable just as racism and sexism accomplish this to be old . “We want to celebrate an honest with skin colour and gender . Older people exchange between generations ”. are categorized as senile, rigid in thought and manner, old fashioned in morality Cynthia Rich THE OTHER and skills… Ageism allows the younger generation to see old people as different to a young man as an equal in the cause, What does it mean to call someone “the from themselves, thus they subtly cease to both “inhabiting the same world ”. A year other”? In The Second Sex, originally identify with their elders as human beings ”. 1 later she happened to see him and his com- published in France in 1949, Simone de Ageism is so pervasive in society that we ment to her was “I’m so glad you’re still up Beauvoir adapted this Hegelian con- hardly notice any more the ridiculous way and around ”. Rich relayed her shock at the struct to characterize the role of women older men and specifically older women are disconnect between her belief that she was in male-dominated culture . She explains portrayed in advertisements, greeting cards, his political equal and his ageist comment . that man makes himself the essential and so often in the media . Cynthia Rich la- The tainting of the image of older people being and woman is “the other ”. More ments the artificial separation of youth and already begins to appear in the United specifically, the definition of personhood age and challenges people to come togeth- States in popular literature at the end is male so that woman defines herself in er to “join in coalition ”. She recalls a particu- of the nineteenth century, creating and terms of the male . Similarly, the essen- lar march where she felt she had connected reinforcing the views that an older person tial being or standard of womanhood

DEC07 5 CSupdateW in American culture is youthfulness . of solutions to problems . What are the selves from the hated “old ”. Janice Kee- Therefore, if a woman is old, she is not consequences? It is a tautological bind; faber relates her experience of going essential woman, but rather “the other” the younger members of society do into stores with her daughter and hear- and consequently different . Women of not expect to see active and productive ing the unintentional, but derogatory all ages know that the standard is youth behavior on the part of seniors and in comments by young male clerks: “ You and to be “not young” is to be devalued turn old people accept this deleterious two must be sisters” or “Hello, young by society . The old woman is perceived stereotype of themselves . lady” or “Don’t tell me you’re a grand- as menopausal and hence no longer a Susan Sontag refers to a “double mother ”. As well meaning as the young recipient of the “ ”. Moreover, standard of aging ”. In contrast to men, man thinks he’s being, he is infantilizing old women adopt this view of them- “women are required to match up to old women . selves and try desperately to be young the adolescent ideal throughout their or at least to “pass” as young, and thus lives…It is therefore not surprising that young and old are accomplices in creat- many of our representations of women INVISIBILITY ing a social construct that defines being are constructed in terms of physical old as a negative attribute . Simone de appearance and that images and self- What does it mean to be invisible as a per- Beauvoir laments the “otherness” that images of the bodies of older women son? The definition of invisible is “incapable 4 forces old people to “stand outside of cause such problems ”. Frueh concurs of being seen ”. To be invisible is to be either humanity,” a prisoner of society’s miscon- that the “older woman is doubly dif- the recipient of a totally stereotypical view ceptions . “If old people show the same ferent, doubly degraded, and doubly or actually not to be seen at all . People, desires, the same feelings and the same injured by exterior identity: she is visibly particularly men, often ignore old women requirements as the young, the world female, different from men and visibly because they are not young, not a sex looks upon them with disgust…Above aging, even when cosmetically altered, object, and not capable of reproducing . The 5 all they are called upon to display seren- different from young ”. old woman can be only visible and socially 3 ity: the world asserts they possess it…” The other side of aging is the energy acceptable in her prescribed role as mother Betty Friedan also lamented the dis- and effort put into denying aging by or grandmother . tortions of society’s images of mature older people themselves and particularly “In a youth-oriented , especially, adults . In The Fountain of Age, she dis- by older women . Old women often in- to become an older woman is to become cusses Vern Bengston’s concerns that ternalize the self-loathing so frequently invisible, a nonentity ”. 6 According to Naomi older people are so often seen only as a promoted in the ageist stereotype and Wolf, women’s magazines largely ignore societal problem rather than as creators make valiant efforts to separate them- old women, and if they do feature an old

DEC07 6 CSupdateW woman, she is air-brushed to look ten to vinced that if they just try hard enough vulnerability, dissatisfaction and decrepi- fifteen years younger than she actually is . and buy enough, they will not be “junked ”. tude . In her book The Fountain of Age, Betty “The effect of this censorship of a third of Billions of dollars are spent in an effort to Friedan discusses a survey conducted by Re- the female life span is clear . By now readers become visible, in other words, to become tirement Living on a cross section of people have no idea what a real woman’s 60-year- young again . Age passing becomes a state under and over 65 and the “most common old face looks like in print because it’s made of mind, a measure of self-worth, a guide to adjectives used to describe the way people to look 45 . Worse, 60-year-old readers look choice . When we reflect “young” tastes in our over sixty were depicted on television were in the mirror and think they look too old, clothing, cosmetics, activities, friends and ‘ridiculous’, ‘decrepit’ and ‘childish’ ”. 9 In a because they’re comparing themselves to lovers, we are passing . “Passing” enables old survey conducted by H . Cohen, participants some retouched face smiling back at them women to pretend that the key roles that stereotyped the portrayal of old women as from a magazine . “7 they have grown accustomed to as “object” having the following characteristics: living This invisibility is piercing for a mature and “childbearer” are still somehow a pos- in the past; old fashioned in their behavior, woman not only because she is not worth- sibility . There is even a moral dimension thinking, and the way they looked; not inter- while enough to be visible, but because she to remaining young, a requirement that a ested in sexual activity; basically cared for by enters society’s radar screen as a symbol of woman’s well-being is dependent on her their families without giving in return; and frailty, weakness, and ugliness . Her major ability (or inability) to stay youthful . largely invisible . 10 roles are gone, and she becomes merely In Abod’s film, both Cynthia and Janice To counter the prevailing assumptions a manifestation of what a young woman lament the stereotypes of old women as about old women, the Project’s women wants to avoid . Germaine Greer explains either the kindly grandmother or as the carry their hallmark puppet, a giant woman’s that “the middle-aged woman no longer cranky, feisty, and difficult old lady . “We are head named POWER (an acronym for Pissed has the option of fulfilling the demands of who no one would choose to look at,” they Old Woman Engaged in Revolution) . Abod’s a patriarchal society . She can no longer play remark, but “we need to be defiant about opening and closing music captures this the obedient daughter, the pneumatic sex aging and claim ourselves for who we are . sense of empowerment with the song “It object or the madonna . Unless she consents And while we’re at it we are going to ‘claim Isn’t Nice,” connoting the necessity for old to enter the expensive, time-consuming and our white hair and our wrinkles ’”. women to shed the socialized “being nice” utterly futile business of denying that she behavior that so many women emulate . 11 has passed her sell-by-date, she has sooner METAPHOR Too often old women are puzzled by or later to register the fact that she has been the bombardment of negative images so junked by consumer culture ”. 8 Too frequently we see old women as meta- prevalent in American culture . According to Apparently, millions of women are con- phors for disease, isolation, worthlessness, Sharon McQuaide, “Women doing well are

DEC07 7 CSupdateW aware of a troubling discrepancy between LINKS 9. Friedan, B. (1993). The Fountain of Age. New the positive way they see themselves and Old Women’s Project, www.oldwomensproject.org York: Simon and Schuster. social devaluation they perceive, and they Jennifer Abod, www.jenniferabod.com 10. Cohen, H. (2002) “Developing Media Lit- feel challenged to live lives that contradict eracy Skills to Challenge Television’s Portrayal the ‘over the hill’ stereotype . Their sense NOTES of Older Women.” Educational Gerontology, of ‘personhood’ is stronger than ever, yet 1. Butler, R. (1975). Why Survive? Growing Old in America. New York:Harper & Row. 28, 599-620. society and the media are fading them into an invisibility that does not sit well with the 2. Featherstone, M. & Wernick, A. (1995) Images 11. “It Isn’t Nice,” words Malvina Reynolds, mu- of Aging: Cultural Representations of Later Life. baby boomer generation . They are aware of sic Barbara Dane and Malvina Reynolds, 1964, London: Routledge. a dissonance between the increased free- Schroeder Music Co. dom and power they feel and the negative 3. de Beauvoir, S. (1977). The Second Sex. cultural stereotypes and media portrayals ”. 12 England:Penguin Books. 12. McQuaide, S. (1998) “Women at Midlife.” In Social Work, 43:21+ National Association of Kudos to The Old Woman’s Project and 4. Sontag, S. (1997) “The Double Standard of to Jennifer Abod for so effectively and af- Aging.” In M. Pearsall (Ed.) The Other Within Social Workers. fectionately chronicling the work of these Us: Feminist Explorations of Women and Aging, 19-24. Boulder: Westview. pioneering women . Abod’s film not only debunks the stereotypes that are so del- 5. Frueh, J. (1997). “Women Artists and Aging.” eterious to older women but also offers In M. Pearsall (Ed.), The Other Within Us: Feminists Explorations of Women and Aging, encouragement to young women who can 197-219. Boulder:Westview. look forward to a stage in life that affords new opportunities and possibilities, a time 6. Bolen, J. (2001). Goddesses in Older Women: Archetypes in Women Over Fifty. New of increased agency and renewed activism . York:HarperCollins.

Myrna Hant is a CSW 7. Wolf, N. (1991). The Beauty Myth: How Im- Research Scholar. Much ages of Beauty are Used Against Women. New of her work has focused on York:Doubleday. the stereotypes of mature 8. Greer, G. (1997). “Serenity and Power.” In M. women in the media, their Pearsall (Ed.), The Other Within Us: Feminist contributions to ageism, Explorations of Women and Aging, 253-273. and the few counterhege- Boulder:New York. monic portrayals of this media archetype.

DEC07 8 CSupdateW by Elaina Lin Q&A with Frinde Maher

The Professor of Education at Wheaton College Discusses the Changing Role of Feminist Pedagogies in the University

CSW recently organized a daughters, Regan and Goneril. to discuss issues related to panel discussion to precede a When faced with an athletic performance studies and performance of Wendy Was- student who appears to be . Frinde serstein’s final play Third at the scion of a wealthy family, Maher, Professor of Education the Geffen Playhouse in West- she assumes he is a “dumb at Wheaton College, and Jill wood, California. In the play, jock.” When the young man, Dolan, Zachary T. Scott Family Laurie Jameson, a professor whose nickname is “Third,” Chair in Drama at University of English literature at an Ivy turns in a thoughtful paper of Texas at Austin, were the League-type college in New on King Lear, she accuses him panelists. England, gives vent to her of plagiarism. Consequently, the morning before the liberal views on the canon. In Jameson is forced to re-exam- panel, Professor Maher kindly an analysis of King Lear, for ine her role as professor, her agreed to chat about the example, she castigates the liberal politics, and herself. trajectory of and virtuous Cordelia while cham- Wasserstein’s satirical por- the changing role of feminist pioning Lear’s bloodthirsty trayal of a feminist classroom pedagogies in the university. offered a perfect opportunity

DEC07 9 CSupdateW How has performance studies affected the development of that deconstruction does tures of inequality. Regard- talking about unless you ? when confronted with the less of discipline, the feminist stipulate in the classroom unitary subject. classroom is a place for inter- that different perspectives Feminist theory has gone rogating those discourses are going to be heard and Feminist theory is now through a lot of changes in that carry those structures that the students carry those contending with global the past twenty years. In the into people’s heads and lives. perspectives, which is why in a way that it early 1980s, feminist theory In my teaching, I pay much giving lectures doesn’t work. didn’t even five years ago. The was all about discovering more attention to language What is interesting to me is transnational and transsexual women and reversing the and ideology because of de- the filters available in stu- movements have taken over bad things about women that constructive theory, because dents’ difference that inter- and have made the ques- Western literature, history, of people like Judith Butler, pret the text. Everyone reads tion of identities even more and culture seemed to focus Joan Scott, and Linda Martin the text in a different way. contingent, fluid, and up on when they did focus on Alcoff. It’s called “feminist” for grabs in feminist theory. That is the locus of the peda- women. This was followed because attention to gender, Judith Butler says there is no gogical moment. The more by the discovery of separate race, class, age, or sexuality as identity except as we con- diverse your student body identities available (black categories for interpretation tinue to perform it and get is, the better, but even when women, women of color, so don’t happen in other places. challenged through it to keep classes are homogeneous, on and so forth). Decon- Feminist pedagogies mark re-identifying ourselves. to mark where students are structive and postmodern the classroom as a zone for If identity is so fluid, why coming from in relation to approaches and all the other declare that your pedagogy is interrogating those inequali- “feminist”? the text, and then to explicate anti-essentialist moves in ties. feminist theory have cre- where they can go in rela- ated ideas about identity that Theory provides a framework You can not engage in some- tionship to the text around actually mark it as in flux, for the classroom, and prac- thing as theoretically dense these issues of language, relational, situational, contin- titioners of feminist pedago- and complex as the kind of difference, deconstruction, gent, and all the other things gies are seeking to explore pedagogical approaches I’m and so on, is where feminist and dismantle these struc- pedagogy gains its power.

DEC07 10 CSupdateW How do you defuse the poten- tial for reverting to assumptions setts, I am black or a woman I’ve been doing this work own complicity in the frame- about the students? of color.” And then she drew for about 27 years. The works of inequality. a line. “In New York City, problem in the feminist I attended a talk on teaching People don’t like the idea where I live, I am Domini- classroom used to be evok- Boys Don’t Cry. The speaker that who is in front of you can.” She drew another line ing the voices of women and read at great length from matters because it is all about down. “In the Dominican students of color, including a journal entry by a white the text. Well, it’s not. It’s Republic when I go home, their perspectives, doing the male student whose take on about relationships that are I’m a gringo. I’m white.” homework, finding the texts, the film was to blame Hilary constructed around the text. She was marking a journey learning how to teach The Swank’s character, Brandon. At the end of a semester in which the deeper she went Bluest Eye. Now, the most “If Brandon hadn’t lied about in which I had been doing into her origins, the more important problem in femi- her sex, then everything everything I could think white she became, and the nist pedagogy is excavating would have been fine.” I was of about identity—how to deeper she went into white the position of privilege and on the edge of my seat wait- construct, how to decon- America, the more woman getting those who occupy ing for the speaker to tell us struct it, how to think about of color she became. She positions of power to rec- how he handled it, and he it, what do all of these issues wouldn’t have said that at the ognize how other people’s didn’t. He only said, “This tell us about the way the beginning of the semester. marginality is a function of is what I am dealing with. world operates–a Dominican their grabbing and holding Since many of these courses Here’s the journal entry.” student said to me, “Okay, I onto the center. I have a lot revolve around becoming get it.” She went up to the of material that suggests that How would you have dealt more intimate with these with it? blackboard, drew a vertical white students become, at minute, relational negotia- line, and said, “At Wheaton best, very sympathetic. They tions of identity, how do you You have to go back to the College [which has a pre- understand it intellectually, attempt to garner a compa- text: the film and the pur- dominantly white, middle- to but they don’t identify with rable level of reflexivity in poses of the filmmaker. You upper-middle-class student the position of privilege. someone whose perspective have to ask the students to body] in Norton, Massachu- They do not recognize their falls closer to the norm? reflect on the creation of this

DEC07 11 CSupdateW Why do you think paying close fictional character. What attention to the text is still im- Shakespeare is writing about, You need to have a place dynamics in this society are portant? then you have to have an you’re going. The text is a ve- going on? Why would she idea in advance of what that hicle. The more you go into choose to become a male? If you are going to teach encounter will mean for your the text, the better it becomes Instead of fixating on victim students to explicate how students and what you want as a vehicle to carry other and blame, go back to the society works, if you are go- it to mean for your students. things. That’s why the choice social/cultural framework ing to use this work to make Otherwise, you should not of the text is so important. the world a better place, then teach it. that is producing the story so V Frinde Maher is Professor you have to be really careful that the students can begin of Education at Wheaton Col- what vehicles you choose. It You should not teach Boys talking about the film and lege in Norton, MA, where she Don’t Cry unless you are pre- the conditions that would is easy to teach King Lear, teaches Feminist Theory and other pared for a constellation of create the need to tell this for example, because King courses. She has written about and opinions. And then you have story. Not only is it a matter Lear is in the canon and it employed theories and practices of to figure out how handling feminist pedagogy for over twenty of excavating why the film is an important moment in that constellation of opinions years. She is the author of numer- was made in the first place, Western culture. You can pay attention to language and the is going to get you to the ous articles on feminist pedago- you also have to ask, “Why gies and gender issues in educa- character development and place where your students did you choose to teach it? tion and co-author, with Mary never get to what King Lear will see Boys Don’t Cry as an What did you think was go- Kay Tetreault, of The Feminist evocation of a certain kind ing to happen? Why do you should mean today. In the Classroom (1994 and 2001) and of viciousness in American want the students to encoun- realm of feminist pedagogy, Privilege and Diversity in the popular culture that you want ter this film under your care?” if you’re teaching King Lear Academy (2007). them to engage with. Oth- You need to think through because you want to talk not erwise, don’t teach it. And h Elaina Lin is a graduate for yourself what your goal only about the language, not only the relationships, but don’t expect that everyone student in the Department of is in teaching this film. Is it Geography. Her research examines the wider engagement with will love it. just supposed to be that the the cultural production and domes- issues of life and death that students are outraged? tication of the modern American desert. DEC07 12 CSupdateW DIETING, continued from page 1 An extensive body diets actually do work. This good. Overall, participants tive than they actually were. question became particu- did initially tend to lose For example, in many of the of research exists larly important because of about five to ten percent of studies, participants self- showing that a change in the wording in their body weight on diets, reported their weight over the psychological stress Medicare and Medicaid’s but complete weight regain phone or through the mail. can lead to weight coverage manual in 2004. occurred in the majority of We need look no further than gain, and many women A simple six-word deletion participants. In fact, over any person’s driver’s license of the phrase “obesity is not two-thirds of participants to understand the problem would certainly say considered an illness” opened gained back more weight of underestimation when that they find dieting the door for Medicare to po- than they lost initially on the self-reporting one’s weight. to be stressful. In tentially fund treatments for diet. Research indicates that As another example, these fact, 100% of women obesity, one main candidate repeatedly losing and gain- studies also had very low in a focus group being dieting. It thus became ing weight (called “weight follow-up rates. In fact, eight imperative that the scientific cycling” or “yo-yo dieting”) is of the studies had follow-up I conducted said evidence for the effectiveness very harmful to one’s health; rates lower than 50%. This is a that they thought of dieting be evaluated criti- therefore, the implication problem because people who dieting was stressful. cally and systematically, and of our review is that women fail at the diets and gain large I hypothesize, we set out to do just that. may be better off never hav- amounts of weight are un- therefore, that dieting For dieting to be a treat- ing gone on the diet in the likely to report for follow-up might be a source of ment for obesity, it must first place (Mann, Tomiyama, assessments. lead to long-term weight loss. Lew, Westling, Samuels, We therefore concluded psychological stress Temporary weight loss is Chatman, 2007). that calorie-restricting diets that in turn might not a cure for obesity. In our Although this outlook are not effective, and that lead to weight gain review, therefore, we focused is bleak, we had reason to Medicare should not fund and diet failure. only on studies that placed believe that the news was dieting as a treatment for people on diets and had at even worse. In our review, we obesity. The question still least a two-year follow-up identified several method- remains, however, of why point. We identified 31 stud- ological flaws in the studies dieting doesn’t work. This ies that met this criterion and that may have made the diets question is the basis of my found that the news was not appear to be even more effec- dissertation, which I am con- DEC07 13 CSupdateW ducting currently. Returning called cortisol and salivary strong evidence indicating was described as a “significant to the second half of Oprah’s alpha amylase. that regaining weight after contribution to research on quote – “All they do is stress It seems irresponsible to dieting is the norm, I hope dieting, weight loss interventions, you out” – it seems that stress simply say “dieting doesn’t that women can now be free and obesity,” by one of her might be a plausible reason work” without offering of the tyranny of dieting. recommenders. Tomiyama has also why diets fail. women an alternative solu- co-authored an article, “Cultural A. Janet An extensive body of tion to the obesity epidemic. Models, Socialization goals, Tomiyama is a research exists showing that Based on our review, a prom- and Parenting Ethnotheories: Ph.D. student in psychological stress can lead ising potential solution may A Multi-cultural Analysis” Social Psychology to weight gain, and many be exercise. Studies tend to in Journal of Cross-Cultural at UCLA, women would certainly say find that the participants who Psychology. with concentrations in Health that they find dieting to be report the most exercise are and Quantitative Psychology, stressful. In fact, 100% of also those that lose the most Photo credits: Image of woman who expects to graduate in June women in a focus group I weight. Research indicates with mouth full of lettuce on page 2009. She was awarded the The 1 by VikaValter, istockphoto.com; conducted said that they that exercise can also coun- Elizabeth Blackwell, MD Award image of celery on page 13 by thought dieting was stress- teract the many negative Rapid Eye Media, istockphoto.com. from CSW in June of 2007. ful. I hypothesize, therefore, psychological and biologi- This award recognizes an that dieting might be a source cal effects of stress itself. In outstanding research report, thesis, of psychological stress that future research, therefore, I dissertation or a published article in turn might lead to weight plan to balance my investiga- on a topic pertaining to women, gain and diet failure. In my tions into dieting with studies health, or women in health-related dissertation, I am testing examining exercise. sciences. The report, The search this hypothesis by assigning I have thus far character- for effective obesity treatments: women to several types of ized the inefficacy of dieting Should Medicare fund diets? by diet (or control) conditions as terrible news, but since T. Mann, A.J. Tomiyama, A.M. and measuring their result- completing this review, I Lew, E. Westling, J. Chatman, ing psychological stress levels. actually have started to think & B. Samuels, was published In order to track these levels, of this as great news. Dieting in American Psychologist, 62 my study will monitor two is an unpleasant experience (2007): 220 – 233. This article biological markers of stress at best, and as we have very DEC07 14 CSupdateW DEC07 FACULTY NOTES

Professor Sue-Ellen Case Receives Distinguished Scholar Award from American Society of Theatre Research Sue-Ellen Case, Professor and Chair, Criti- Her most recent book is Performing Sci- cal Studies, Department of Theater, was ence and the Virtual, which looks at how recently named the recipient of the Distin- science has been performed throughout guished Scholar Award from the American history, tracing a line from nineteenth Society of Theater Research . Each year century alchemy to the twenty-first cen- ASTR recognizes a scholar whose body of tury virtual avatar . work has made a significant contribution to the field of theatre, dance, opera, and/ or performance studies .

Past editor of Theatre Journal, Case has published widely in the fields of German theatre, feminism and theatre, perfor- mance theory, and lesbian critical theory . Additionally, she has published over thirty articles in such journals as Modern Drama, differences, and Theatre Research Interna- tional . Her books include Feminism and Theatre and The Domain-Matrix: Perform- ing Lesbian at the End of Print Culture .

15 DEC07 FACULTY NOTES

Professor Susan L. Foster Receives Honorary Doctorate and Leadership in Dance Research Award Professor Susan L . Foster, Department began presenting concerts of her own of World Arts and Cultures, was recently work in 1977 . Since that time she has cre- granted an honorary doctorate by Stock- ated several solo concerts which she has holm University . She was also awarded toured in the United States, Canada, and the 2007 Leadership in Dance Research Europe . After receiving her Ph .D . from the Award from the Congress on Research University of California, Santa Cruz, in the in Dance . The CORD Awards were estab- History of Consciousness, Foster joined lished in 1995 to recognize excellence the faculty of the dance department at in the field, contribute to motivating the University of California, Riverside, further research, and signal to the schol- where she founded America’s first Ph .D . arly world at large that the works and program in dance history and theory . She Endowment of the Arts, the National individuals recognized are highly valued joined the Department of World Arts and Endowment of Humanities, and the Rock- by those involved in dance research . The Cultures UCLA in 2002 . efeller and Jerome Foundations . awards contribute not only to the visibili- Foster is the author of Reading Dancing, ty of the individuals and works so hon- Choreography and Narrative, and Dances ored, but also to the visibility of dance That Describe Themselves: The Impro- research and to CORD’s continuing drive vised Choreography of Richard Bull . She for excellence in scholarly endeavors . is also editor of Choreographing History Foster is a Professor of Choreography, and Corporealities . Foster’s work has been choreographer, dancer, and writer . She supported by grants from the National

16 DEC07 NEWS

More videocasts now available on the website!

More videocasts of CSW events are now available on the website . Presentations by Jenny Jaramillo, Zainah Anwar, Regina José Galindo, and Denise Ferreira da Silva can be viewed in streaming video at http://www .csw .ucla .edu/podcasts .html . Thanks to graduate students Michael Albright and Katie Shields for handling the filming . Zainah Anwar Regina José Galindo

Jenny Jaramillo Denise Ferreira da Silva

17 DEC07 NEWS from Women’s Studies

The New UCLA Department of Women’s Studies!

On Thursday, No- During the winter we will be arranging for ap- My thanks to all the faculty, staff, and stu- vember 1, the UCLA pointments in the new department for all the dents who have contributed in so many ways Academic Senate, terrific faculty who have been affiliated with to this stage of our development, and to the representing all the Program . Some will be full-time, others many friends we have in other departments, departments and will split their appointments between Wom- professional schools and administration who schools on campus, en’s Studies and their current departments . have helped us through the process . May all voted unanimously This way we will build a core of full-time who read this message be lucky enough to to approve our Pro- faculty while maintaining important connec- work with such people! posal for a Depart- tions with the rest of the campus . − Christine A. Littleton ment of Women’s This spring we are planning to celebrate the Studies . This is wonderful news because we Professor of Law & Women’s Studies new department and other developments Chair, Department of Women’s Studies have been operating as an interdepartmental in Women’s Studies with a gala evening . degree program (“IDP”) for many years . As Read the UCLA news bulletin: http://www . Watch the website in the coming months an IDP, we were dependent on other depart- newsroom .ucla .edu/portal/ucla/ucla-academ- for announcement of the date and news of ments to hire faculty with interests and ex- ic-senate-approves-40183 asp. x the planned festivities . If you are an alum of pertise in women’s studies and to allow those Women’s Studies, make sure we have your faculty to teach Women’s Studies courses . As current contact information to receive a per- a department, we will be able to initiate our sonal invitation . You don’t want to miss out own hires, as well as to provide a primary on this one! home to faculty who want to continue work- ing in Women’s Studies .

18 DEC07 NEWS from Women’s Studies

Women’s Studies Announces That Its 2nd Ph.D. Degree Is Earned by Sharmila Lodhia!

The second Ph D. . to be awarded in Wom- en’s Studies at UCLA is earned by Sharmila Lodhia (her advisor was Sondra Hale) . Sharmila originally pursued a Master’s in Women’s Studies but then applied to join the doctoral program . She is the first of our students to do her entire doctoral program at UCLA, and she will be the first to receive her degree from the newly approved De- partment of Women’s Studies .

Karina Eileraas, the first recipient of a Ph .D . from the UCLA Women’s Studies Program, entered the doctoral program having already done substantial work with her ad- visor Françoise Lionnet before both came to UCLA .

Sharmila was hired in fall 2007 as an Inclu- sive Excellence Post Doctoral Fellow in the College of Arts & Sciences at Santa Clara On November 29, members of Women’s Studies gathered to congratulate Sharmila Lodhia on her achievement. University . From left to right: Ana Wevill, Jenna Miller Von-Ah, Khanum Shaikh, Sharmila Lodhia, Mary Margaret Smith, Samantha Hogan, and Kolleen Duley.

19 DEC07 NEWS from Women’s Studies

Achievements by Graduate Students!

Documentary Premiere to science specifically in Sandra’s work, and study program in Yogyakarta, Indonesia how it is still useful today . For copies of this where she lived with a host family, took Women’s Studies doctoral student Loran Mar- DVD, email Jenna Miller-Von Ah, MSO, Wom- cooking and traditional dance classes, and san’s video . “Thinking From Women’s Lives: en’s Studies (jenna@women .ucla .edu) . For successfully completed the Intermediate Sandra Harding, Standpoint, and Science,” more information, view the article written by Indonesian language course . Her summer screened on Monday, December 3, 2007 . Loran Marsan in the Nov 07 CSW Update. program is valuable for a future study of the intersections between domestic violence and This 30-minute video, created by women’s Advanced to Candidacy traditional dance performance in Indonesia . studies doctoral student Loran Marsan, is the Anna Ward, doctoral student in Women’s first documentary/educational video pro- Azza Basarudin presented at the Engaging Studies, advanced to candidacy on July 11, duced and funded through Women’s Studies Islam: Feminisms, Religiosities and Self- 2007; her dissertation title is “The Uncertainty at UCLA . The video frames standpoint episte- Determinations Fall Institute, U Mass Boston, of Pleasure/The Pleasure of Uncertainty: Or- mology with broader connections to multiple Boston, MA, September, 2007, “Re(creating) gasm and the History of Ecstatic Expression ”. feminist concepts making it not only a por- A Community of the Faithful?: Negotiating Stacy Macias also advanced, October 5, 2007, trayal of Sandra Harding’s work but an infor- Gender, Islam and Feminism in Malaysia,” and dissertation title “Counter-Femininities: Ra- mative introduction to the field of women’s was an invited participant to the Gender and cialization and Embodiment in Latina Cultural studies as well . Empire II workshop at the Cynthia Nelson Productions ”. Institute for (IGWS), American Produced through interviews with and a University in Cairo (AUC), Cairo, Egypt, in May, lecture by Sandra Harding, this video gives More News 2007, “Transnational Muslim Ummah (Com- an overview of how Standpoint Theory came During the summer of 2007, Kim Twarog munity) and Feminist Networks ”. about, its history and applications, its relation participated in the USIndo summer language

20 DEC07 NEWS from Women’s Studies

Save these Dates: Events in Winter 2008!

Job Talks Book Talk/Signing

These Presidential postdoc candidates will Bettina Aptheker give talks: Monday, January 28th, 12 to 2pm

Tiffany Willoughby-Herard Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought Thursday, Jan 24th 3 to 5pm for Free Speech, and Became a Feminist Rebel (Paperback) Mishuana Goeman Wednesday Feb 6th 12 to 2pm Co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women Aisha Finch Thursday, Feb 14th 4 to 6pm

Kimberly TallBear Wednesday, Feb 20th 12 to 2pm

More info to follow in January .

21 DEC07 STAFF

CSW Update is a monthly PDF/web publication of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women.

EDITOR/DESIGNER Brenda Johnson-Grau UCLA CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN

DIRECTOR Kathleen McHugh Professor, Departments of English and Cinema and Media Studies ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Purnima Mankekar Associate Professor, Departments of Asian American Studies and Women’s Studies ASSISTANT DIRECTOR April de Stefano FINANCIAL MANAGER Van DoNguyen MANAGING EDITOR Brenda Johnson-Grau ADMINISTRATIVE SPECIALIST Jessie Babiarz ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Andrew Miller EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Amy Chen, Sarah Cho, Vivian Davis, Katie Shields, and Andrew Bliss

Box 957222 Public affairs 1500 Los Angeles, CA 90095-7222 campus mailcode: 722203

310-825-0590 310-825-0456 (fax) csw@csw .ucla .edu cswpubs@women .ucla .edu

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