Winter 2003 Volume 34, Issue 4 THE CCWH NEWSLETTER WWW.THECCWH.ORG NEWSLETTER FOR THE COORDINATING COUNCIL FOR WOMEN IN HISTORY M ESSAGE FROM CO-PRESIDENT, EILEEN BORIS Women’s history and sist, especially questions sur- women’s historians are every- rounding timing of tenure where. We find ourselves in clocks and biological clocks, INSIDE THIS ISSUE: public and private institutions, having a life and forging a ca- small and big, in departments reer. The job market again ap- of history and in interdiscipli- AHA-CCWH panels 2-3 pears constricting. With the nary and area studies programs. cohorts of the late 1970s and Many of us teach in Women’s early 1980s—who filled many Studies or Ethnic Studies. We of the first jobs in Women’s Co-President’s State- 4 are in all fields. Does success ment History—still going strong, will mean that we no longer need hiring committees break women-positive spaces and Public History 5-6 through that old saw, “well, we feminist organizations? Is it already have a women’s histo- time to pack up Committees on rian so we can’t possibly hire Striking at Yale 9 Women, regional groups of someone writing on women, women historians, and the th gender, sexualities, for our 20 Eileen Boris, CCWH Co-President CCWH itself? Is our work century political historian or Items of Interest 10 done? our early modern position”? With new forms of political other area studies programs, After more than thirty years, backlash, such as President what does our mission to pro- Conference 11-13 the activities of CCWH should Bush’s name calling against mote the status of women mean Announcements be transformed. But for each “revisionist” history, attacks on today? With affirmative action new cohort of graduate students academic freedom and cutting still under assault, restrictions Prelinger Application 14-15 and assistant professors moving of funds to Middle Eastern and (Continued on page 5) up the ranks, some issues per- A MATTER OF POLICY: CREATING A FAMILY- F RIENDLY ACADEMIC WORKPLACE BY MAUREEN E. REED Due to a printing error, the ending of Reed's last article was What makes a successful job. Teaching, research, and leave policy all the more neces- left out of the fall newsletter. The parental leave policy? In the writing supposedly require less sary. Without such policies, as final sentence should have read: academic workplace, some as- face time than other profes- the AAUP pointed out in its sume a policy should be as sional careers; this aspect of 2001 “Statement of Principles “Given such comparisons, our open as possible, allowing room university careers leads some to on Family Responsibility,” uni- hypothetical job candidate might for individual negotiation with believe that those who want versities will remain places that not only reconsider her choice of departments about modified parental leave should negotiate can “flexibly” shut out (or fail employer, but also her choice of a teaching and scholarship expec- the particulars on their own. to promote) those who seek career.” tations for new parents. This balance between work and fam- “better left unsaid” approach Actually, “flexibility,” one ily life. “Institutional policies Editor Karol K. Weaver would stems from the belief that col- of many distinctive aspects of may be easier to change than like to thank Maureen Reed for her lege teaching is a flexible ca- the academic workplace, makes institutional cultures,” the excellent series on parental leave reer, one which individuals a consistent, enforceable, and AAUP acknowledged, but treat as a calling more than a carefully designed parental (Continued on page 3) Page 2 The CCWH Newsletter TRANSNATIONAL FEMINISM AND SEXUAL POLITICS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA: A CCWH CO-SPONSORED PANEL AT THE AHA BY JANET AFARY East, Transcaucasia, and Africa bate about the role of women 1980s. Initially there was a went through a major transfor- and men in modern society. We great deal of outrage and resent- mation in the course of the 20th shall see that cinema played an ment toward Western feminists century. important role in transmitting who had raised the issue, rather and transforming transnational than focus on many other sig- In Iran this change took place models of women's work, vir- nificant concerns such as ra- as result of the Constitutional tue, and social participation. cism, colonialism, imperialism, Revolution of 1906. Many tra- Sometimes the result was posi- and poverty of Third World ditional sexual practices such as tive, such as the greater interest countries. However, in more child marriage, polygyny, and that developed in companion- recent years African women Professor Janet Afary , Outgoing CCWH status-defined homosexuality ate marriages, other times the have formed their own NGOs Co-President came under severe attack. In portrayal of graphic sexuality and the ban on FGM has be- particular the accusation of ho- resulted in a backlash with re- came one of their key targets. This panel will explore the mosexuality became a charged gard to the status of women. In 1999, and as a result of these impact of a transnational dis- political weapon, used to berate activities, FGM was banned in course of feminism in the Third major political figures. The practice of Female Senegal, Burkina Faso, the World. We shall see that as a Genital Mutilation (FGM) be- Central African Republic, result of modern Western influ- In French-ruled Syria and came a heated topic of discus- Guinea, Togo, Egypt, and the ences, the proscribed sexual Lebanon, Hollywood films cre- sion in international women's practice is likewise being chal- norms of people of Middle ated a highly controversial de- conferences in the 1970s and lenged in Kenya and Sudan. H ISTORIANS AS ACTIVISTS: AN AHA ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION BY FELICIA KORNBLUH Critics often bemoan the agendas together with the most modest in their claims. The served as federal government distance between the academy pressing contemporary con- scholars will consider the rela- officials, managers of electoral and contemporary politics. cerns. They have worked on tionship between our typical campaigns, advisors to contem- Many historians wonder college and university campuses, self-effacement and the argu- porary social movements, au- whether – and how – our re- in community social move- mentative certitude demanded thors of important legal briefs, search can inform important ments, political campaigns, by legal briefs, movement mani- advocacy journalists, lobbyists, controversies in our own time. court cases, and elsewhere to festos, and even journalistic and participants in public dem- But historians in fact participate bridge the gap between the acad- writing on issues of contempo- onstrations. Their scholarship actively in a wide range of con- emy and the rest of the world. rary concern. has covered such issues as legis- temporary political and social lative achievements of the Sec- movements. The scholars The discussion will center on The scholars who have ond Wave women’s movement, (Felicia Kornbluh, Thomas J. the connections between schol- agreed to participate have African-American civil rights Sugrue, Lisa Duggan, Cynthia arly and political work, and also worked on issues of social wel- groups through the 1960s, the Harrison, Mary Frances Berry) the tensions between them. His- fare, labor organizing, affirma- interactions between local gov- who will speak in this special torians are not only hesitant to tive action in the university, les- ernments and white anti- “round-table” discussion have proclaim themselves experts on bian and gay rights, African- integration activism, and the all worked in a range of con- the present time, but they tend American civil rights, and immi- racial and gendered dimensions texts to bring their scholarly to be careful, qualified, and gration reform. They have of U.S. legal history. T HE CCWH AT THE AHA The CCWH has planned an 9:30-11:30 AM: Session 1, joint 5:30-7:30 PM: CCWH Reception, the Journal of Women’s History exciting array of activities for the with the AHA Professional Di- open to all meeting participants, Tells Us About Where We Are 2004 AHA Annual Convention vision and the AHA Committee Marriot, Wilson Suite A. Now” in Washington D.C. for Graduate Students. Inter- viewing in the Job Market in the Saturday, January 10 2:30-4:30 PM: Session 4, Histori- Thursday, January 8 Twenty-First Century, Marriot, 9:30-11:30 AM: Session 3, ans as Activists: A Roundtable Dis- 5:00-7:00 PM: CCWH Board Meet- Marriot Ballroom Salon 1. Roundtable on Preserving U.S. cussion, Marriot Collidge Room. ing , Marriot, Room 8217, Lobby Women’s Sites: An Overview, Mar- Level. 2:30-4:30 PM: Session 2, with riot, Coolidge Room. Sunday, January 11 the AHA. Domestic Insecurity: 11:00-1:00 PM: Session 5, joint Friday, January 9 Revisiting Red Scare Politics in the 12:15-1:45: CCWH Awards with the AHA, Transnational 7:30 AM-11:30 PM: Graduate United States, 1930s-60s, Marriot , Luncheon Professor Leila J. Feminism and Sexual Politics in the Student Drop-in, Marriot, Room Delaware Suite B Rupp (UC, Santa Barbara) will Middle East and Africa, Marriott, 8228, Lobby Level. speak on “Confessions of a Harding Room. ’Journal Girl’ or What Editing Volume 34, Issue 4 Page 3 DOMESTIC INSECURITY: REVISITING RED SCARE POLITICS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1930S-1960S: A CCWH CO-SPONSORED PANEL AT THE AHA BY LANDON STORRS In explaining why domestic A recent wave of Cold War Red scares erupted in varying gest that defenders of a tottering anticommunism, or “that ten- scholarship has drawn on newly forms at different moments in gender hierarchy also intensified dency to espy a red enemy accessible Soviet sources to res- different places, and compara- anticommunist crusades.