The Women's Studies Interest Group held two progams this year.

Worcester Women's History Project, October 29, 1999.

The Worcester Women's History Project (WWHP) was founded in 1994 to raise awareness of the importance of the first national Women's Rights Convention, held in Worcester on October 23-24, 1850, and to highlight Worcester's role in the development of the early women's rights movement. On October 29, 1999 the ACRL/NEC Women's Studies Interest Group met at Assumption College in Worcester to learn more about the WWHP (http://www.assumption.edu/html/academic/history/WWHP/front.html).

 

Holy Cross Sociology Professor Carolyn Howe, president of the WWHP, introduced the WWHP and its goals and activities. These include the recent unveiling of portraits of four notable Worcester County women (Clara Barton, Dorothea Dix, Abby Kelley Foster, and Lucy Stone) in Mechanics Hall, the establishment of a Worcester Women's History Heritage Trail, teacher workshops, a web site, and a three-day conference (Women 2000) to be held in October 2000. Professor Howe gave a slide presentation on the 1850 first National Women's Rights Convention. The convention drew more than 1000 people, men and women, black and white, who heard such speakers as Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Abby Kelley Foster, and Lucy Stone. The convention brought together the concepts of race and gender; a final resolution of the convention read: "Resolved, That the cause we are met to advocate, - the claim for woman of all her natural and civil rights, - bids us remember the million and a half of slave women at the South, the most grossly wronged and foully outraged of all women; and in every effort for an improvement in our civilization, we will bear in our heart of hearts the memory of the trampled womanhood of the plantation, and omit no effort to raise it to a share in the rights we claim for ourselves."

 

Assumption College History Professor John McClymer, who is the author of a book on the 1850 convention (This High and Holy Moment: The First National Woman's Rights Convention, Worcester, 1850. San Diego: Harcourt Brace College, 1999), showed Women's Studies Interest Group members what resources were available on the Women's History Workshop Web Page (http://www.assumption.edu/whw/). Funded by an NEH grant, "the Women's History Workshop is a collaborative effort of Massachusetts teachers -- middle school through college -- which seeks to make available primary sources in pedagogically imaginative formats for teachers who wish to use such materials in their own classrooms." Topics include fashion and dress reform, popular music, children's literature, and the origins of the women's rights movement.

 

On October 20-22, 2000 the WWHP will hold a conference entitled Women 2000, which will include a dramatization of the 1850 convention and a contemporary conference with workshops and keynote events (including a keynote address by Jill Ker Conway and a panel on the resources of the Schlesinger Library and the Sophia Smith Collection).

Center for Research on Women and the Stone Center for Developmental Services and Studies, Wellesley College, May 5, 2000.

The Center for Research on Women and the Stone Center for Developmental Services and Studies located at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA were the location and focus of the Women's Studies Interest Group's Spring 2000 program. The program drew fourteen librarians from Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

 

Pamela Baker Webber, Director of Pre-Award Research Grants, gave a general introduction and overview of the Center for Research on Women and the Stone Center for Developmental Services and Studies and how these two groups came together in 1995 and partnered under a single core administrative staff to form the Wellesley Centers for Women. She explained that the Center for Research on Women was established over twenty years ago and is home to an interdisciplinary community of scholars who are engaged in social science research and action projects that include the study of women, men, and children's lives in a changing world. The work being done at the Center has been instrumental in shaping public policy and has contributed to a host of institutional and social changes. Current projects include such diverse topics as Learning Circles; the National S.E.E.D. Project on Inclusive Curriculum: Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity; Shaping a Better World: Global Issues, Gender Issues; and Raising Confident and Competent Girls.

 

The Stone Center for Development Services and Studies was founded in 1981 as a result of a generous bequest given by Grace W. and Robert S. Stone. The Center is distinguished by its attention to the 'experience of women, children and families' across culturally diverse populations. The Center is particularly concerned with psychological well-being and provides preventative intervention programs. The Women's Review of Books is also published at the Center.

 

The second speaker, Linda Hartling, Associate Director, Jean Baker Miller Training Institute, talked about feminist psychiatrist, Dr. Jean Baker Miller, whose book 'Toward a New Psychology of Women' helped give voice to the relational/cultural theory which asserts that growth fostering relationships are central to a person's psychological well-being and the absence of these relationships contributes to psychological problems. Dr. Miller, along with Janet Surrey, Judy Jordan, and Irene Stiver, founded the Training Institute in order to actively promote the relational/cultural theory by teaching others the Relational/Cultural Model. The Institute builds on this model through ongoing workshops, research projects, and programs. Each year, the Institute hosts Summer and Fall Training Institutes that offer an opportunity for intensive study of the Relational/Cultural approach and its applications. For example, this summer's Advanced Institute will be looking at the many meanings of relational/cultural resilience. The Institute also furthers its mission through working papers and books written by faculty of the Jean Baker Miller Institute. All publications are made available through the Stone Center's Publications Office.

 

After these informative presentations, the group met with two researchers, Vern Marx and Michelle Porche who talked to us about their current research projects and answered questions. This was an unusual opportunity and all agreed it was one of the high points of the afternoon. Thanks go to Pamela Baker Webber for making this such a successful and inspiring spring program.

The Women's Studies Interest Group welcomes ideas on future programming from ACRL/NEC members. If you have ideas for programs or have women's studies-related resources on your campus or in your community that may be of interest to WSIG members, please contact the co-chairs: Chris Smith (jchris@bu.edu) or Sarah Mitchell (smitchel@mit.edu).

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