Women’s studies Ph.D.:

We have arrived

One of the first institutions in North America to offer a graduate degree in women’s studies nearly a decade ago, Emory remains at the forefront of the ever-expanding academic arena devoted to women and minority groups. The University took a leading role in hosting the first-ever national Working Conference on the Ph.D. in Women’s Studies: Implications and Articulations, held last fall at the Emory Conference Center.

Some eighty-five faculty and graduate students from forty-seven institutions gathered to ponder the current state and future development of women’s studies, the establishment and structure of Ph.D. programs, their curricula, and their overall impact on the fields of feminism and gender studies. Participants came from the dozen institutions that now offer Ph.D. programs in women’s studies as well as many others whose programs are in the planning stages. Future collaboration among these colleges and universities was one of the primary goals of the conference.

For pioneers who fought for the scholarly legitimacy, acceptance, and growth of women’s studies programs, the national conference was a welcome landmark. In an follow-up essay about the conference experience, Associate Professor of Political Science Beth Reingold wrote, “…more and more colleges and universities are advertising for faculty positions in women’s studies, and requesting these applicants have a Ph.D. in women’s studies. There is now a ‘market’ for women’s studies Ph.D.s. For those of us who helped build the women’s studies Ph.D. program here at Emory, these recent developments are exciting and gratifying.”

Conference organizers, including Frances S. Foster, director of Emory’s Institute for Women’s Studies, encouraged lively participation. “There was no show and tell,” Foster says. “Everybody who came had a role to play and came ready to talk about what we do, how we do it, why we do it, what’s really working, and where we go from here.”

The compelling conversations that ensued are continuing through e-mail conversations among the participants around the country and beyond. “The conference on the women’s studies Ph.D. may have ended on October 14, but the discussions it fostered are far from complete,” Reingold wrote. “The conference was intended to begin an ongoing process of collaboration; the impact of the conference was meant to be long lasting.”–P.P.P.

Debating race

A respected civil rights leader who earned his stripes in the 1960s and a two-time African-American Republican presidential candidate shared the Glenn Auditorium stage and exchanged admiration for one another during “The State of Race,” a debate planned in recognition of Black History Month in February.

Alan Keyes, former ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council during the Reagan administration, dismissed the very idea of race as a lie perpetuated by American power structures to divide and demoralize minorities. He called race “a tool to shackle the minds of people in America.”

But Julian Bond, now chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, warned that race, while a socio-political construct, is “not just a pigment of our imagination.” Although hard-won gains have been made toward racial equality, Bond reminded listeners that there is but one generation “between Julian Bond and human bondage.”

Toward the end of the evening, an Emory student asked the two prominent African-American leaders how race relations might be improved on college campuses. Both responded that students must step up their efforts to become fully integrated on campus, rather than having a diverse student body that simply re-segregates into comfortable, seperate minority groups.

“Students should be required to fully participate in the university community,” Keyes insisted. “I don’t think that’s a challenge they ought to be able to walk away from.”

New fellowships strengthen old ties

When Emory professors retire–often after many years devoted to teaching and scholarship–they may be gone from the classroom, but a new fellowship program lets them know their work is not forgotten.

For the first time, emeritus professors who continue to actively conduct research and publish can receive support through the Heilbrun Fellowships, newly established to foster these scholars’ lasting ties to the University. Named for Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology Emeritus Alfred Heilbrun, who received one of the first awards, the $10,000 year-long fellowships are funded through a grant to Emory College from Heilbrun’s daughter, Lynn Stahl, and her husband, Jack. Fellows are given work space in Woodruff Library.

Heilbrun and Herbert Benario, professor of classics emeritus, who also received one of the initial fellowships, were honored at a November reception hosted by the Emeritus College.

“Too often when professors retire, they wake up and find they have no connection whatsoever to the University,” says John Bugge, an English professor who chaired the committee that selected the fellows. “So we’re trying to reestablish that connection on several fronts.”

Heilbrun plans to use the funds to complete a book on behavior disorders, his third book since his retirement in 1991. Benario will continue a survey of scholarly work written on the Roman historian Tacitus. The Heilbrun fellowship will help him make his annual sojourn to Europe, where he will mine the wealth of material on Tacitus housed in Munich.

“This is a program that can be increased, insofar as it provides a bridge between working as an active faculty member and retaining a commitment to research and scholarship as a retired person,” Heilbrun says. “Those are often separate stages.”

Benario agrees: “Not all emeritis disappear.”