Faculty and Staff Changes, Scholarship Advances

The mid-eighties also brought growth and change to the Women’s Studies program in the realm of faculty and staff. Sandra Morgen, an anthropologist, joined the core faculty, Kathy Peiss was hired jointly by History and Women’s Studies, and Arlene Avakian gained faculty status when she was made a Lecturer. Cathy Portuges resigned from her longtime position as director and Jan Raymond replaced her as Director for the 1986-1987 school year.³⁴ In the first months of 1987, Women’s Studies said farewell to Dale Melcher who took a position at the Labor Relations and Research Center on campus. Karen Lederer was hired to replace her.³⁵ In the fall of 1987, Lee Edwards moved into the directorship for a three-year term.³⁶

Arlene Avakian and John Bracey collaborated on another project in 1987, along with Joyce Berkman and Ann Gordon of the History Department, the African American Studies Department, and the Lydia Maria Childs Papers Project. “Afro-American Women and the Vote 1837-1965,” held in November 1987, brought together the top historians from across the country whose work addressed African American women. The conference challenged common assumptions among historians about African American women and suffrage. For example, the conference beginning date is 1837 to mark a suffrage meeting of Black and white women that predates the more usual 1848 date of the Seneca Falls conference where no Black women were in attendance and suffrage was an issue added by Elizabeth Cady Stanton against the wishes of other organizers. The ending date also signifies that for the great majority of African American women, the date of the passage of the 19th amendment giving women the franchise was meaningless since they lived in the Jim Crow South where neither African American women nor men were able to vote. Selected papers from the conference were edited by Ann Gordon, Arlene Avakian, John Bracey, and Joyce Berkman, and published by the UMass Press.

³⁴ WOST newsletter Jan/Feb 1987.

³⁵ WOST newsletter Jan/Feb 1987.

³⁶ WOST newsletter Summer 1987.