Three decades of women's studies at Rutgers-Newark
Archived article from Sep 29, 2000
By Carla Capizzi
America in the 1970s was an era of youthful antiwar demonstrators squaring off against riot police. Of environmental activists chaining themselves to trees to halt the clearing of forests. And of an increasing awareness among women of their roles and rights in the modern world.
It was during this heady era that the women's studies program was born on the Newark campus. Like women's studies programs at colleges across the country, it met with some initial skepticism -- a fear that such programs were a trend that would soon fade or that the curriculum would be more political than scholarly.
But proponents of women's studies, at Rutgers and elsewhere, won out. On the Newark campus, women's studies initially was a minor, but even then the interdisciplinary program provided a framework for studying gender and its impact on history, the arts, politics, sociology, anthropology, philosophy and economics. The program was based on the premise that women's past history, with its distinctive culture, affects women's present status, education and career development, said Fran Bartkowski, director of the program. Today's program also integrates "new scholarship on race, ethnicity and class together with perspectives on gender," Bartkowski added.
Students on the Newark campus can now major as well as minor in women's studies. They can attend Women's History Month programs, co-sponsored with the New Jersey Institute of Technology, as well as lectures, a women's career conference and a film series.
This fall, from 30 to 50 students are majoring or minoring in women's studies in Newark, while some 20 faculty members from various departments teach as many courses in the program.
The program is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a series of special events, dubbed "First Thursdays," designed to "commemorate the rich past, the vibrant present and the brilliant futures of women in Newark," said Bartkowski, who has directed the program since 1988. The events, she said, shine a light on women's "public and political impact on the city, as well as their accomplishments, which have enriched the city, county and region." The first in the series, held Sept. 7, centered on business and industry. Upcoming events are listed above.
"These occasions can add to the energy of the current social, cultural and political climate in the city of Newark," said Bartkowski. "Networking has always been a metaphor for women getting together -- these four 'First Thursdays' ought to present outstanding opportunities for meeting some of the most inspiring women working in our community."
For information, call ext. 5817 or send e-mail to franb@andromeda.rutgers.edu.
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