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The Fourth Annual Future of Minority Studies (FMS) Summer Institute
July 28 – August 8, 2008
Seminar: THINKING TRANSNATIONALLY: FEMINIST VISIONS

Seminar Leaders: Beverly Guy-Sheftall (Spelman College) & Chandra Talpade Mohanty (Syracuse University)
Seminar Description:  Over the past several decades, feminists around the world have variously and successfully transformed lives, communities, and institutions. Nevertheless, questions of social and economic justice, identity and self-determination, psychic and social decolonization, and solidarity and alliance-building across class, race, sexual and national borders, remain at the heart of feminist work. This seminar explores interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks for addressing the above issues, focusing directly on the challenge academic researchers face to “think transnationally” without losing sight of localcontexts and issues.

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Two positions to begin July 1, 2008

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA WOMEN’S STUDIES PROGRAM DISSERTATION SCHOLARS TEACHING FELLOWSHIPS 2008-2009

The Women’s Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara invites applications for two fellowships for the academic year 2008-2009. Applicants must be advanced to candidacy and expect completion of the dissertation during the term of residence. Women’s Studies Dissertation Scholars will teach one undergraduate course and present one colloquium.

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A memorial to celebrate the life of pioneer Latina lesbian activist and beloved MALCS historian Yolanda Retter Vargas will be held at Metropolitan Community Church in West Hollywood on September 29th.

Yolanda passed away from cancer at her home in Los Angeles on August 18, 2007, after a short illness which stunned family and friends.

An activist and scholar, Yolanda was a major force in the early L.A. lesbian movement as a fierce advocate for lesbians of color. In her last two decades Yolanda became a highly-educated and much sought after librarian, archivist and editor.

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The intellectual independence and integrity of higher education’s classroom faculty have been under attack for some time—by the press, by conservative commentators, and by politicians. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is convinced that it is time to take back the classroom on behalf of academic freedom. In a clear and carefully reasoned historic new report, we counter these attacks and lay out the principles of responsible college pedagogy. The full report, Freedom in the Classroom, is available in the September–October issue of Academe , our journal of record, and online.

The report differentiates instruction from indoctrination. It addresses demands for “balance” in the classroom and offers a very specific and limited disciplinary rationale for the relevance of balance. It argues forcefully that college instructors have the right—and, some would argue, the responsibility—to challenge their students’ most cherished beliefs.

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