IRIS The Newsletter of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Classical Caucus

 

Vol. 1, No. 2     May 1998

 

 

Iris, the newsletter of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Classical Caucus, is published quarterly (February, May, August, November).  Send materials for publication to Jeri Fogel, Dept. of Romance and Classical Languages, Old Horticulture Building, Michigan State Univ., E. Lansing, MI  48824-1027.

 

Books:  Notices and Brief Descriptions

 

Welcome to the Summer Reading section!  I have tried here to include very new titles (Spring 1998) from several major publishers, as well as some earlier works.  I have sometimes included chapter titles to give a better idea of the topics covered in the book, when they were not obvious from the title.  Needless to say, the list is not exhaustive.  I have not included, in general, new commentaries on particular ancient authors or texts that may be of interest to those working on ancient gender and sexuality issues.

 

In addition, Craig Williams, "Greek Love at Rome" (CQ 45 [1995] 517-39; see Craig's book cited below) and Rabun Taylor, in The Journal of the History of Sexuality (1997), have contributed articles recently to the subject of Roman homosexuality.

 

Ancient Literature, Art, History

 

Page duBois,  Sappho Is Burning, Princeton Univ. Press 1996, 206 pages.  ISBN 0-226-16755-0 (cl), $24.95, 0-226-16756-9 (pb), $14.95. ". . . duBois reads Sappho as a disruptive figure at the very origin of our story of Western civilization. Sappho is beyond contemporary categories, inhabiting a space outside of reductively linear accounts of our common history. She is a woman, but also an aristocrat, a Greek, but one turned toward Asia, a poet who writes as a philosopher before philosophy, a writer who speaks of sexuality that can be identified neither with Michel Foucault's account of Greek sexuality, nor with many versions of contemporary lesbian sexuality." (from publisher's blurb)  Includes chapters on "Sappho in the History of Sexuality" and "Asianism and the Theft of Enjoyment".

 

Claude Calame, Choruses of Young Women in Ancient Greece:  Their Morphology, Religious Role, and Social Functions, English trans. of Les choeurs de jeunes filles en grece archaique, 1977, with updated bibliog.,  Derok Collins & Jane Orion trans., Maryland and London:  Rowman & Littlefield, 1997.  282 pages.  Bibliog. & index.  ISBN 0-8226-3062-1, $62.50 (cl); 0-8226-3063-X, $24.95 (pb).

 

John R. Clarke, Looking at Lovemaking: Constructions of Sexuality in Roman Art, 100 B.C. to A.D. 250, Univ. of California Press 1998. 406 pages, 16 color plates, 90 b/w photographs, 19 line drawings, 1 map. ISBN 0-520-20024-1 (cl), $39.95.  ". . . reevaluates our understanding of Roman art and society in a study informed by recent gender and cultural studies, and focusing for the first time on attitudes toward the erotic among both the Roman non-elite and women. This splendid volume is the first study of erotic art and sexuality to set these works—many newly discovered and previously unpublished—in their ancient context and the first to define the differences between modern and ancient concepts of sexuality using clear visual evidence."  (publisher's blurb)  "There are few scholars as able to take on this material, as well versed in theories of sexuality, and as comfortable dealing with both heterosexual and homoerotic content as Clarke. The topic is timely and the execution is professional."—Natalie Kampen, Barnard College

 

Anthony Corbeill, Controlling Laughter:  Political Humor in the Late Roman Republic, Princeton University Press 1996, 280 pages.  ". . . maintains that political abuse exercised real powers of persuasion over Roman audiences and he demonstrates how public humor both creates and enforces a society's norms."  (publisher's blurb)  Contains excellent chapter on "Moral Appearance in Action:  Effeminacy," dealing with late republican concepts of masculinity and femininity, and abusive language in oratory that utilizes  those concepts.  This book is far more relevant to ancient gender studies than is apparent at first from the title.  Makes good use of recent scholarship on ancient sex, gender and sexuality.

 

Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow & Claire L. Lyons, eds., Naked Truths:  Women, Sexuality and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology, Routledge 1997.  336 pages, 62 b/w photos.  ISBN 0-415-15995-4 (cl), $75.00.  ". . . demonstrates the application of feminist approaches to a diverse repertory of classical art. . .  [discussing among other topics] the dynamics of female beauty and male violence in early Italian society; portrayals of nursing mothers in Etruscan and Greek art; . . .  images of Sappho in Greek vase painting; mortal and divine sexuality in the Parthenon frieze; . . .  the figure of the hermaphrodite; and the role of desire and desirability in shaping a nuanced understanding of sex and gender in the ancient world."  (from publisher's blurb)

 

Angeliki E. Laiou, ed., Consent and Coercion to Sex and Marriage in Ancient and Medieval Societies, Oxford Univ. Press 1998 (paperback), in series Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 308 pages.  ISBN 0-88402-262-5.  ". . . contributors examine rape, seduction, and the role of consent in establishing the punishment of one or both parties; the issue of marital debt and spousal rape; and the central question of what is perceived as coercion and what may be the validity or value of coerced consent."  (publisher's blurb)  Opens with provocative essay by M. Lefkowitz, "Rape and Seduction in Greek Myth."

 

Thomas A. J. McGinn, Prostitution, Sexuality, and the Law in Ancient Rome, Oxford Univ. Press 1998, 368 pages.  ISBN 0-19-508785-2 (cl), UK Price £46.50.  ". . .  study of the legal rules affecting the practice of female prostitution at Rome approximately from 200 BC to AD 250. It examines the formation and precise content of the legal norms developed for prostitution and those engaged in this profession, with close attention to their social context."  (publisher's blurb)

 

Hans Peter Obermayer, Martial und der Diskurs über mœnnliche "Homosexualitœt" in der

Literatur der frühen Kaiserzeit, Günter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 1998 (1-16 are a survey of the literature; thanks for this notice to Don Fowler).

 

Catherine Osborne, Eros Unveiled:  Plato and the God of Love, Clarendon Press (Clarendon Paperbacks), Oxford 1996 (paperback 1998), 260 pages.  ISBN 0-19-826766-5, UK Price: £12.99.  ". . . challenges the traditional distinction between eros, the love found in Greek thought, and agape, the love characteristic of Christianity. . . .  restores the place of erotic love as a Christian motif. . . "  (publisher's blurb)

 

Cynthia B. Patterson, The Family in Greek History, Harvard Univ. Press 1998, 304 pages.  ISBN 0-674-29270-7 (cl), $35.00x / £23.50.   "The development of the city-state did not result in loss of the family's power and authority, Patterson argues; rather, the protection of household relationships was an important element of early public law. The interaction of civic and family concerns in classical Athens is neatly articulated by the examples of marriage and adultery laws." (publisher's blurb)  Includes chapters on "The Nineteenth-Century Paradigm of Greek Family History," "The Family in Homer and Hesiod," "Early Greek Law and the Family," "Marriage and Adultery in Democratic Athens," "Adultery Onstage and in Court," and "Public and Private in Early Hellenistic Athens."

 

Eva Stehle,  Performance and Gender in Ancient Greece:  Nondramatic Poetry in Its Setting, Princeton University Press 1996, 360 pages.  ". . .  discusses a wide range of pre-Hellenistic poetry, including Sappho's, compares how men and women speak about themselves, and constructs an innovative approach to performance that illuminates gender ideology. . . .  Texts for female choral performers reveal how women in public spoke in order to disavow the power of their speech and their sexual power.  Male performers, however, could manipulate gender as an ideological system. . . . A final chapter concentrates on the written poetry of Sappho. . . ." (from publisher's blurb)

 

Craig Williams, Roman Homosexuality:  Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity, forthcoming, Oxford Univ. Press 1998.

 

Margaret Williamson, Sappho's Immortal Daughters, Harvard Univ. Press 1995 (paperback version March 1998). ISBN 0-674-78913-X, $14.95x / £9.95 paper.  ". . .  will bring Sappho to life for the uninitiated and offers a number of original insights about Sappho's poems that will, no doubt, engage the most learned readers of Sappho." (Ellen Greene, Bryn Mawr Classical Review).   I found this book very useful not only for its measured and convincing interpretations of Sapphic poetry, but also for its clear explanation, accessible even to undergraduates with no previous Classical Civilization experience, of the process of restoring and reading papyrus texts.  My students enjoyed it.

 

Classical Constructs of Gender and Sexuality in Later Periods

 

Scott Bravmann, Queer Fictions of the Past:  History, Culture, and Difference, Cambridge:  Cambridge Univ. Press 1997.  190 pages.  ISBN 0-521-59101-5 (cl), $54.95; 0-521-59907-5 (pb), $16.95.  ". . . considers how historiography, ancient Greece, the Stonewall riots, and postmodern historical texts inform and reflect race, gender, class, and political differences in queer subjectivity" (from publisher's blurb).  Contains chapter on "The lesbian and gay past:  it's Greek to whom?" and several chapters on queer history and historiography.

 

The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature:  Readings from Western Antiquity to the Present Day, Byrne R. S. Fone, ed., Columbia Univ. Press 1998, 912 pages.  ISBN 0-231-09670-4 (cl), $39.50.  ". . .  draws together hundreds of texts from Western literary history that describe experiences of love, friendship, intimacy, desire, and sex among men.  . . .   Arranged chronologically, sections are supplemented by illuminating introductory essays; many individual pieces include background commentary on the writer and the work." (publisher's blurb)  Includes info on and texts from many ancient authors.

 

Mario DiGangi, The Homoerotics of Early Modern Drama, in series Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture 21, Cambridge:  Cambridge Univ. Press 1997.  230 pages.  ISBN 0-521-58341-1 (cl), $54.95; 0-521-58701-8 (pb), $18.95.  Includes chapters:  "Wife or boy?  The homoerotics of marriage in Ovidian comedy" and "Asses and wits:  the homoerotics of mastery in satiric comedy."  Focuses on texts from the 1580s to the 1620s; "the first comprehensive account of homoeroticism in Renaissance drama" (from the publisher's blurb).

 

Alice Domurat Dreger, Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex, Harvard Univ. Press 1998, 320 pages.  ISBN 0-674-08927-8 (cl), $35.00 / £23.50.  "Punctuated with remarkable case studies, this book explores extraordinary encounters between hermaphrodites--people born with 'ambiguous' sexual anatomy--and the medical and scientific professionals who grappled with them. Alice Dreger focuses on events in France and Britain in the late nineteenth century, a moment of great tension for questions of sex roles. . . .  takes us inside the doctors' chambers to see how and why medical and scientific men constructed sex, gender, and sexuality as they did, . . .  Throughout the book Dreger indicates how this history can help us to understand present-day conceptualizations of sex, gender, and sexuality." (from publisher's blurb)

 

D.J. Larmour and P. Miller, eds., Rethinking Sexuality:  Foucault and Classical Antiquity, Princeton University Press 1997, 280 pages.  ". . .  historians and literary theorists assess the influence of Michel Foucault, particularly his History of Sexuality, on the study of classics."   Essays include "Situating The History of Sexuality" (the editors), "The Subject in Antiquity after Foucault" (Page duBois), "This Myth Which Is Not One: Construction of Discourse in Plato's Symposium" (Jeffrey S. Carnes), "Foucault's History of Sexuality: A Useful Theory for Women?" (Amy Richlin), "Catullan Consciousness, the 'Care of the Self,' and the Force of the Negative in History" (Paul Allen Miller), "Reversals of Platonic Love in Petronius' Satyricon" (Daniel B. McGlathery), and an essay from Dislocating Masculinity (Lin Foxhall).

 

Gail Marshall, Actresses on the Victorian Stage:  Feminine Performance and the Galatea Myth, in series Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture, 16, Cambridge:  Cambridge Univ. Press 1998.  264 pages.  ISBN 0-521-62016-3, $54.95.  ". . .  argues that much of [19th century English actresses'] work was determined by the popularity at the time of images of Classical sculpture.  They were often encouraged to look as much as possible like statues, and thus to appear to their audiences as sexually desirable objects rather than creative artists."  (from publisher's blurb)

 

D. Savran, Taking It Like a Man:  White Masculinity, Masochism, and Contemporary American Culture, Princeton University Press 1998, 380 pages.  ". . .  contends that with the limited success of the civil rights and women's movements, white masculinity has been reconfigured to reflect the fantasy that the white male has become the victim of the scant progress made by African Americans and women. . . .  provocatively applies psychoanalysis to history. The willingness to inflict pain upon the self, for example, serves as a measure of men's attempts to take control of their situations and their ambiguous relationship to women. Discussing S/M and sexual liberation in their historical contexts enables Savran to consider not only the psychological function of masochism but also the broader issues of political and social power as experienced by both men and women."  (publisher's blurb)

 

Gregory Woods, A History of Gay Literature:  The Male Tradition, Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT 1998.  448 pages.  50 illus.  ISBN 07201-5.  $39.95.  ". . . the first full-scale account of male gay literature across cultures and languages and from ancient times to the present."  (from publisher's blurb)

 

On Gay Adolescents and Undergrads

 

Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender College Students:  A Handbook for Faculty and Administrators, ed. R. L. Sanlo (Director of the UCLA Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Campus Resource Center), Educators' Reference Collection, The Greenwood Press: Westport, CT 1998. 488 pages.  ISBN 0-313-30227-8.  $75.00 (Reference Book).  To purchase this book for $60.00 call 1-800-225-5800 and mention source code F474, before May 15, 1998.

 

Gerald P. Mallon, We Don't Exactly Get the Welcome Wagon:  The Experiences of Gay and Lesbian Adolescents in Child Welfare Systems, Columbia Univ. Press 1998, 208 pages.  ISBN 0-231-10454-5 (cl),  $49.50,  0-231-10455-3 (pb), $22.00.  "Drawing on over twenty years of child welfare experience and extensive interviews conducted with 54 gay and lesbian young people who lived in out-of-home care child welfare settings in three North American cites—Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto, Gerald Mallon presents narratives of marginalized young people. . .  allowing them to tell their own stories and to suggest what is meaningful in their own words. Their experiences help the reader to begin to understand the discrepancies between the myths and misinformation about "gay and lesbian adolescents" and their realities. . .  offers a methods chapter which can be useful in classroom instruction."  (publisher's blurb)

 

Caitlin C. Ryan and Donna Futterman, Lesbian and Gay Youth:  Care and Counseling, Columbia Univ. Press 1998, 256 pages.  ISBN 0-231-11190-8 (cl), $45.00, 0-231-11191-6 (pb), $21.00.  ". . .  the first hands-on guide for providing health and mental health care to lesbian and gay youth and young adults.  In addition to specific guidelines for care and for approaching such sensitive topics as sexual behavior, substance abuse, and suicide, the book includes a comprehensive review of the literature. . . ; also includes the first guidelines (clinical care protocols) on primary care, mental health care, HIV medical and psychosocial care for lesbian and gay youth, and HIV counseling and testing for adolescents. There is extensive discussion of the social and health effects of stigmatized identity in the context of adolescent development."  (publisher's blurb)

 

Journals

 

ONE Institute's The International Gay & Lesbian Review (http://www.usc.edu/Library/oneigla/onepress/index.html):  "The purpose of The International Gay & Lesbian Review is to provide abstracts and reviews, of as many books as possible, that relate to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.  Selected unpublished Ph.D. dissertations and Master's theses will also be included. The emergence of electronic media allows for input by readers, and responses by authors, much more quickly than is possible in the traditional print media."  ONE Institute is affiliated with the University of Southern California.

 

Michigan Feminist Studies, interdisciplinary feminist journal published by University of Michigan graduate students, 1997-98 issue:  Unequal Exchange: Gender and Economies of Power. This issue includes articles on "Women's Lives, Local Geographies, and the Effects of Maternal Breaks on Women's Employment" by Doreen Mattingly, Susan Hanson, and Geraldine Pratt, and "Rochester's Mistresses: Marriage, Sex, and Economic Exchange in Jane Eyre" by Kate Washington, among other interesting articles and items.  To order an issue, or subscribe, write to Cari Carpenter, Michigan Feminist Studies, Women's Studies Program, University of Michigan, 234 West Hall, Ann Arbor, MI  48109, or email: mfseditors@umich.edu.  $5 for individuals, $12 for institutions.

 

Women's Studies International Forum, vol. 21, issue 2 (1998), includes an article by Beverley Clack, "Feminist and ancient philosophy."

 

Historical Fiction about Sappho:

anyone want to review these (or some of them) together?

 

Georg Ebers, An Egyptian Princess (1864)

Betty Askwith, Erinna (1937)

Alexander Krislov, No Man Sings (1956)

Michael Darius (Alexander Trocchi), I, Sappho of Lesbos (1960)

Peter Green, The Laughter of Aphrodite (1965)

Thomas Burnett Swann, Wolfwinter (1972)

Martha Rofheart, Burning Sappho (1974)

Ellen Frye, The Other Sappho (1989)

 

 

Please send notices of books and brief reviews to IRIS, c/o Jerise Fogel, Department of Romance and Classical Languages, Old Horticulture Building, Michigan State University, E. Lansing, MI  48824-1027.

 

 

Out on Campus:  CUNY Grad School

by Peter Penrose

 

The City University of New York Graduate School and University Center (CUNY-GSUC) offers a dynamic environment both for Lesbian and Gay scholars and those who are interested in Lesbian and Gay studies.  The Graduate Center is a consortium which draws faculty from the many colleges within the City University system.  Majors are offered in Classics and Ancient History, and students studying History may choose to minor in Lesbian and Gay History or Studies.  A course in Lesbian and Gay History is generally taught each Spring.  Recent course offerings include "Homosexuality, Gender, and the Western Family," and "Homosexuality in World Perspective."  Courses and programs in women's studies and history are additional attractions at GSUC.  Through the Classics Consortium, students at the Graduate School can easily cross-register for Classics courses and use the library facilities of New York University and Fordham University.  Students may also cross-register for History courses offered at NYU, Fordham, and Columbia University after one year of study at the Graduate Center.

The academic environment at the Graduate Center is very supportive of scholars interested in studying progressive topics.  The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies generally offers monthly lectures as well as periodic conferences and other forums for students, faculty, and others from the outside community to come together and share ideas in an interdisciplinary fashion.  One does not have to be affiliated with the City University to become a member of CLAGS.  People from many academic institutions and independent scholars participate in CLAGS events.  Student membership to CLAGS is available for $10.  CLAGS is committed to advancing lesbian and gay scholarship, as well as coordinating an organized front against those who would wish to suppress our voices.  There is also an organization for queer students and their friends, QUNY, which sponsors social events.  A new organization for students interested in Ancient History and Classics is in the process of forming at this time.

I have not personally experienced any discrimination as an openly gay student at CUNY.  Perhaps this is partly due to the dynamic urban environment of New York City, which seems to draw not only persons who identify as queer in one way or another (i.e. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Bi-curious, Transgendered or whatever) but also others who are certainly liberal and accepting of diversity.  As a doctoral student majoring in Ancient History and minoring in the History of Sexuality and Gender, I have found the faculty members here at the Graduate Center to be very supportive of my interests.

Perhaps the one con to studying in New York is the high cost of living.  This downside is more than offset, however, by the excitement and experience of dazzling Manhattan.  The freedom of expression which exists in this urban jungle is a huge plus.  Of course, discrimination can be present in any environment, and caution should not be thrown to the wind when living as an openly queer person here.  My experience, however, has been one of general acceptance and tolerance, especially within the academic circles where I have travelled.

 

Calls for Papers

 

1998 APA/AIA Panel:

UNMASKED PERFORMANCE

(part of a Three-Year Colloquium:

"Varieties of Performance in the Ancient Mediterranean")

 

At our first panel this last December we asked four scholars who study performance to present their focus and methods.  The first two papers were on forms of "personal" performance: performance of the self in public life and performance of individual prayer and curse.  The first focused on the emotions and aesthetic ideals of Romans performing Roman-ness as evidenced in a wide variety of Roman texts, while the second considered the problem of audience for solitary speech.  This year we would like to follow up on this part of the panel by calling for papers on "unmasked" performance:  performance of ritual, of oratory, poetry, or song, or of identity in heightened situations.  Possible approaches include examination of texts for performative markers, use of visual sources, reconstruction of bodily aspects (of performed texts or performance within texts), or performer-audience interaction.   Abstracts ideally should include a statement of methodology.  Please send your abstract to Eva Stehle, Dept. of Classics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742 (email: es39@umail.umd.edu; fax: 301-314-9084) or to Mary-Kay Gamel, Cowell College, University of California, Santa Cruz 95064 (email: mkgamel@macmail.ucsc.edu; fax 408-459-4880). It should be between 500 and 800 words and is due by May 15.

 

AMERICAN WOMEN AND CLASSICAL MYTH

An Interdisciplinary Conference at the University of Maryland, College Park

Friday, Sept. 24-Saturday, Sept. 25, 1999

 

     The Department of Classics at the University of Maryland, College Park, will be sponsoring an interdisciplinary conference on American Women and Classical Myth on Friday, September 24-Saturday, September 25, 1999. Funded by a grant from the Helen Clay Frick Foundation, the conference is aimed at secondary school, community college, college and university teachers as well as members of the general public. The planning and program committee is composed of scholars representing a variety of fields and specializations. . . .

     Ancient Greek and Roman mythology has always been the area of classical studies most appealing to the broader American public. . . .  Mythology has also served as the mainstay of the university curriculum in Classics for the past thirty years. As the numbers of those studying Latin and Greek have declined, courses in myth have kept Classics in the hearts and minds of countless students, and thereby both sustained and supported the offerings in the ancient languages themselves.

     Classical myth has . . .  regularly been a source of intellectual interest and creative encouragement to American women. . . .   Several of our nation's most distinguished women poets have tapped the rich vein of classical myth in exploring female identity and fashioning a woman-centered aesthetic vision: Emma Lazarus, Edna St. Vincent Millay, H.D., Muriel Rukeyser, and Adrienne Rich. . . .  An impressive range of artistic achievements--among them the statuary of Vinnie Ream Hoxie, Harriet Hosmer and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney; the choreography of Martha Graham; Toni Morrison's novel Beloved; and Callie Khouri's screenplay Thelma and Louise—testifies to the inspirational power of classical myths on American women during the past two centuries. . . .

     We invite proposals of no longer than 800-words for both (30-minute) papers and (90-minute) workshops from scholars in a wide array of fields: classics, American literature, history, art and architecture, cinema, music and dance; psychology; textile, fashion and interior design; and women's studies.  Proposals for workshops--which will center on discussion of materials to be distributed in advance to pre-registered participants--should provide details about the materials which participants will receive, and specific examples of questions that participants will be asked to consider as they familiarize themselves with these materials. We especially welcome collaborative workshops organized and led by two or three conveners, and by specialists from different disciplines.

    Please send both paper and workshop proposals by September 1, 1998 to Professor Gregory Staley, Department of Classics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (email: gs32@umail.umd.edu).  As proposals will be refereed anonymously, we request that you give your name, institutional affiliation, relevant addresses (office, home, email), phone numbers and FAX number in a cover letter and remove all indications of your identity from the proposal itself.

   For further information about the conference, please contact Judith Hallett, Department of Classics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD  20742 (email: jh10@umail.umd.edu; FAX 301-314-9084; phone 301-405-2024).

 

Gendered Landscapes: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Past Place and Space

May 31-June 1, 1999

The Nittany Lion Inn

State College,  Pennsylvania

 

The goals of the conference are to learn, explore, and share particular perspectives within a multi-disciplinary community and to initiate an ongoing dialogue regarding issues of gender and past construction of place and space.  Anyone whose discipline uses landscape history or gender to inform or guide his or her efforts should attend.  A call for papers/panels will be mailed in August 1998, and abstracts will be due December 11, 1998.

 

Program Web site:

http://www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/GenderedLandscapes/

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION:  contact

Roberta Moore, Conference Planner

The Pennsylvania State University

225 The Penn State Conference Center Hotel

University Park  PA  16802-7002

Phone: (814) 863-5120

Fax: (814) 863-5190

E-Mail: ConferencefInfo1@cde.psu.edu

 

To be placed on the mailing list for a brochure with registration materials, nationwide, call 1-800-PSU-TODAY (1-800-778-8632) or send us an e-mail with your name, address, phone number, fax number, and Internet address to ConferencefInfo1@cde.psu.edu .  Please be sure to reference GENDERED LANDSCAPES in all correspondence.

 

1999 National Women's Studies Association Conference at Albuquerque, NM

 

"The National Women's Studies Association's new web site at http://www.nwsa.org is up and running.  When you visit, you will find information on the 1998 conference at Oswego including plenaries, housing, and registration (registration materials will be mailed shortly).  Within the next few months, 1999 conference (at Albuquerque) will be posted along with the call for papers.  Regional Women's Studies Associations are invited to send information about their organizations for inclusion on the site to the web designer, Beatrice Thompson, at bthompson@ou.edu.  Other information available at the site includes membership, NWSA organizational structure, officers, committees, caucuses, and task forces, and NWSA publications.  More content is being added regularly."  –from Diana Scully, Treasurer-Secretary, NWSA

 

AWARD FOR FEMINIST STUDIES STUDENT PAPER:  NOMINATIONS REQUESTED

 

    Feminist Studies invites submissions for its

Feminist Studies Award which will honor the best essay submitted to the journal by a graduate student. Graduate students researching any aspect of feminist scholarship are encouraged to submit a paper.

    For twenty-five years,  Feminist Studies has

embraced the variety and richness of women's studies, and the significance of interdisciplinary scholarship in uncovering the issues that affect women's lives.  With this prize, we aim both to encourage and learn from a new generation of feminist scholars.

    The papers will be judged by our editorial board who will make their announcement in January 1999. The winner will have her essay published in Feminist Studies and will be awarded a prize of $500.00.  The submission guidelines are the following: the paper should be a maximum of 10,000 words (including footnotes), that is, a total of 40 double-spaced pages; please send three copies and an abstract. The applicant must identify her or his affiliation by department, school and status and cannot have received her or his terminal degree before May 1998.

     Please send all materials to FSA, Feminist Studies, c/o the Department of Women's Studies, Woods Hall 2101, University of Maryland, College Park, MD  20742.  The deadline is August 15, 1998.

 

MILLENNIUM MARCH ON WASHINGTON (Press release)

 

Organizers for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community's fourth March on Washington today announced the event will be held on April 30, 2000.  The March aims to articulate the concerns of our community and focus our nation's attention on our quest for equality in all aspects of life.  "We expect one million of my gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered sisters and brothers and our enlightened allies to stand on the Mall and call upon our nation to live out the promise of equality under the law," said the Rev. Troy D. Perry, long-time gay activist and founder of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.

    "The Millennium March promises to continue its bold commitment to all people of color. I am hearing from Native Americans, Asians, African Americans, Latinos and Pacific Islanders who are ecstatic about participating," said Martin Ornelas-Quintero, executive director of the Latino Latina/o, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Organization.  Organizers also expressed their support today for the "Equality Begins at Home" actions on all 50 state capitals set for 1999.  "I am glad to see both of these events moving towards a more collaborative process," said Jubi Headley, executive director of the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum. "This is a positive sign of progress."

    "I remain hopeful that the 'Equality Begins at Home' actions and the Millennium March will help build our grassroots movement at the state, local and national level," said Dianne Hard-Garcia, executive director of the Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby of Texas and co-chair of the Federation of Statewide Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Organizations.  "I believe that working together these actions can strengthen the state and federal organizations that fight daily to end discrimination."

    For further information regarding accommodations, travel agents and groups please call the March on Washington, (818) 891-1748 or E-mail MMOW2000@aol.com, or contact James N. Birkitt, Jr., UFMCC Communications Department, Tel. (310) 360-8640, Fax: (310) 360-8680, E-mail: info@ufmcchq.com.

 

 

NEWS FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA

Pact on Gender Signed

(from Off Our Backs, January 1998)

 

MALAWI—Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders signed an historic Declaration on Gender and Development for the "eradication of all gender inequalities in the region" at this year's summit.  This declaration demands equal representation of women and men in decision-making structures at all levels as well as facilitating women's full access to, and control of, productive resources.  The declaration was signed by all 12 SADC countries.

    Secretary General of the Fourth World Conference on Women Gertrude Mongella said that "this gigantic step makes SADC the first in the Africa region, and one of the few institutions in the world, to recognize that gender equality is an inalienable right and prerequisite for real development and true democracy."

    Mongella also remarked that she hoped that the new institutional framework for gender in SADC will be allocated sufficient resources to make a meaningful difference.

    The SADC leaders also launched a book entitled Into the Future:  Gender and SADC, which features recommendations on integrating gender considerations into the work of the regional body.

    The 12 member states of SADC are Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

    For more info, contact:  Africa Policy Information Center.  Fax:  202-546-1545.  Email: apic@igc.apc.org.  (info from International Peace Bureau)

 

 

 

LESBIAN, GAY AND BISEXUAL CLASSICAL CAUCUS

 

Founded in 1989 as a group affiliated with the APA, the Caucus represents a coalition of Lesbians, Bisexuals, Gay Men, and Friends and Supporters; anyone is welcome to join.

 

PURPOSE.  The purpose of the Caucus is twofold:  scholarly and political.  Our scholarly purpose is to facilitate and promote research that reflects the personal and intellectual interests of Lesbians, Bisexuals and Gay Men; to provide a bridge between Classics and the emerging interdisciplinary fields of Lesbian and Gay Studies, the history of sexuality, cultural studies, and gender theory; and to contribute to contemporary debates about the social meaning of sex, the politics of personal life, the relations between self and society, and the role of ideology in the formation of human subjects.

 

Our political purpose is to educate about the effects of homophobia in the profession, and to assist Lesbian, Gay Male and Bisexual scholars in their struggles against stigmatization within the profession of Classics.  We want to create a working environment in which all classicists are able to live and work without fear of interference, intimidation, or loss of professional standing.

 

WHAT WE DO.  We sponsor an annual panel at the AIA/APA meeting on aspects of sexuality in antiquity, conduct workshops, act as a resource-support network, and engage in political action. We work closely with the Women's Classical Caucus and the Committee on the Status of Women and Minorities, as well as with other appropriate APA divisions. We join with other Lesbian/Gay Caucuses in collective action to further visibility of and respect for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual scholars.

 

PANELS AND PAPERS.  We encourage scholarly papers and panels to be presented at the annual meetings of the APA and solicit papers and ideas for panels that the Caucus could actively co-ordinate. In 1997, our sponsored panel included (but was not limited to!) talks by Paul Rehak & Roman R. Snihurowych on "Medicine, Myth and Matriarchy in the Thera Frescoes" and by Terry Wilfong on "Teaching Others about Friendship and Physical Desire:  Transmitting Lesbian Discourse in a Convent in Fifth Century CE Egypt". Next year's Panel is on the subject of "Men's Culture."

 

TO JOIN.  The organization of the LGBCC consists of general members, a Steering Committee (composed of all members who wish to participate in planning), and two co-chairs (at present, John Younger & Paul Rehak, PO Box 90103, Department of Classical Studies, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0103). Members pay voluntary annual dues ($10 regular; $5 students; make checks out to "LGBCC" and mail to Paul Rehak at the address above).  Members will receive a newsletter (for a copy of the recent newsletter, or to be added to the mailing list for the newsletter, contact Jeri Fogel, Department of Romance and Classical Languages, Old Horticulture Building, Michigan State University, E. Lansing, MI  48824-1027).

 

E-MAIL DISCUSSION LIST.  The email discussion list "ClassicsLGB" is both the forum for discussions concerning gender and sexualities in the classical world and the official notice board for the LGBCC. The list has anonymous posting and a confidential subscriber list.  To subscribe, send a message without subject heading to: majordomo@acpub.duke.edu.   In the body of the message, write: subscribe classicslgb (No name is necessary).  Instructions for anonymous posting will be sent to you along with other list information.