1st Edition

Lesbians in Academia Degrees of Freedom

Edited By Beth Mintz, Esther D. Rothblum Copyright 1997

    How can being closeted or out affect the personal and professional life of a lesbian in academia? This volume, a collection of over thirty personal narratives, explores what it's like to be a lesbian working in a college or university setting. Along with the stories are in-depth analyses of the narratives by other academics. Issues such as race, class and age and how these factors distinguish each individual's place in the academy are examined. The contributors have written from a wide range of experiences--different degrees of outness, various academic disciplines, many geographic locations, and several types of academic settings.

    PERSONAL NARRATIVES , 1. Dawn D. Bennett-Alexander -- Reflections on Being an out Black Lesbian on a Southern Campus, 2. Christine Cress -- In, Out, or Somewhere-In-Between, 3. Mildred Dickemann -- Coming Out and Coming In: A Kind of Homecoming, 4. Penelope Dugan -- The Silent Partner Finds Her Voice, 5. Michele J. Eliason -- Out in the Heartland: Lesbians, Academics, and Iowa, 6. Kathryn M. Feltery -- Living Outside the Center, 7. Maggie Fournier -- Out in the Maine Woods, 8. Nanette K. Gartrell -- Out in Academic Psychiatry, 9. Barbara W. Gerber -- Becoming a Lesbian in Academia, 10. Charlotte L. Goedshce -- Out on a Small Southern Campus, 11. Nancy Goldstein -- The Making of a Lesbian Academic, 1974-1995, 12. Batya Hyman -- Is Out Now In? A Letter to a First-Year Lesbian Professor, 13. Sherrie A. Inness -- Double Vision: Lesbian Twins in Academia, 14. Carey Kaplan -- Way Out at Saint Michael's College, 15. Sandra M. Ketrow -- Is it Homophobia, Heterosexism, Sexism, or Can I Pass? , 16. Kathryn H. Larson -- Creating My Own Security, 17. Jan McDonald -- Being Out in Academia: A Year of My Life in Enid, America, 18. Carol J. Meoller -- Transforming The Master's Tools: Teaching and Studying Philosophy in Graduate School, 19. Akilah Monifa -- Of African Descent: A Three-fers Story, 20. Sue Morrow -- This Is the Place, 21. Sally O'Driscoll -- Skirmishes in the Borderlands of Identity: Lesbians in Women's Studies, 22. Christy M. Ponticelli -- Stray Sheep or Shepherd? Out in the Florida Classroom, 23. Patty Reagan -- Lesbians in Utah: Behind the Zion Curtain, 24. Amy L. Reynolds and Raechele L. Pope -- Beyond Silence: Life as Academics and a Lesbian Couple, 25. Jennifer Rycnega -- The Perils and Pleasures of Being an Out Lesbian Academic: or Speech from the Scaffold, 26. Bonnie R. Strickland -- Reading, Writing, and Talking to People, 27. Lynn A. Walkiewicz -- Subversive Education, 28. Stacy Wolf -- Consenting to Relations: The Personal Pleasure of Power Disparity , 29. Anonymous -- My, How Times Have Changed . . . Or Have They?: A Quarter Century as a Lesbian Academic, THE LESBIAN EXPERIENCE: AN ANALYSIS,30. Penelope Dugan -- Degrees of Freedom, 31. Mary Frances Stuck -- The Lesbian Experience: An Analysis, RACE, CLASS, AGE: THE QUESTION OF IDENTITY POLITICS, 32. Michelle Tokarczyk and Suzanne Sowinska -- Lesbians, Class, and Academia, 33. Maria C. Gonzalez -- Women of Color, Sexuality, and the Academy: A Few Thoughts, 34. Roxanne Lin -- Steppin' Into and Out of Academia, 35. Phyllis Bronstein -- Older Women in Academia,LESBIAN STUDIES, QUEER STUDIES: THEORIZING THE LESBIAN EXPERIENCE, 36. Lynda Goldstein -- Queer Theory: The Monster That is Destroying Lesbianville , 37. Sheila Jeffreys -- The Queer Disappearance of Lesbians,

    Biography

    of Vermont. Esther D. Rothblum is Professor of Psychology at the University of Vermont.

    "Mintz and Rothblum's book gives voice to a vibrant, fascinating faculty of various ages, races and backgrounds who are all lesbian. These women share their compelling stories, bringing to light experiences ranging from the very closeted to those who have been 'out' in their jobs since their interviews. ... Recommended for academic libraries, as well as for large lesbian and gay collections in public libraries." -- Jerilyn Veldof, Library Journal
    "It's a book that should be read by all lesbians entering academia. Most of the narratives are positive, and many suggest that being out need not be a disadvantage in terms of tenure or promotion." -- The Lesbian Review of Books
    "Mintz and Rothblum's book gives voice to a vibrant, fascinating faculty of various ages, races and backgrounds who are all lesbian. These women share their compelling stories, bringing to light experiences ranging from the very closeted to those who have been 'out' in their jobs since their interviews... Recommended for academic libraries, as well as for large lesbian and gay collections in public libraries." -- Jerilyn Veldof, Library Journal
    "Readers will be drawn to one account because it resonates to their own experience or that of a friend, to another because it is stylishly written, to yet another because the institutional or geographical setting is familiar." -- Feminist Collections
    "Mintz and Rothblum's book gives voice to a vibrant, fascinating faculty of various ages, races and backgrounds who are all lesbian. These women share their compelling stories, bringing to light experiences ranging from the very closeted to those who have been 'out' in their jobs since their interviews... Recommended for academic libraries, as well as for large lesbian and gay collections in public libraries." -- Jerilyn Veldof, Library Journal