The Fourth Biennial Conference

Women’s and Gender Historians of the Midwest

 Cross Currents in Women’s & Gender History

 June 17-19, 2010

Welcome!  This conference brings together scholars, educators, students and the public to explore current issues in women's and gender history as we showcase the academic work of Midwestern and other scholars who focus on women or gender.  Honoring our conference location in the historic river community of Dubuque, Iowa, our 2010 theme highlights the convergence of scholarship and contemporary pedagogy in all areas of women's history and related disciplines. 
 

 Mission Statement of the Women and Gender Historians of the Midwest

WGHOM grew out of WHOM.  It is an organization devoted to promoting women's and gender history in the Midwestern United States.  Our goals:

·         to provide a platform to showcase academic work in progress by faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates at Midwestern institutions of higher learning

·         to sponsor a conference every two years at colleges and universities around the Midwest 

·         to provide a forum for networking and discussion for those associated with Midwestern institutions

WGHOM Executive Board Members (terms expiring 31 July 2010)

President: Jennifer Morris, College of Mount St. Joseph
Vice President: Carmen Hernandez, Northeast Iowa Community College
Secretary: Stacy A. Cordery, Monmouth College
Treasurer: Paula Hinton, Tennessee Tech University
Membership Chair: Tammy Proctor, Wittenberg University

Conference Organizing Committee

Carmen Hernandez, Northeast Iowa Community College
Kristin Anderson-Bricker, Loras College
Sharon Lakes, The University of Iowa 

Thursday, June 17, 2010, 7:00 p.m. -10:00 p.m. Session 

Dinner and Performance
National Mississippi River Museum

Jane Curry, Samantha “Rastles” the Woman Question

 Friday, June 18, 2010, 9:00 – 10:15 A.M. Sessions

 Cherchez la Femme, Women’s History Resources at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
Room 106A 


Panel:  Kristin Anderson-Bricker, Associate Professor of History, Loras College

            Matthew Schaefer, Archivist, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library

            Craig Wright, Archivist, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library

 

“Holding the Line:” Catholic Women Reformers and Antisuffrage Militarists in Post-World War I America
Room 106B

Panel:     Jeanne Petit, Associate Professor of History, Hope College
        The Dance Problem: Catholic Women and Modern Women at the National Catholic Community Houses, 1918-1921 

            Barbara Steinson, Professor of History, DePauw University
        “Some Things Are Worse Than War:" Relief, Preparedness, Antisuffragism, and Postwar Reactionary Politics

  

Gender, Religion and the Meaning of Community
Room 106C
 

Panel:  Denise D. Kettering, Adjunct Faculty, Bethany Theological Seminary & Assistant Archivist, Brethren Historical Library and Archives
              Moravian Missionaries and Androgynous Ascetics: Women’s Participation in the 18th Century Bethlehem and Ephrata Communities

         Jennifer M. Morris, Assistant Professor of History, College of Mount St. Joseph
             “Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?”  The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur of Cincinnati, Ohio Before and After Vatican II

 

 Sexual Fears and Racism
 Room 110

Panel:  Nicole Helregel, Undergraduate, Beloit College
                Gender and Sex Silences: How Female Roles, Changing Masculinities, and Sexual Fears Shaped the Chicago Race Riot of 1919       

            Lisa Garoutte, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Loras College
                Constructing Race and Gender through Discourse and Interaction: Lynching in Georgia, 1882-1930


Friday, June 18, 2010, 10:30 – Noon Sessions

 

Feminist Activists, Feminist Archives: Building Women’s History through Partnerships
Room 106A

Chair:    Kären Mason

Panel:   Carolyn Farrell, BVM, Director, Roberta Kuhn Center

Ruth Scharnau, feminist activist

Virginia Lynns, feminist activist

Elizabeth Myers, Director, Women & Leadership Archives, Loyola University

Kären Mason, Curator, Iowa Women’s Archives, University of Iowa

 

Women at Work in the Twentieth Century
Room 106B

Panel:   Steven D. Reschly, Professor of History, Truman State University

            Katherine Jellison, Professor of History, Ohio University
                “We Baked 100 Pies at a Time:” Old Order Amish Women, Children, and Farm Survival in 1930s Pennsylvania

            Coreen Derifield, Graduate Student, Purdue University
                “I Thought of the Money We Could Use:" Midwestern Women and Industrial Manufacturing, 1950-1965

            Katherin Parks, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Loras College
                Tenure and the Motherhood Penalty

  

Reform in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
Room 106C                 

Panel:  Dalene Bollinger Graduate Student, San Francisco State University
                     Lady Reformer in a Gold Rush Town

            Susan Rensing, Assistant Professor of History and Women’s Studies, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
                    Falling in Love Intelligently’: Eugenic Love in the Progressive Era

            Mary C. Koslovsky, Graduate Student, Bowling Green State University
                    Olive Almyra Colton: Toledo Suffragist, Benefactor, Author and World Traveler

 

Noon – 1:15 p.m. Lunch

Roundtable Lunch Discussion: “The U.S. Women's And Gender History Survey:  Challenges and Possibilities, Conversation Kicked Off By: Barbara Steinson, DePauw University and Jeanne Petit, Hope College                       


 

Friday, June 18, 2010, 1:15 – 2:45 P.M. Sessions

 

Exploring the Middle Land: Dorothy Schwieder's Contributions to Women’s and Iowa History
Room 106A  

Moderator: Marvin Bergman, Editor, Annals of Iowa, State Historical Society of Iowa

Panel:   Deborah Fink, Independent Scholar, Ames, Iowa

Tom Morain, Director of Government Relations/Department of History, Graceland University, Lamoni, Iowa

Kären Mason, Curator, Iowa Women’s Archives, University of Iowa

Jenny Barker-Devine, Assistant Professor of History, Illinois College

Respondent: Dorothy Schwieder, Emeritus Professor of History, Iowa State University

  

Social Change Through the Women’s Club Movement 
Room 106B

Chair:     Paula Nelson, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Platteville

Panel:   Kristin Mapel Bloomberg, Professor and Director, Hamline University Women’s Studies Program

        Culture vs. Politics? Clara Bewick Colby’s Cultural Feminism and Women’s Emancipation in the Nineteenth Century    

Johnanna Ganz, Graduate Student, University of Northern Iowa
                    “Knowledge is Power:"  The Violet Study Club’s Unique Approach to Social Change

Paige Halpin, Graduate Student, Loyola University Chicago
                    Caught in the Crossfire:  Chicago Women’s Clubs, Public Health & the Anti-Spitting Campaign in the Progressive Era

 

Friday, June 18, 2010, 3:00 – 4:15 P.M. Sessions

 

Citizenship and Global Awareness: Challenging Separate Spheres andDefining Masculinity thru International Engagement
Room 106A

Chair:   Adam Stanley, Assistant Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Platteville

Panel:   Beatrice McKenzie, Assistant Professor, Beloit College
                    Gender and Transmission of U.S. Citizenship in Occupation Zones, 1915-1955

                Norma Cook Everist, Professor of Church and Ministry, Wartburg Theological Seminary
                        Public Voice in the Private Sphere and Private Voices in the Public World: Cross Currents

 

Preserving and Teaching Iowa’s Past through Public History
Room 106B

Chair:    Susan Caswell, Graduate Student, The University of Iowa

Panel:   Anna L. Bostwick Flaming, Ph. D. Candidate, History Department, University of Iowa

Diana Harris, Project and Communications Manager, College of Engineering, University of Iowa
                    Women at Iowa: Recording Women’s History

             Susan Hellert, Faculty, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
                    Women in Dubuque, Moving the Nation Forward

                                                                                                                                                                             

Gender Conventions and Unconventional Gendering: Proper Womanhood and the Public Sphere at the Turn of the Century 
Room 106C

Panel:  Linda Van Ingen, Associate Professor of History and Director, Women’s & Gender Studies Program, University of Nebraska, Kearney
                Aging, Independence and Proper Womanhood in the Era of American Imperialism

            Andrea L. Smalley, Instructor of History, Northern Illinois University
                “Woman in the Field” Feminizing Sport Hunting in the Progressive Era

 

Gender and Empire
Room 110

Chair:    Melissa Gormley, Assistant Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Platteville

Panel:  Kelly Hawkins, Undergraduate, Saint Ambrose University
                    A Sultan and a Concubine: The Relationship That Began the Decline of the Ottoman Empire

             Kathleen M. Borowski, Undergraduate, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
                    Abstract: Imperialism and its Effects on Igbo Women

Saturday, June 19, 2010,  8:30 – 9:45 A.M. Sessions

 

Female Medical Practitioners in Colonial America/Teaching Biology through the History of Childbirth
Room 106A

 Panel:     Elizabeth Simpson, Associate Professor of History, University of Phoenix, Brookfield, WI
                      A Humble Angel of Bethseda: The Gendered Role of Colonial North America’s Female Medical Practitioners

               Kate Cooper, Assistant Professor of Biology, Loras College
                        "The Biology of Women:” Including History in a Biology Class and Biology in a Gender Studies Program 
 

Native American Representations
Room 106B

Chair:    Kathleen Tigerman, Professor of Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Platteville

Panel:     Joanne Jahnke Wegner, Graduate Student, University of Minnesota & Adjunct Instructor of History, University of Wisconsin, Stout and Eau Claire
                         A Dead Woman’s Dress: Gender and Race During the Dakota War of 1862

                Jane E. Simonsen, Assistant Professor of History, Augustana College
                        Generating Identity: Sauk Women and Photographic Exchanges in the Early 20th Century

 

Women, the Homefront and World War II
Room 106C

Chair: Lisa Ossian, Co-director of the Iowa Studies Center and Faculty, Des Moines Area Community College

Panel:  Allison Wells, Undergraduate, Beloit College
                From Curfew Restrictions to Patriotic Duty: Women at Beloit College During World War II

Rachel E. Lewis, Intern, Evanston History Center, Illinois
                Women’s War Work: Rosie and the Women of the Ladies’ Home Journal

 

Saturday, June 19, 2010,  10:00 – 11:30 A.M. Sessions

 

Feminists in Power: Making the Transition from Gender Historian to Academic Administrator
Room 106A

Moderator: Tammy Proctor, Professor of History, Wittenberg University

Panel:   Gretchen Galbraith, Chair, Department of History, Grand Valley State University

             Beatrix Hoffman, Chair, Department of History, Northern Illinois University

             Jean Lynch Brandon, Social Science Coordinator, Center for Teaching Excellence, Lansing Community College

            Sharon Vriend-Robinette, Chair, Economics and Social Sciences Division, Davenport University

             Molly Wood, Chair, Department of History, Wittenberg University

 

Minority Women and Civil Rights Activism in Iowa, 1945-1975
Room 106B

Chair:    Omar Valerino-Jiménez, Assistant Professor, History Department, University of Iowa

Panel:   Noah Lawrence, Social Studies Teacher, Hinsdale Central High School
                    Edna Griffin and the Campaign to End Segregation in Des Moines

             Jessica Peel-Austin, Graduate Student, History Department, University of Iowa
                        Defining a Movement: Early Civil Rights Activists in Des Moines and Waterloo

             Janet Weaver, Assistant Curator, Iowa Women’s Archives, University of Iowa Libraries
                        The Grape Boycott Campaign and the Struggle for Racial Justice in Iowa

 

Gender in Literature and Language
Room 106C

Panel:  Justin Vetsch, Undergraduate, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
                    Gender and Society in Tokugawa, Japan

           Jean M. Merrill, Assistant Professor of English, Loras College
                   Context as a Vehicle for Containment: Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

            Damayanthie Eluwawalage, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Human Ecology, State University of New York, Oneonta
                    Cross Currents in Gender History: Cultural Symbol Systems and Gender Inequality

 

11:30 – 1:15 Lunch
Julien

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Patricia Cohen, Professor of History, University of California-Santa Barbara

    An 1850’s Challenge to Traditional Marriage: Mary Gove Nichols and the American “Free Love” Movement
 


Saturday, June 19, 2010,  1:15 – 2:45 P.M. Sessions

 

Breastfeeding in America: Shifting Meanings from Colonial Times to the Present
Room 106A 

Chair:    Kathryn DeGraff, Archivist, DePaul University

Panel:  Nora Doyle, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History, The University of North Carolina
      “The Highest Pleasure of Which Woman’s Nature is Capable:: Breastfeeding and the Sentimental Maternal Ideal in America, 1750-1860
 

Marian Tompson, Co-Founder of La Leche League International and Founder, President, and CEO of AnotherLook
        Making Sense of Breastfeeding in Formula Feeding Culture

Comment: Sharon Lake, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of American Studies, The University of Iowa

 

Identity Formation in the Twentieth Century
Room 106B

Chair:    Theresa Kaminiski, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point 

Panel:   Victoria Bissell Brown, Professor of History, Grinnell College
                        Not Your Grandmother’s Grandmother: Changes in the Advice Literature, 1900-2009

               Joanne E. Passet, Professor of History and Dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indiana University East
                        Hidden in Plain Sight: Midwestern Public Libraries and the Construction of Gay and Lesbian Identify, 1900-1969

 

Exploring the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Iowa
Room 106C 

Chair:  Laura Sullivan, Assistant Archivist, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University
 

Panel:   Sara Egge, Doctoral Student, History Department, Iowa State University

    “The ballot should be yours:" Rural Women and the Woman Suffrage Movement in Iowa, 1900-1920

David McCartney, University Archivist, University of Iowa
                     The Carrie Chapman Catt Girlhood Home: Creating a Place for Her Story

Tanya Zanish-Belcher, Head, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University

        Resources for Examining the Life of Carrie Chapman Catt and the Suffrage Movement

               

Saturday, June 19, 2010, 3:00 – 4:15 P.M. Sessions

 

Contemporary Scholarship
Room 106A

Chair:    Karen Gagne, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Platteville

Panel:   Mac McLaughlin, Behavioral Neuroscientist, Loras College
                        Girls Rule and Boys Drool: A Briefing About Gender Differences in the Brain and Their Impact on Function

                Kristin Anderson-Bricker, Associate Professor of History, Loras College
                        Booty Calls and Friends with Benefits:  Talking About Sex at a Catholic College in the Age of the Hook Up

  

Topics in Gender Studies
Room 106B

Panel:   Jessica Milbrandt, Undergraduate, Loras College
                        Tension Within: The 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Sparks a Battle Between the Women of SNCC

                Carmen Hernandez, Humanities Instructor, Northeast Iowa Community College
                         Against the Stream: Re-imagining the Operatic Femme Fatale

  

Women in the Science and Mythology of Ancient Greece
Room 106C

Chair:    Adam Stanley, Assistant Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Platteville

Panel:   Lindsey-Marie Ludtke, Undergraduate, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
                        Pandora: How Her Medical Stereotypes Solidified her Inferior Place in Ancient Greece Society

                Lauren Bachmann, Undergraduate, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
                        A Comparison Between Females in Greek Mythology and Greek Antiquity