WMST ANNETTE CHAPPELL
DRAFT
Embry/Abell Foundation "Two Pages"
In the last two decades educators have realized that the
traditional curriculum does not adequately represent women's
experiences and perspectives. Surveys of textbooks show that
women ere absent, or marginalized, or inappropriately analyzed
with criteria derived from the study of men. The academic
discipline of Women's Studies has developed to evolve the
definitions, methodology, criteria, and pedagogy appropriate to
the study of women. By now there are over twenty years of
accumulated scholarship, 400 well-established programs, nd
over 30,000 courses in universities across the nation.
However, very litte of this new knowledge explosion has
reached the traditional classroom. Integrating the new
scholarship on women into the traditional curriculum is,
therefore, the current priority of Women's Studies educators.
Towson State University has been a leader in Women's
Studies. It has one of the oldest programs in the country, and
from 1983 to 1986 it conducted one of th largest curriculum
integration prosects nationwide under a $250,000 grant from
the U.S. Department of Education. Under an additional grant
it is currently providing faculty development workshops for ten
community colleges in the Baltimore-Washington area.
Towson has received national recognition for its
successful work with women. It was ranked as one of the top
three public, coeducational institutions in the country in
providing the best college environment for women in the
EVERVWOMAN'S GUIDE TO COLLEGES ANd UNIVERSITIES (1982), and its
integration project was cited in a September 9, 1987 article in
the CHRONICLE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION. Its project directors have
been invited to consult at Goucher College, Johns Hopkins
Univeraity, UMBC, College of Notre Dame, University of
Baltimore, University of Richmond, Ohio University, and several
private secondary schools in Baltimore, among other places.
Given our experience and faculty resource, we have
decided to establish an institute at Towson that will allow us
to continue to address issues of women' eduction, at both the
post-secondary and secondary school levels, in a more
systematic and extensive way. The following is a partial list
of specific proJects ws anticipate conducting, that deal with
women's education and women in the curriculum.
