On Our Minds, Spring 1990

NWSA at Towson, June 1989 The National Women's Studies Association Annual Conference 1989, entitled "Feminist Transformations," was hosted by the Women's Studies program at Towson State University, June 14 to 18. The 1989 conference was one of the largest sponsored by NWSA with over 2,000 registrants attending 270 workshops and a large selection of cultural events. The book exhibit, always a high point of the conference, was the largest to date with 114 publishers exhibiting their titles by and about women. Another first was the large number of pre-conferences held a day or two in advance of the main conference, including a day-long pre-conference on curriculum transformation o~gani~ed b_y the TSU Women's Studies program (summanzed m this edition of OOM). The success of these pre-conferences has led to their becoming a regular part of future conference planning. Towson was judged an ideal campus for the conference since it was large enough to accommodate the registrants but small enough to allow the activities to be centralized around the Union. Many of those attending noted the friendly and comfortable atmosphere of the university. Conference organizers continue to comment on the generous support they received from the administration, faculty, and staff as they dealt with the many complexities associated with implementing a conference of this size. The conference provided an excellent opportunity for members of the Towson community to demonstrate their talents and expertise in assisting with the planning, in providing cultural events including readings by Maryland women writers and an exhibit of works by Towson women artists, and in organizing workshops and presenting scholarly papers. Recent graduates of Towson's Women's Studies program offered an excellent panel "Is There Life after Women's Studies?''; Abby Markowitz, a 1989 graduate, was selected as one of five students to speak at the second plenary session. Her speech and excerpts from the student panel are included in this issue. Space does not permit us to acknowledge by na~e each person who contributed to the success of the proJect .thirty- five workshop participants, alone. But we would hke to thank especially Beth Hewitt, the Towson NWSA Conference Coordinator, Suzanne Hyers, the NWSA Conference Coordinator, and Ted Johns, Towson's Assistant Director of Events and Conference Services. A newsletter of the Women's Studies Program Towson State University Baltimore, MD 21204 Spring 1990 Vol IV, No. 1 Next year's conference will be held June 20-24 at the University of Akron, Akron, Ohio. The theme is "Feminist Education: Calling the Question.'' JOURNEYS OF OUR LIVES: LEARNING FEMINISM by Abby Markowitz Note: This talk was delivered at the student plenary of the NWSA annual meeting, June 1989. The author is a 1989 Women ,s Studies graduate and the daughter of Judy Beris, a member of Towson ,s Women ,s Studies Department. I have spent several weeks thinking about this speech, thinking about my life and what it means to "learn feminism." I'm not at all sure that I could tell you WHEN I learned feminism. Learning a new way of seeing the world is not like learning algebra or when the 19th amendment was passed. Rather, learning feminism is a process - an ongoing journey that is, for me, filled with both joy and pain. What I would like to talk out is how and why I've begun this journey, and what it has meant to my life. Like the other women involved in this plenary, I am the daughter of a feminist mother. As such, my exposure to feminism didn't begin with my first women's studies course. My feminist education began at home. But being the daughter of a feminist mother has never been an easy thing to be. It was not easy when I was thirteen and rebellious. At that age it was important to feel separate from and different from my parents. The fact that my mother's feminism was so important to her and so visible to me made it an easy target for my rebellions. In simplistic teenage-algebraic terms, this relationship translated to: Mom= feminism; Mom has nothing to say to me; therefore, feminism has nothing to say to me. I came to realize that such mathematical equations have little value in describing human relationships. I also came to see feminism's connection not simply to my mother but to me, too. But it is still not easy being the daughter of a feminist mother. When I was a teenager and my mother didn't share my fondness for the Who or Bruce Springsteen, because of their sexist lyrics, I didn't really care. But now, being a feminist myself, I sometimes feel guilty, perhaps even subversive, about my taste in music. Especially around my mother. Continued, Page 6