Re-Visions, Fall 1986

A newsletter of the project Integrating The Scholarship On Women: Transforming The Curriculum Towson State University I INTEGRATING RE-VISIONS THE SCHOLARSHIP ON WOMEN TRANSFORMING THE CURRICULUM Number 6 FALL 1986 TO THE READER Now that the FIPSE project is conluding, we shall no longer be publishing RE--VISIONS semiannually. However, the ongoing continuation activities of the project, many of which are described elsewhere in this issue under "Future Plans," will continue to be reported upon. In the past Towson has regularly published a newsletter, ON OUR MINDS, describing the activities of the women's studies program. Our future plan is to publish semiannually a new, revised and expanded version of ON OUR MINDS, which will contain regular columns and feature articles on the curriculum integration work being conducted at Towson and in the greater BaltimoreWashington area. Readers of REVISIONS who are interested in continu AREA CONFERENCE Dan Jones, Chair of the Department of English and American LiteraThe major event of the final year of ture and participant in the FIPSE Engthe FIPSE project to integrate the scholarship on women into the traditional curriculum was the Area Conference held on Saturday, April 12, 1986. The Conference introduced faculty and administrators from public and private secondary and postsecondary educational institutions to the work of the Towson project, and explored ways in which future cooperative work may be undertaken. Attendees came from schools, colleges, and universities in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and throughout the state. The opening session of the conference included a presentation by priject co-directors Elaine Hedges and Sara Coulter describing the three years of project activity; and talks by TSU President Hoke Smith and by a faculty and a student representative from the project. President Smith's remarks stressed the crucial importance of curriculum reform projects like Towson' s in a time of increasing educational conservatism. He cited Secretary of Education William Bennett's recent report, "To Reclaim A Legacy," which argues for a return to a traditional curriculum based largely on "great" books. Projects like Towson's, on the other hand, recognize the need to expand the legacy. President Smith pointed out thatjust as definitions of human worth have historically expanded from including only property holders, to citizens, to persons, so expansion must continue, in keeping with our nature and responsibility as a democratic society. The diverse voices, perspectives and contributions of men and women of all classes and races must be included in an expanded legacy. lish literature workshop, described the extensive personal and professional effects of the project on him. His experience in the project, he said, has changed his approach to scholarship, his teaching methods, his relation to students, and, on a moral level, "where I live." While he may not agree with all of the new scholarship, Dr. Jones said, his exposure to it has led him to reassess traditional scholarship and to recognize that confining oneself to it means working with "impaired vision." Feminist literary scholarship calls ~nto question all periodization, genre definitions, and critical and esthetic standards, with the result, for example, that "formerly perfect poems now seem flawed," and those once seen as flawed reveal new esthetic meaning. The result for Dr. Jones has been a