Janet
Jakobsen, scholar in religion, morality and
gender, named director of the Barnard Center for
Research on Women
 |
March
23, 2000, New York, NY- Janet Jakobsen,
an expert on the interaction between religion,
morality and gender, with specialization
in American social movements and public
policy, has been appointed the director
of the Barnard College Center for Research
on Women.
|
The
Center, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary
in September, is an important venue for the discussion
of issues women face both nationally and globally.
The Center sponsors lectures and seminars including
the influential Scholar and the Feminist Conference.
Among those who have visited the Center in recent
years are: Evelyn Hammonds, Cynthia Ozick, Amy Tan,
Nawal el Saadawi, Catharine R. Stimpson, Anna Deveare
Smith, Lani Guinier and Faye Wattleton.
"The
Center has played an historic role in helping to
clarify issues of concern to women," said Jakobsen.
"At a time when women domestically and internationally
face enormous changes in their social roles, we
plan to bring together scholars and the public to
assess and better understand the force of these
developments."
Elizabeth
Boylan, Provost of Barnard College, said, "Janet
brings an ideal combination of respected scholarship
and a gift for programming that sparks debate and
discussion. Under her leadership, the Center will
make an important contribution to intellectual life
at Barnard, the entire University community, and
well beyond."
Jakobsen,
who began her new position Jan. 1, was formerly
associate professor of women's studies and religious
studies at the University of Arizona, which she
joined in 1992. She earned her Ph.D. in ethics and
society from Emory University, her M.A. in religion
from the School of Theology at Claremont, and her
B.A. cum laude in philosophy and economics from
Dartmouth College.
Jakobsen
is the author of "Working Alliances and the
Politics of Difference: Diversity and Feminist Ethics",
published in 1998 by Indiana University Press, and
a variety of journal articles and book chapters
on family values and social movements, feminist
ethics, and modernity. She is at work on a book
tentatively titled "Hate Is Not a Family Value."
She speaks frequently at professional conferences
including, most recently, at Harvard Divinity School,
the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University,
the Harvard Center for Literary and Cultural Studies,
and Wesleyan University.
She
is an appointed member of the Commission on the
Status of Women in the Profession of the American
Academy of Religion, and is a member of other organizations
including the Society for Philosophy and Public
Affairs and the Society for Values in Higher Education.
Her awards include a fellowship from the Center
for the Study of Values and Public Life at Harvard
University, a senior research fellowship from Wesleyan
University's Center for the Humanities, a Udall
Center for Public Policy fellowship, and the President's
Award for Academic Excellence from the School of
Theology at Claremont.
Jakobsen
replaces acting director Jane Celwyn, director of
Barnard's Office of Career Development, who held
the post in the Fall, and Angela Zito, now associate
professor of anthropology at New York University,
who served as acting director in 1998-1999. From
1991 through 1998, the Center was led by Leslie
Calman, now deputy director of the NOW Legal Defense
and Education Fund.
This
semester, the Center's events include: a discussion
by Marjorie Agosin, winner of the United Nations
Leadership Award for Human Rights, on Feb. 9; a
reading by Natalie Angier, the Pulitzer-Prize winning
New York Times science writer and 1978 Barnard graduate,
on March 2, and Nancy Caldwell Sorel, author of
"The Women Who Wrote the War," on March
9; The Scholar and the Feminist Conference on March
25 on Next Wave Feminism; the Virginia C. Gildersleeve
Conference on April 7 on African Women's Voices
for Change in the New Millennium; and the Rennert
Women in Judaism Forum, on March 30, featuring Israeli
feminist activist Marcia Freedman; and on April
6, featuring a discussion of Jewish Orthodoxy, Tradition,
and Art: Contemporary Feminist Responses.
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