Knight Law School
Faculty Lounge
UO campus

Discussion of Michelle McKinley’s work-in-progress. McKinley is an associate professor of law, UO School of Law, and a member of the CSWS Advisory Board.

Commentators are: Carlos Aguirre, professor of history, University of Oregon; and Barbara Welke, professor, of history and law, University of Minnesota.

For the abstract and chapter, contact: Michelle McKinley, michelle@uoregon.edu

Law professor McKinley’s work on enslaved groups wins NSF grant | Inside Oregon

Michelle McKinley is a CSWS faculty affiliate and member of the CSWS advisory board.

Contexts (Volume 11 / Number 2 / Spring 2012) a publication of the American Sociological Association

“A Feminist’s Work Is Never Done,” an interview with UO professor emerita Joan Acker (Sociology) by Jennifer L. Pierce (University of Minnesota). pp. 8-9

Joan Acker is one of the founders of the Center for the Study of Women in Society.

CSWS Executive Committee member Lynn Stephen recently appeared on the CNN program “Men, Women, Muxe” in the series “The World’s Untold Stories.” Stephen—director of the University of Oregon’s Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies (CLLAS) and distinguished professor of anthropology and ethnic studies—provided background and commentary on the Muxes of Juchitán, Oaxaca. The Muxes are a Zapotec indigenous third gender who have a long history in southern Mexico. Stephen has conducted research on gender and sexuality in southern Mexico and published an article in 2002 on this topic. “Men, Women, Muxe” aired in the United States, Latin America, and Europe during May 2010 and can be viewed on the CNN website in three parts of ten minutes each.

Browsing Room, Knight Library
A moderated talk and book celebration with authors
Sandra Morgen, Joan Acker, and Jill Weigt

Join CSWS and the UO Department of Sociology in a discussion and celebration of the publication of Stretched Thin: Poor Families, Welfare Workers and Welfare Reform. The event will include 10-minute talks by the three authors, followed by a moderated Q & A session.

Published in December by Cornell University Press, the book is based on a three-year, multi-method study of welfare restructuring in Oregon. Stretched Thin gives an “on the ground” account of doing welfare reform from the perspectives of clients, agency workers, and administrators. The authors assess the outcomes and suggest new policies to deal with poverty and economic disparities.

The study, a project of the CSWS Women in the Northwest Research Initiative, was partially funded by CSWS, with other funds from the Oregon Department of Human Resources. Sandra Morgen is associate dean of the UO Graduate School, a professor of anthropology, and former director of CSWS. Joan Acker is professor emerita of the UO Department of Sociology and the first director of CSWS. UO graduate Jill Weigt is associate professor of sociology at California State University-San Marcos.

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women in Society and the UO Department of Sociology.

Professor Lynn Stephen (photo by Michael McDermott)

January 2010—Lynn Stephen was selected as a winner of the 2010 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award from the University of Oregon for contributions to diversity and equity efforts in the university community. Director of the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies (CLLAS) and distinguished professor of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies, Lynn Stephen is also the associate director for program development at CSWS and a member of the CSWS executive committee.

The ceremony was held January 21 in Gerlinger Alumni Lounge.

In total, five UO employees were voted by their peers in the university community to receive the 2010 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award. The others are: John Hollan, University Housing; Janice Radcliffe, physical education and recreation; Larry Seno, Law School; and Melinda Von Reis-Iglesias, undergraduate studies.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Award is given to those who represent and uphold the ideals supported by Dr. King, such as demonstrating moral courage, promoting social justice and embodying a humanitarian spirit. The UO Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, in collaboration with Human Resources, gives the Martin Luther King, Jr. awards.

Joan Acker is one of eight people who will be honored during Lane County’s Sixth Annual Older Americans Month celebration on May 6. The theme this year is “Lane County Honors Older Americans Who Capture the Spirit of Oregon.” Following is the nomination letter submitted by the Center for the Study of Women in Society.

Joan Acker

by Carol Stabile, Director, CSWS

In order to understand how Professor Joan Acker embodies Oregon’s pioneering spirit, one would first have to understand the grounds upon which Joan herself might object to the stories we typically tell about pioneers and the motivations that led them west. For a woman and a feminist to succeed in the university in the 1960s, at a time when female PhDs and professors were the exception rather than the rule, she needed the kind of determination and hard work we typically associate with pioneers. But Joan’s career and activism were not based on a belief in individualism and isolated success—she did not work in order to stake out acreage for herself and people who looked like her. Instead, Joan has consistently worked to create a climate in which diversity is valued, and where differences that make our communities so rich and exciting are cause for inclusion and celebration, rather than for exclusion and the establishment of communities that flourish at the expense of others. Unlike the statue of the Pioneer Woman on the University of Oregon campus, so near to the Center for the Study of Women in Society that Joan helped to establish, Joan Acker is no demure founding mother, but a true pioneer who has taken on challenges directly, with great passion, dedication, and principle.