Women’s Work: Nationalism and Contemporary African American Women’s Novels

Women’s Work: Nationalism and Contemporary African American Women’s Novels

by Courtney Thorsson

University of Virginia Press (June 2013 )240 pages

Publisher’s Synopsis

Courtney Thorsson is an assistant professor, Department of English.

Author

Courtney Thorsson

Publication

2013

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CSWS Noon Talk: Gretchen Nihill

"Signaling Safety for Women of Color: The Importance of Precision in Addressing Intersecting Identity Threat" – Researchers have historically underestimated the effects of racial prejudice on women of color due to the androcentric nature in which we think about social categories. For example, when we think about Black people, Black men come more easily to mind than Black women.

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CSWS Noon Talk: Yuan Fang

“Mirror, Mirror, Who Held the Power After All?”: Rethinking Sex and Gender in Ancient China through the Lens of Bronze Mirrors – In Chinese archaeology, bronze mirrors are often interpreted as distinctly feminine objects associated with beauty, domesticity, and women’s spaces. These assumptions extend beyond the artifacts themselves, shaping how archaeologists interpret entire burials. Mirrors, hairpins, and ornaments are used to assign female identity to the deceased, while weapons or inkstones are taken as clear signs of masculinity.

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"Love and Reproductive Struggles: A Feminist Politics of Care" – CSWS Jane Grant Dissertation Fellow Rhiannon Lindgren argues in her research that the ambiguity of caring labor – that it can both secure and oppose the reproduction of dominating social relations – demands a renewed feminist politics to confront global capitalism, white supremacy, and imperialism. In this Noon Talk, Lindgren will focus on the second half of her dissertation, which she wrote during her fellowship year.

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May 19, 2025

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Four CSWS affiliates — Lana Lopesi, Adell Amos, Corrine Bayerl, and Amanda Wojick — have been selected to win this year’s Distinguished Teaching Awards, which recognize exceptional teaching at the University of Oregon.

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Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS)

Women’s Work: Nationalism and Contemporary African American Women’s Novels

CSWS Noon Talk: Gretchen Nihill

CSWS Noon Talk: Yuan Fang

CSWS Noon Talk: Rhiannon Lindgren

Affiliates win 2025 UO Distinguished Teaching Awards

CSWS to take part in 2025 Ducks Give

2025-26 CSWS research grant awards announced