Cartoonists Panel at Bryn Mawr
November 28th, 2006 | Uncategorized
Hey, on Thursday I’m going to be near Philadelphia, on a panel at Bryn Mawr College’s Center for Visual Culture. Jessica Abel, Gabrielle Bell, Lauren Weinstein and me will be discussing “New Frontiers in Cartooning and Graphic Novels.” The event is free and open to the public, at 8pm in Thomas Great Hall.
I love them Bryn Mawr women. I used to live in a household full of them, one of whom was my girlfriend.
24 Responses to “Cartoonists Panel at Bryn Mawr”
Bryn Mawr has a longtime feminist and left presence.Pres. M.Carey Thomas,a lesbian luminary, was an active suffragist. In the 30s and 40s they hosted the Summer School for Working Women,designed to give working class women both a taste of liberal arts & campus life as well as skills to become union organizers.They studied everything from Marxist theory to modern dance.In turn the B.M.C. women offered support to strikers and other left causes. The excellent film The Women of Summer tells their story. Consumer advocate Esther Peterson was a major organizer of the SSWW.
They also have an excellent grad.social work program. (No,I didn’t go there, but have taught American Women’s History and Historical and Contempory Issues of Women and Work.)
My alma mater! Have fun!
Have a great time!
I love Bryn Mawr! My father-in-law was the librarian there (maybe he interviewed Mo?). And I grew up just down the road a bit, in Ardmore.
Yay, Bryn Mawr! When I was a student there in the 1980s, the BMC newspaper carried DTWOF. I heard it was the first college newspaper in the country to do so. Is that true, Alison? Have fun in PA–I wish I could be at your panel (and to all you Mawrtyrs reading–a big anasikata!).
Yeah, that Graduate School of Social Work at Bryn Mawr really rocks…or so I’ve heard. I would love to go Thursday night. I would have to cancel some other plans but I hate to miss it…hm for me? Let me know.
Thanks
Aunt Soozie
Oh, what happened here? that was supposed to say…
“does anyone wanna babysit Thursday night or see some clients for me? Let me know”…etc.
katharine hepburn went to bryn mawr…
We can’t wait for you at Bryn Mawr!
Robin: Yes, the college news does still run to DTWOF–I’m one of the editors 🙂
Cybercita-I’ve got a couple of Hepburn biographies around here and there are lots of juicy details of her days at Bryn Mawr-one I know of is simply titled “Katharine Hepburn” and is by Barbara Leaming-highly reccomend it. That gal was a wild child-know she had her share of affairs with men, but if she wasn’t one of us, she should’ve been!
I started reading DTWO4 in the campus newspaper when I was a student at Bryn Mawr, in the early ’90s. Yay BMC.
And we Mawrtyrs love Alison. I was co-editor of the Bryn Mawr College News somewhere around 1989-1990. Back in those days before it was easy to send fancy graphics via the Internet it was great fun to receive an envelope from Alison and be among the first to see the new strip.
I just checked out the Bryn Mawr College News online (http://www.brynmawr.edu/orgs/cnews/) and was glad to see that the Ms Hank advice columns still end with “Death to the Patriarchy.”
Anasikata!
I was homeless when I was two or three (around 1972)—but lucky enough to find temporary shelter in the basement of the church to which my parents belonged—because Bryn Mawr college didn’t renew my father’s contract. He was an assistant professor—apparently he had been given assurances that he would be renewed for another year—but (so the story goes) his conservative views antagonized various important people and he was rather abruptly let go. Quite suddenly, he lost not only his income but also the faculty housing in which we were living. There were five children, my little brother having just been born, and so the situation was quite bad. As far as I can remember I found living in the basement, which was quite without facilities, kind of exciting—but I guess it was hard on my parents.
A really wonderful woman, who was a parishioner at the church, allowed us to live in her home for a few months while my father regained his financial footing. She’s dead now, but I found out only very recently that at that time she was working at Bryn Mawr as a secretary to the Dean. We were cast out by the institution, but taken in by one of its functionaries.
I grew up in a family which maintained a complicated posture of mixed hostility and friendliness toward Bryn Mawr, depending on which aspect of the place they were thinking of at the time. We lived only a few miles away, so the college could not be entirely forgotten.
I’m very sorry to hear about family’s situation,anony-epony,but it is very unusual for someone to be fired for being too conservative.I’m glad that kind woman helped out your family. Those of us on the left were and are much more at risk.For example,the Summer School for Women Workers I mentioned in an earlier post lost funding during the post-WWII McCarthy era. Many leftists and/or feminists lost jobs in the 60s and 70s as well.
Three years ago,it happened to me; like Ginger,right-wing students harassed me about having guest speakers who challenged their narrow world-view. Despite my excellent record,increased enrollment,fine scholarship,appeals to the union,etc.,I was terminated.It also didn’t help that like so many at community colleges these days,I was an adjunct. I didn’t lose my house,but have been unable to find work in women’s studies since then,which has caused me enormous grief.
anonymous-eponymous, how fortunate that you had someone to take in your family after your father’s reversal. the story you told is touching, especially the complicated mixture of hostility and friendliness in your family.
Feminista, I’m sorry to hear that you were a causalty in the war against alternative world views. maybe, in time, you’ll find work again in women’s studies . . . and at a more worthy institution? best of luck w/it!
Feminista…doesn’t PSU have a Women’s Studies program? I seem to remember taking my Domestic Violence class from that department…..
I didn’t mean to imply that my father was fired. In an academic setting it is much more usual for your contract not to be renewed and that was what happened. The key point is not that my father didn’t get his contract renewed as Bryn Mawr is certainly within its rights not to re-hire.
He was misled into believing that the contract would be renewed and that the signing of the forms was just a formality and then quite suddenly told that he didn’t have a job. If the people who made the decision had had the requisite amount of compassion and foresight they would, at least, have given some forewarning.
Had I been twelve at that time and in full ironic mode I would have been saying something like, “Didn’t these people just form a graduate school of social work? Are they trying to make sure their students get jobs when they graduate? Is my baby brother supposed to grow up with nutritional deficiencies, my older brother go off to a life of petty crime, me become a crack whore, just so they can have a thriving program?” At twelve I was getting a big kick out of the hypocrisy I perceived in others, although now I see more nuance. It is true that my father alienates a lot of people. Now that he has achieved considerable eminence in his field it’s more their problem than his, but back when he was a struggling young professor it was more his and our problem than theirs.
I am well aware that when I myself go out looking for a job the “not a good fit” problem may crop up a lot. That is such a wonderful umbrella term under which all sorts of sexist, homophobic, political, etc. sentiments can hide.
Hey, how nice to see a bunch of BMC alums posting. Ah, the College News – the original Ms. Hank (class of 1986) still leaves nearby, by the way. I first learned of DTWOF from a fellow Mawrtyr, when I was interning at “off our backs”, also one of the early papers to carry the strip, and a hotbed of Mawrtyrs.
I hope lots of Mawrtyrs are at the talk tonight, and that someone warns Alison about the dreadful acoustics in Thomas Great Hall!
Great to see all the mawrtyrs here, and great to see Alison moving up in the world (literally) from Thomas 110, where I saw her speak when I was at BMC (97-01), to the Great Hall.
Another Mawrter to the Cause (hi, Nif, I was wondering if that was you).
Am a little disappointed to be missing Alison at the alma mater, when I missed her _twice_ coming through Seattle. Phbbt.
When I was a dewey-cheeked young thing who had yet to hear the word “bisexual” and still responded to “lesbian” with the visceral sense it was an insult, I occiasionally read the qeer paper in Minneapolis and will never forget the very first strip I saw – the one described several threads ago with the dykes all going to Pride in a diner with the cowboy gay men. It was great.
I remember that strip! The cowboys ask if Mo and Harriet and co. are on their way to Pride, and Harriet raises her fork and says something like, “Yeah, what’s it to you?” Meanwhile, Mo imagines a newspaper headlined “Coed stabs homophobe in HoJos.” I didn’t get it at the time, because I didn’t know what HoJos was.
My wife’s a Mawrtyr from the early 90s! And a large chunk of our friends and family are her former classmates. They keep telling me I’m an honorary Mawrtyr. Not sure I believe them; I’m not nearly as well-educated.
Alas that we’re in New England now; it’d be awfully fun to see you at BMC, Alison.
Jessica Abel, Gabrielle Bell, Lauren Weinstein and me will be … should be Jessica Abel, Gabrielle Bell, Lauren Weinstein and *I* will be
Bonjour! What a super websight! Very refreshing to peruse from where we live in Paris (France). I eat frogs and drink wine. Woold like more informatons on this. Best regards! Mikael.