Marianne Wesson, author of A Death at Crooked Creek, with her pup, Amos. She appeared on the coffee with a canine blog this week.
Read more about the author and her sweet pups here!
NYU Press author Kelly E. Happe weighs in on the Angelina Jolie story, BRCA testing, and the new “previvor.”
Read her blog post here!
[I]t is one thing to protect an individual so that she may actually live with a greater degree of freedom, that is, make our streets safe so that women may walk alone at night. It is another thing entirely to “protect” someone and in so doing to limit their freedom and mobility. We must be careful to distinguish offers of protection that are made in a context that places limitations on women’s freedom. —
Farah Jasmine Griffin. 2001. ‘“Ironies of the Saint”: Malcolm X, Black Women, and the Price of Protection.’ in Bettye Collier-Thomas and V. P. Franklin, eds., Sisters in the Struggle: African American in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement. NYU Press: 217-8. (via james-bliss)
Love this quote. (Psst, check out Sisters in the Struggle here!)
(via feministquotes)
Is South African literature hanging on the edge?
Nearly two decades after the fall of apartheid, what has changed in fact and fiction in South Africa? This Saturday, May 4, the country’s premier writers will descend on the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature to debate literature and free expression in the country. The panel South Africa in Two Acts will feature celebrated authors Zakes Mda, Siphiwo Mahala, and Margie Orford, and will be moderated by Zimbabwean human rights attorney, writer, and PEN American Center President Peter Godwin.
photo of the Drakensberg by darkroomillusions on a CC license
PEN is awesome, and is also featured at NYU! Need to brush up on my South African lit…
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Known for her legal thrillers, University of Colorado law professor Wesson (Chilling Effect) employs her expertise to great effect in this exhaustive study of a famous crime that left its mark on the American legal system…Wesson’s efforts result in a true crime drama that’s well researched, easy to read, and oddly compelling. — Publishers Weekly has posted a review of one our books, A Death at Crooked Creek, by author Marianne Wesson. Give it a look!
While immigrant women who work for themselves may typically conjur up images of nannies and housekeepers, the truth is their businesses are all across the board in areas such as the food industry, manufacturing, engineering, legal services, aerospace and high-tech. —
In a recent Huffington Post article about immigrant women in business, Karin Kamp references our book, Immigration and Women: Understanding the American Experience, by authors Susan Pearce, Elizabeth Clifford, and Reena Tandon. Check it out!

On March 5, NYPD Chief of Detectives Phil Pulaski ordered officers to perform criminal background checks on complaining witnesses as well as alleged perpetrators in domestic violence cases. A police source told the New York Post that reminding women of their open warrants “force[s] them to remain cooperative.” Don’t want to prosecute your partner? You can go to jail instead. — Leigh Goodmark explains the effects of New York City’s new background check policy for victims of domestic abuse.
The current media fascination with women and power, sparked by elaborate controversies over Yahoo executive Marissa Mayer and Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, might seem both disappointing and amusing to the legions of American women engaged in social and political activism during the first decades of the twentieth century. The disappointment is easy to understand. Why, they might ask, after more than 100 years of feminism, are we still disconcerted by women in positions of authority? And why do we still have to confront systemic conflicts between work and family? And why don’t women support each other more, and better? — Melissa Klapper speaks about women’s activism and work through the 19th and 20th-centuries. Check it out!
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What about the global girls? Leela Fernandes speaks about women’s history and the challenges of global politics on our blog.
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Read Andreana Clay’s piece on our blog here.
Who knew Women’s History Month could be so sexy? Not us… Check out the history of girls kissing girls on our blog.
This may seem very far afield from women’s history, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the hookup scene on college campuses—specifically the ways in which parties facilitate women making out with other women (presumably for the pleasure of male onlookers) and in some cases, threesomes between two women and a man—and how this practice might be tied to history. — Leila Rupp explains it all in her piece “Hooking Up as Women’s History”. We’re still blushing!