University of Akron Women's history month roundtable
Friday, March 3rd at noon in the Beirce Library of the University of
Akron
Free and open to the public.
Refreshments provided.
Using the notion of a "cult of True Womanhood," as a focal point for discussion, we have asked six members of the University of Akron and Kent University women's studies faculties to participate in a roundtable open to both graduate and undergraduates. Some of the questions surrounding the notion of a "cult of True Womanhod" we've asked panelists to address include:
(a) What relevance does the "cult of True Womanhood" as Barbara Welter has conceptualized it hold for your research and teaching?
(b) Do you agree with Welter's formulation of the "cult" and to subsequent uses of it to periodize the first half of nineteenth-century U.S. women's history on the basis of it?
(c) Does the "cult" have any applicability outside of U.S. women's history? Is it useful across women's studies' disciplines? Does its class and race-specificity pose unresolvable analytical problems?
(d) Is the "cult" (traditionally conceived) perceptible in contemporary society? Or, would you say that this historically-specific "stereotype" is overused as a framework for analysis of women's lives?
Following refreshments and peach cobbler for dessert, you may want to adjourn with us to nearby Café Momus' for continued conversation and camaraderie.