Katie Bowman by Tiffany Gerber
Katie Bowman is an Eau Claire native. She grew up in the town of Washington. Bowman received her B.A. in English literature, with a minor in women’s studies from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in the spring of 2006, and her M.A. in women’s studies from Minnesota State University in Mankato, Minn., in the spring of 2008. She taught at Michigan State University during the 2008 fall semester as an adjunct faculty member after she graduated. Bowman then took a job under Susan Turell as adjunct in the women’s studies department. She currently is teaching women’s studies 210, Culture of Third Wave Feminism.
As a child, Bowman did not see herself as becoming a feminist. She grew up in a middle-class community surrounded by privilege. Bowman did not have a sudden “a-ha” moment that made her change her mind; she describes it as a process. While in her teens, Bowman began to listen to rebellious, anti-establishment musicians. “Music really helped me to see things I hadn’t seen before, that had been invisible to me,” Bowman said. She began to make connections about social injustice. When she came to UW-Eau Claire, she immediately immersed herself in women’s studies courses and became president of the College Feminists. Bowman is now a committed feminist and brings that perspective to every aspect of her education and career.
Bowman believes feminism today is surrounded by the notion around the importance of the individual. “We are moving towards an understanding of feminism that is inclusive, that doesn’t feel like a white girl’s only club anymore,” Bowman said, adding that it is more than an understanding, it’s also a celebration of diversity.
Bowman’s experience as a student and now as an adjunct faculty member here at UW-EC has been extremely positive. She cannot say enough good things about the women’s studies program here. The UW-EC women’s studies program embraces activism and encourages academics, which helped Bowman to craft her feminist ideologies. Thinking back to the start of the women’s studies minor and the growth of the minor into a major, Bowman believes it “illustrates there is a need and a want for women’s studies,” she said. She looks forward to the day when the women’s studies department begins to incorporate graduate work into the program.
Carol Fairbanks by Tiffany Gerber
Carol Fairbanks grew up in a small comfortable town in upstate New York. Her mother, along with her three aunts, taught in nearby schools and influenced Fairbanks on various levels. Fairbanks “grew up with the notion of political advocacy, that you could make things happen and that you didn’t have to accept the situation” one was in, she said. She learned this lesson from her mother who advocated for the separation of grades in Fairbanks elementary school. Fairbanks graduated from high school and decided to be the first and only female from her graduating class to continue on with her education. Fairbanks received her B.A. from the University of Michigan, her M.A. at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in English and she received her Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Minnesota.
In 1971, Fairbanks was hired by the UW-Eau Claire to teach three African-American literature courses. When she began teaching, she was able to see the larger role she needed to take on in the feminist movement. She joined the NOW chapter in Eau Claire and subscribed to several feminist publications. She also geared her scholarly work to African American literature and published several books and articles. Fairbanks also joined Women in Higher Education within the UW system. The group shared ideas, concerns and frustrations about being a women and working in the UW system.
When Fairbanks and several other individuals wanted to incorporate women’s studies to UW-EC, the best excuse the administration came up with to not incorporate the program was because there was not enough room in the course catalogue, Fairbanks said. It took the administration two years to begin to incorporate women’s studies courses, the first being Women in Contemporary Literature. Making room in the course catalogue was only one of the hurdles they had to overcome. Developing courses was also a difficult hurdle to jump. Fairbanks remembers members of certain departments who did not see the need for a women’s studies course. However by 1972, there were three women’s studies courses offered at UW-EC. After establishing itself on campus, the women’s studies department named Fairbanks its coordinator from 1977-1979. She took a leave of absence in 1979 to finish her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. Besides teaching at UW-EC, she has also taught in Japan at Sophia University.
Since retirement, Fairbanks has been able to involve herself in community events and programming. She is involved with the L.E. Phillips Senior Center, supervises an after school homework club for students, and works with Hmong students at Locus Lane Elementary School. In 2004, Fairbanks was inducted into the UW-EC Alumni Hall of Fame.
Dr. Susan Turell by Megan Cherrier, WMNS 490
Dr. Susan C. Turell was born on July 10, 1956 in Cleveland, Ohio to a Jewish family. Four years later she moved to Houston, Texas where she resided throughout her childhood years. She feels that being Jewish is not just about religion, but it is about culture as well. Her family and community encouraged her to pursue an education and embrace Jewish values which remain a source of strength for her. Turell earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from the University of Texas and a Master’s degree in counseling from the University of Houston before earning a Ph.D. from the University of Houston in counseling in 1992.
Turell credits her Jewish upbringing with introducing her to social justice concerns. Community members in the Houston suburb of Meyerland where she grew up welcomed all people with diverse viewpoints. Growing up during the 1960s-1970s, Turell witnessed a great deal of discrimination in other social settings, although she noted that she did not have the language to understand the dynamics of oppression until she was a college student. Turell credits her grandmother, a progressive thinker, feminist, and life-long learner with teaching her feminist insights. Turell further developed her feminist values and knowledge of feminism when at 26, she worked at the Houston Area Women’s Center in Texas. From this beginning, Turell has become a leading activist and academic voice working to promote social change through feminism, particularly in efforts to prevent violence against women. Turell spent ten years at the University of Houston-Clear Lake and six years as the Coordinator of the women’s studies program and as a professor in women’s studies and psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire before becoming the Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean of Undergraduate Education, a position she assumed in summer 2008.
Living as a feminist makes a big difference in Turell’s life. She thinks that great achievements have resulted from feminist work in the past 40 years but she also believes that there is much more to be done. She is encouraged by the gains women have made in areas such as access to employment and by society’s greater awareness of rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and abuse. On the other hand, she believes that we still live in a patriarchal world, where the current system for preventing violence against women does not always work. Turell wants things to change and envisions a future where women will gain control over their reproductive lives and sexualities and imagines a world where more women will occupy equitable positions in the workforce. Turell is committed to being part of the change she wants to see by encouraging people not to be afraid of everything feminism entails—“it is not just about women” but all the ways people may face discrimination because of race, ethnicity, social class, sexuality and/or other layers of their social identities.
Dr. Kaying Xiong by Emily Wievel, WMNS 490
Not many women can tell the story that Dr. Kaying Xiong has actually lived. Kaying Xiong was born August 23, 1972, in Long Cheng, Laos, during the Vietnam War. She immigrated to the United States with her family in 1978, when she was only six years old. The family had left Laos to travel to Thailand, leaving with thousands of other refugees. The family lived in Illinois before moving to Wisconsin, finally calling Eau Claire home. Xiong was young when her family moved here, but she can clearly remember what it felt like to make a new life in a country where she was not born.
The early 1980s in Eau Claire was not the easiest environment for a Hmong family. Racism, intolerance, and language barriers were among some of the obstacles faced by Xiong and her family. For example, Xiong remembers as a child not playing outside, as her parents were more than a little scared about their young children being victimized for being different, for being a minority in a town of majorities. Xiong explained, “Being a minority in a town like Eau Claire, you always feel inferior. Period.”
As the second oldest child with three brothers and five sisters, Xiong felt a strong family bond growing up, and the family was very tight knit. Xiong grew up in a strict but loving household, and remembers her parents instilling and teaching the ethics of hard work and determination. They only had each other, and Xiong remembers not feeling very connected to the neighborhood she grew up in, although she felt differently about the community. She remembers her mother going to adult language classes at the Parks and Recreation, and to Savior’s Lutheran Church where her mother could get second hand clothing for the always growing kids in the family.
Now after earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary education at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a master’s degree in educational administration from UW-Superior, and a doctorate in education at Hamline University, Xiong is the principal of Locust Lane Elementary School, a job that she loves and has worked hard to get to. Xiong said that race played a significant role in shaping who she was—she was forced to learn survival skills to get through life and school, so that she could find educational opportunities to exercise her full potential and get where she wanted to be. “To move yourself ahead is really one of the only ways to outlive some of those things,” Xiong said about being discriminated against. Xiong has worked to find balance in her life—balance between family, career, education, and being a Hmong woman. She embodies feminist ideals in a calm and comforting way—with shaping her struggles into lessons, being an educated and successful career woman, taking care of her three children and husband, and making it all look seamless.
Dr. Rose-Marie Avin by Laura Jones, WMNS 490
Dr. Rose-Marie Avin describes herself as a Caribbean American descendent of slaves who was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Her upbringing in Haiti, including the treatment of the servants in her home and the climate that existed during a time of despotism in her home country, remain significant memories that inform her life today.
She speaks of strong role models during her childhood, including her mother and her aunt who taught her that, “Education is so important, it is important to get that degree.” Avin understood at a young age her responsibility to be educated and she graduated Summa Cum Laude from City University of New York in 1978 and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1986. Moving forward in economics, a field traditionally dominated by men, Dr. Avin came to University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in a tenure-track faculty position in 1987.
Avin’s introduction to Nicaraguan women’s movements in 1989 became a turning point for her as she discovered the power of feminism. Affected by her journeys and interactions with women in Nicaragua after the revolution, Avin discovered a new framework through the empowerment of these women that has enhanced her own scholarly work as well as her approaches to teaching economics. In 1992 she attended an “overflowing” conference session on feminism and economics and also began a relationship with the women’s studies program that led to her teaching classes and helping to coordinate an annual conference on feminist economics that explores the impact of women, who were previously invisible in traditional economic studies. When asked about her beliefs within feminism, Avin remarked, “I strongly believe in the activist side of feminism. I believe that one of my goals, as a feminist economist, is to eliminate the conditions of women in the developing world.”
Avin has received a Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Award and The Morton Wollman Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Study in Economics. She is also a member of the American Association of University Women, the Center for Latin America at UW-Milwaukee, the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, the International Association for Feminist Economists (IAFFE) and The Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua (WCCN).
Barbara Blackdeer-Mackenzie by Tiffany Gerber
Barbara Blackdeer-Mackenzie grew up in La Crosse, Wis. in a small, rural community. Coming from a dual ethnic background, Blackdeer-Mackenzie grew up in Norwegian, “white” ways as well as traditional Ho-Chunk ways, she said. Both of her parents were politically active within their community, and displayed strong democratic beliefs, influencing Blackdeer-Mackenzie in many ways, both spiritually and mentally.
After high school, Blackdeer-Mackenzie received her B.A. at Winona State University in Communications and History, and she received her masters in education and professional development at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Blackdeer-Mackenzie is currently working on her education specialist degree at Winona State University.
Blackdeer-Mackenzie worked for the Ho-Chunk Nation from 1995-1998, and again in 2000-2001. She was a practicing journalist and public relations person to the presidential staff at Ho-Chunk Nation. It was while she was working for her tribe that she decided to help educate future journalists, to make sure Native Americans are correctly represented within the media.
Blackdeer-Mackenzie came to UW-Eau Claire as the Knight Journalist in Residence through the communication and journalism department. And soon after began to teach several communication and journalism, women’s studies and American Indian studies courses, from 2001-2004. While teaching, she realized the courses were lacking in training students to understand different cultures, and how to focus their education using a multicultural approach.
Blackdeer-Mackenzie received the Excellence of Service-Learning as Faculty Mentor award in 2002. In 2006, she received the UW System Outstanding Women of Color in Education award.
“It was just so amazing and for the first time in my life, and I do mean my entire life, I felt like I belonged to a community, because here was all of these women from around the state honored by the UW Systems and their different universities ... doing all these different works in different ways to help people, to help students,” Blackdeer-Mackenzie said.
Blackdeer-Mackenzie also organizes the First Nation New Nation conference, which brings together the greater Hmong community and the media.
Dr. David Jones by Abby Vercauteren, WMNS 490
Dr. David Jones was born on Oct. 20, 1963 in Omaha., Neb The youngest of four children, Jones was raised primarily by his mother. While he was in middle and high school, efforts were underway to racially integrate the public school system,,which presented challenges to Jones as an African American student, but also offered him valuable insights into the various systems of inequality that exist in society.
After completing an English education degree at the University of Iowa, Jones finished a graduate program at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in 1990 and moved to Minneapolis, where he taught part time and also served as a program assistant and activity advisor at the University of St. Thomas and Minneapolis Community College. In 1994, Jones began a doctorate program in literature and African American studies at the University of Minnesota, which he completed in 2000.
Shortly after receiving his Doctoral Degree, David began his career at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. During his nine years at UW-Eau Claire, he has taught both undergraduate and graduate level English courses, as well as six women’s studies courses. Although each women’s studies course has been different, all have been umbrella designs under the course African American Feminism in the Humanities. Specific courses have addressed issues such as black women in American film and sexism during the 1960s. By teaching in both English and women’s studies, Jones has helped bridge the gap between humanities and social sciences. Through his utilization of teaching methods that incorporate music and mass media imagery, he also has offered women’s studies courses a perspective informed by contemporary culture. In addition to teaching, Jones has written numerous essays about African American feminism and is part of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which addresses domestic violence in African American families.
During his time at UW-EC, Jones has witnessed growing interest in women’s studies and feminism. He believes that women’s studies courses offer students an opportunity for personal growth and activism, as well as an educational perspective that is a necessary component of a liberal arts education. Although the feminist movement has made great progress in recent years, Jones believes that forming more inclusive coalitions is a necessary component for further success. Inspired by feminists such as June Jordan and Angela Davis, as well as the strength of his own mother, Jones has succeeded in finding his own voice in feminism, the uniqueness of which has offered an invaluable perspective to the women’s studies program.
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