Graduate Group for Feminist Studies papers

Collection — Box: 1-6

Identifier: 14-5-1057

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Graduate Group for Feminist Studies collection in divided into three series:

Organizational information contains the administrative documents of the Graduate Group for Feminist Studies. This includes financial information, meeting notes, and group correspondence; as well as proposed projects and publications. This series also contains the preliminary planning of the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender.

Events contains documentation of events that GGFS sponsored or co-sponsored. This includes film festivals, seminars, lectures, symposiums and other events. This series also includes an oversize folder containing large event posters. GGFS saved papers submitted for review to the Biennial Symposium; however only papers that were accepted for presentation were retained with the collection.

Affiliates contains contextual information about affiliated organizations both in the University community and the Buffalo community. This series includes a significant amount of documentation from UB's "Personal Safety Committee" and the "Erie County Commission on the Status of Women."

Dates

1986-1997

Creator

State University of New York at Buffalo. Graduate Group for Feminist Studies (Organization)

Language of Materials

Collection material in English.

Terms of Access

The Graduate Group for Feminist Studies papers, 1986-1997 are open for research.

Copyright

Copyright of papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the University Archives before publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Most papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures unless otherwise specified.

Historical Note

The Graduate Group for Feminist Studies (GGFS) was founded in 1986 at University at Buffalo by an interdisciplinary group of scholars whose goal was to eventually establish a university-wide institute.

The GGFS sponsored and co-sponsored many events promoting interdisciplinary feminist scholarship. They sponsored women's film festivals, most notably "Screenplay" in 1988 and "Reverse Shot" in 1992. A wide range of lecturers and performance artists came to town with the help of GGFS funding, including Faith Ringgold, who spoke at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in 1989. Regular Work-in-Progress seminars featured the work of graduate students and faculty at UB. In 1990, GGFS organized a Forum on Violence to address urgent safety concerns on campus.

They also organized three Biennial Symposiums on New Feminist Scholarship starting in 1988. These symposiums highlighted the work of recent Ph.D.'s from around the world and allowed members of the Buffalo and the University communities to hear work on the cutting edge of feminist scholarship. The objective was to facilitate conversation between feminists from different disciplines in order to conserve feminism's political force in an academic sphere ruled by division and specialization.

GGFS was a member of the National Council for Research on Women and was engaged with like-minded activist organizations in the University and Buffalo communities. They produced and distributed a monthly newsletter providing information about resources available to members of the UB community, upcoming events at UB and Buffalo, and nationwide, and research and study opportunities. They also published a Feminist Scholarship Directory each semester that compiled contact information for Buffalo scholars doing feminist and gender-related work.

Co-directors of the group included Professors Ben Agger, Suzanne Buchanan, Ellen DuBois, Hester Eisenstein, Margaret Holland, Carolyn Korsmeyer, Isabel Marcus, Melissa Ragona, Sheila Slaughter, Margarita Vargas, Carol Zemel.

Many of the faculty and graduate students who devoted their time to GGFS were involved in the planning and proposals for the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender (IREWG). In 1997, IREWG was approved, at which time GGFS retired its "group" name and expanded its opportunities as an institution.

Extent

4.17 Linear Feet (6 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box)

Additional Description

Abstract

The records of the Graduate Group for Feminist Studies (GGFS), which was established in 1986 and disbanded in 1997. Records detail their administrative functioning, event planning and participation, as well as University at Buffalo and community networking.