Academic Affairs. Dean, College Of Liberal Arts And Sciences. Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program (University Of Maine) Records
Scope and Contents
The records contains mostly textual information created and curated by the University of Maine’s Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program (formerly known as the Women's Studies Program), but there are also photographic material and CD ROMs.
The record series Maryann Hartman Award Records contains programs from the award ceremonies, information on the history of the awards (including lists of winners and information on Hartman), and biographical profiles of winners of both the Maryann Hartman Award and Young Women's Social Justice Award, including: photographs, clippings, correspondence, and nomination forms.
The Women's Studies Committee Records includes: lists of committee members, meeting agendas and minutes, course proposals, course assignments, schedules, reports, memorandums, questionnaires, and syllabi. Also, includes material on the Women’s Studies Advisory Council, Women in the Curriculum Advisory Committee, Feminist Scholarship Committee, and Women’s Studies Policy and Curriculum Committee.
The Women's Studies Program Records includes information on the history of the Program, details of a survey sent to UMaine faculty regarding support and interest in a women’s studies program and including women in the curriculum, various proposals for early women's studies courses, correspondence, various research papers & presentations, reference material, committee meeting material, reports, and details of the organization of the Multicultural Women's Studies Institute.
The Spruce Run Records are files from the office of Dr. Ann Schonberger who volunteered at Spruce Run. The files are not a complete history of Spruce Run, just the aspects Schonberger had information on. Includes information on grants and financial support Spruce Run sought, agendas and minutes from Steering Committee meetings, various operational records including contact information, reports, correspondence, client statistics, financial information, membership information, and strategic planning. There are also copies of Spruce Run's newsletter and Hotline publication, various information regarding outreach work, publicity material, and information on the history of Spruce Run, volunteer work programs, and public and community education programs.
The record series Project Records includes material on various projects Women's Studies participated in including Vision 2000.
The Feminist Oral History Project Records are mostly files from the office of Dr. Ann Schonberger, who as well being one of the coordinators of the project also volunteered at Spruce Run, which the project would eventually focus on producing an oral history of. Includes copies of various drafts of chapters from a proposed book on Spruce Run’s history, copies of minutes from project meetings, copies of various presentations given on the project at conferences and events, various information regarding the production and promotion of the play “Somebody Else”, notes, transcripts, and permission forms from individuals interviewed as part of the project, background information regarding the project, Spruce Run, and feminism, and copies of grant applications and reports submitted mostly to the Maine Humanities Council and the University of Maine.
Dates
- Creation: 1970-2016
Creator
- University of Maine. Women in Curriculum Program (Organization)
- University of Maine. Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program (Organization)
- Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
Kept at Fogler Library's offsite storage facility. One week's notice required for retrieval. Personal identifiable and sensitive information will be redacted before release.
Conditions Governing Use
Information on literary rights available in the Raymond H. Fogler Library Special Collections Department.
Biographical / Historical
In the fall of 1975 three UMaine faculty members, Ann Acheson, Jan Kulberg, and Jane Pease, taught the first women’s studies class, “Women in Society”, “an interdisciplinary analysis of women’s roles from an anthropological, sociological, psychological, and historical perspective.” Other courses would follow, but while they counted for credit those who taught the classes were not paid. Similarly to the Women in the Curriculum program (WIC) the push for a women’s studies program (the Interdisciplinary approach to studying women and the social construction of gender) evolved from work spearheaded by Dr. JoAnn Fritsche, Director of Equal Opportunity in developing strategies for the inclusion of women's experiences and perspectives in the educational process. After initially focusing on curriculum development Fritsche moved on to creating a women’s studies program. Fritsche established the Women's Development Program which in addition to curriculum work on campus also formed community projects to meet the needs of local women.
In 1981, with financial support from President Silverman, Fritsche established a committee looking at gender inequity on campus. This work led to the eventual founding of the Women in the Curriculum (WIC) program which by 1986 was institutionalized and fully supported by UMaine. The WIC established a planning committee for women’s studies.
1986 was also the first year the Maryann Hartman Award was given by WIC. The award is given in honor of Hartman who joined UMaine in 1969 and was a faculty member in Speech Communications. The award honors "the spirit, achievement, and zest for life that Hartman epitomized. They recognize distinguished Maine women and their accomplishments in the arts, politics, business, education and community service." Starting in 1995 the award was jointly issued by the WIC and Women's Program (now known as Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program), but since WIC was discontinued it is now given annually by the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program.
In 1988, Evelyn Newlyn was hired by UMaine to create a Women’s Studies program (WST). Newlyn would establish a committee to assist in the development of the program. In 1988-1989 an introduction to women's studies course was offered for the first time with further courses to follow.
In 1989, a WST concentration was approved with the goals to "teach and learn about all women’s experiences, past and present, make women visible in their similarities and differences; value personal experience as a way of knowing, create new knowledge about women and apply it to personal, political, and institutional change,…and empower women by increasing choices in all women’s lives.”
In 1991, University of Maine Mathematics Professor Dr. Ann Schonberger, one of the founders of the Women's Study Program was appointed the Director of the Women’s Studies Program, a title she held until she retired in 2013.
WST would also be instrumental in the establishment of UMaine’s Women's Resource Center in 1992 (which was led by Sharon Barker), together with WIC organized a weekly lunch series, published a newsletter, and organized the Violence Against Women Research Collaborative which would lead to the Safe Campus Project. WST representatives participated in Vision 2000 a collaboration in 1996 and 1997 with representatives from the five land-grant universities in New England to “call to our presidents and chancellors to ensure full and equitable participation by women in the New England Land Grant Universities.”
In 1998, with support from the Libra Foundation, Women's Studies and the Women in the Curriculum implemented a Multicultural Women's Studies Institute. The purpose of the Institute was to enable Women's Studies faculty and the academic community toinclude more multicultural perspectives in the Women's Studies and departmental courses at the University of Maine.
In 2014, Women's Studies became the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program.
The record group also contains material on the organization Spruce Run which Ann Schonberger served on the Steering Committee of and acted as co-chair of the Spruce Run Capital Funds Campaign. University of Maine faculty member Mazie Hough also documented the history of Spruce Run in the Women’s Studies’ Feminist Oral History Project which included interviews of the founders of Spruce Run at a Founders Day in September 1992. Quotations from the event were included in Celeste DeRoche's script for the play “The ‘Somebody Else’ Was Us”. The Feminist Oral History Project founded in 1992 with the support of University of Maine funding to develop a plan to document the feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The Project would go on to focus on Spruce Run and received funding support from the Maine Humanities Council.
Spruce Run was founded in 1972 (incorporated in June 1973) and was the first agency in Maine and only the third in the nation organized specifically to address the issues of battering and battered women. Spruce Run provide counseling, information, and referrals to victims of abuse including both face-to-face and on the phone via the hotline. Spruce Run developed programs to inform the community about family violence and maintain an emergency shelter for abused women and their children. Spruce Run was supported by the State of Maine and United Way and various donations and grants.
Spruce Run is staffed by a mixture of volunteers and staff who are trained in crisis intervention counselling, specifically for the needs of abused women. Spruce Run also has a public education program that includes media and public speaking. Spruce Run also provides training programs for police on domestic violence.
In 1977, Spruce Run helped to found the Maine Coalition of Family Crisis Services made up of nine projects in the state. In 1983, Spruce Run established a shelter in Bangor. In 2013, Spruce Run merged with Womancare and in 2017 they changed their name to Partners for Peace.
Sources: Hough, Mazie. "Transforming the Curriculum on the Way to Transforming the University: The Women in the Curriculum and Women’s Studies Programs" and "Women's Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program", University of Maine, https://umaine.edu/womensgenderandsexualitystudies/about-us/.
Extent
14 boxes
2 boxes (Cassette tape boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The records contain information on the Maryann Hartman Award, Women's Studies Committee, Women's Studies Program, Spruce Run, and on various Women's Studies projects.
Arrangement
The Records Group is broken down intellectually into the following record series: 1. Maryann Hartman Award Records, 2. Women's Studies Committee Records, 3. Women's Studies Program Records, 4. Spruce Run Records, 5. Project Records, and 6. Feminist Oral History Project Records.
The Spruce Run Records are secondary arranged by the subseries 1. Grant & Funding Support Records, 2. Committee Records, 3. Operation Records, 4. Newsletters & Hotline, 5. Outreach & History Records, 6. Work Program Records, and 7. Public & Community Education Records.
The Feminist Oral History Project Records are secondary arranged by the subseries 1. Book Drafts, 2. Meeting Records, 3. Presentations, 4. Some Else Records, 5. Interview Records, 6. Subject Files, and 7. Grant Records.
Physically the Maryann Hartman Award Records are arranged both by subject and alphabetically by last name of the award winners. The Women's Studies Committee Records are arranged in chronological order. The Women's Studies Program Records, Spruce Run Records, Project Records, and Feminist Oral History Project Records are all arranged by subject.
Some file names were changed to make them more meaningful and to correct errors. Material was separated and divided into multiple sub-folders where necessary. Material was rehoused into archival quality storage where necessary.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Boxes 1-3 were transferred to Special Collections as part of Accession #2017-0616 by University of Maine associate professor Dr. Mazie Hough who teaches in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program.
Boxes 4 & 5 were transferred to Special Collections as part of Accession #2017-0807 by Laurie Cartier, Administative Specialist at The Rising Tide Center, Department of Sociology, and Women's Gender & Sexuality Studies.
Boxes 6-8 were transferred to Special Collections as part of Accession 2017-0526 by University of Maine associate professor Dr. Mazie Hough who teaches in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. Most of the records were from the office of Dr. Ann Schonberger who as well being the former director of the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Maine and a faculty emerita member with the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Program also volunteered at Spruce Run as a member of the group's Steering Committee and co-chair of the Spruce Run Capital Funds Campaign.
Boxes 9-12 were transferred to Special Collections as part of Accession 2018-0320 by Emily Haddad, Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The records were from the files of former University of Maine faculty member Dr. Ann Schonberger.
Box 10 Folder 14 & Boxes 13 & 14 were transferred to Special Collections as part of accession #2019-0819 by by UMaine faculty member Dr. Mazie Hough who now teaches in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program and was formerly part of the Women in the Curriculum.
Boxes 15 & 16 were transferred to Special Collections on 2018-0626 by Laurie Cartier, Administative Specialist at The Rising Tide Center, Department of Sociology, and Women's Gender & Sexuality Studies.
Appraisal
The processing archivist disposed of duplicate copies of items including publicity material, reports and Steering Committee meeting material.
Separated Materials
The Feminist Oral History Project release forms and transcript from Box 11 Folder 10 have been physically transferred to the Maine Folklife Center's Feminist Oral History Project records, MF 223, Accession #2018-06-27.
Bibliography
"Women's Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program", University of Maine, https://umaine.edu/womensgenderandsexualitystudies/about-us/ (accessed August 2017).
Processing Information
Boxes 1-8 were processed in August 2017, boxes 9-12 in April 2018, and boxes 13 & 14 by Matthew Revitt and student worker Julia Haberstick, Raymond H. Fogler Library Special Collections Department. Processing involved a collection survey and intellectual arrangement into series and the creation of this finding aid. The material was rehoused into appropriate archival folders (where needed) and the boxes and folders numbered and titled added using information from ArchivesSpace.
Source
- Schonberger, Ann, Dr. (Person)
- Hough, Mazie (Person)
- Haddad, Emily (Person)
Subject
- University of Maine. Women's Resource Center (Organization)
- Hartman, Maryann (Person)
- University of Maine. Women Studies Committee (Organization)
Genre / Form
- Application forms
- Awards
- Clippings
- Correspondence
- Interviews
- Newsletters
- Oral histories
- Proposals
- Records
- Reports
- Surveys
- Transcripts
Topical
- Title
- University of Maine. Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program Records
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Matthew Revitt
- Date
- August 30, 2017
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English.
- Edition statement
- Revised in April and August 2018 and October 19 to include newly accessioned material.
Repository Details
Part of the Raymond H. Fogler Library University Archives Repository
5729 Raymond H. Fogler Library
University of Maine
Orono ME 04469-5729 United States
207-581-1686