Deciding against planting an acorn is not the moral equivalent of chopping down an oak tree

Historiann realizes that she’s been blogging a lot about lady parts recently –my apologies for those of you who don’t have lady parts, or who aren’t particularly interested in getting close to anyone else’s lady parts.  Blame the wandering uterus, if you must, but if you’ve been following the ridiculous public conversation recently on Gardasil, the miracle anti-cancer vaccine that can benefit our students, younger sisters, daughters, granddaughter... more

Who says Republicans don’t like Affirmative Action–not the real kind, where you have to consider all qualified applicants, but Republican-style, where they don’t have to have any academic qualifications at all?  They’ve been highly successful at assuming the top jobs in Colorado universities with thinner C.V.’s than even our lowliest adjuncts.  The sole finalist to lead the University of Colorado (known locally as “CU”) is a multi-millionair... more

As in other history subfields, there is a great deal of contemporary interest in biography among women’s historians.  At the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women this year, we have two panels, a workshop, and a seminar on women’s biography and feminist autobiography, with a total of 32 scholars presenting their work or commenting on the proceedings (program available here ).  When we announced that a seminar on women’s history and biography would b... more

…it’s going to be a bumpy night.”  Well, I’ll be up late tonight watching the returns from the Florida Republican primary.  (Here’s hoping that primary season ends with a bang a week from today.) I once taught a four year-old to say that line with pitch-perfect Margo Channing delivery, after she tossed back apple juice from a martini glass.  It was almost as funny as re-enacting with her the scene at the end of Chinatown where Faye Dunaway get... more