Faculty Works ----- This page is currently being revised.

All books by UConn authors can be ordered from the UConn Co-Op Bookstore.

Usually, the bookstore can have faculty books autographed for you.

Margaret Breen - Professor of English and Women's Studies

Mary Crawford - Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies

Practicing Perfection: Memory and Piano Performance
Mary Crawford, Roger Chaffin & Gariela Imreh
The memory feats of famous musicians seem almost superhuman. Can such extraordinary accomplishments be explained by the same principles that account for more ordinary, everyday memory abilities? To find out, a concert pianist videotaped her practice as she learned a new piece for performance, the third movement, Presto, of the Italian Concerto by J.S. Bach. The story of how the pianist went about learning, memorizing and polishing the piece is told from the viewpoints of the pianist (the second author) and of a cognitive psychologist (the first author) observing the practice. The counterpoint between these insider and outsider perspectives is framed by the observations of a social psychologist (the third author) about how the two viewpoints were reconciled. The CD that accompanies the book provides for yet another perspective, allowing the reader to hear the polished performance. Written for both psychologists and musicians, the book provides the first detailed description of how an experienced pianist organizes her practice, identifying stages of the learning process, characteristics of expert practice, and practice strategies. The main focus, however, is on memorization. An analysis of what prominent pianists of the past century have said about memorization reveals considerable disagreement and confusion. Using previous work on expert memory as a starting point, the authors show how principles of memory developed by cognitive psychologists apply to musical performance and uncover the intimate connection between memorization and interpretation.

Innovations in Feminist Psychological Research
Mary Crawford (Editor) & Ellen B. Kimmel (Editor)

Coming Into Her Own: Encouraging Educational Success in Girls and Women Sara N. Davis (Editor), Mary Crawford (Editor) & Jadwiga Sebrechts

Françoise Dussart - Associate Professor of Anthropology and Women's Studies

Françoise Dussart The Politics of Ritual in an Aboriginal Settlement: Kinship, Gender and the Currency of Knowledge The Warlpiri of the Central Australian Desert maintain links to each other and to their lands in ritual performances that recreate the Dreaming itineraries of Ancestral Beings, such as Fire, Water, the Honey Ant, or the Emu. Each Warlpiri "owns" at least one Dreaming, but the performances of Dreaming stories are generally overseen by ritual leaders who ensure their proper reenactment. Drawing on a decade of fieldwork at the Yuendumu settlement, Françoise Dussart shows how female ritual leaders transcend the rigid physical divisions that separate them from their male counterparts and how they function simultaneously as individuals, as women, as Warlpiri, and as members of residential kin groups.

Margaret R. Higonnet - Professor of English and Women's Studies

Nurses at the Front: Writing the Wounds of the Great War Presents a collection of women's writings from World War I by a diverse group of citizens, soldiers, nurses, journalists, activists, wives, and mothers, whose lives were altered by the war. Margaret R. Higonnet Professor of English and Women's Studies

Lines of Fire: Women Writers of World War I Lines of Fire is the most comprehensive collection of women's writing from the First World War. Its authors are remarkable and diverse group--citizens, soldiers, nurses, journalists, activists, wives and mothers--whose lives were emotionally, economically, and spiritually altered by this devastating war. From incisive political treatises to gripping medical accounts, diary entries, poetry, and stunning visual art, Lines of Fire vividly captures the spirit and passion of the women who lived through this divisive time in our history, and enriches our understanding of the twentieth century's Great War. Margaret R. Higonnet Professor of English and Women's Studies

Girls, Boys, Books, Toys Margaret B. Higonnet (Editor) and Beverly Lyon Clark (Editor) Gathers theoretically informed new feminist criticism of children's literature and culture. Like feminism itself, it is a coat of many colors. Although our focus is on children's literature and culture in the English-speaking world, contributors come from around the globe...Experts in American Studies, cultural studies, history, and photography variously illuminate films, dinosaurs, comic strips, and boys' toys, and their exciting approaches to cultural texts suggest new approaches to literary texts as well...the essays gathered here illuminate the vibrant intersection between children's literature and feminist criticism and spark new questions for scholarship.

Nancy A. Naples - Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies

Women's Activism and Globalization: Linking Local Struggles and Transnational Politics Nancy A. Naples (Editor), Manisha Desai (Editor) Women's Activism and Globalization is a broad and comprehensive collection that shows how women activists across the globe are responding to the forces of the "new world order" in their communities. The first person accounts and regional case studies provide a truly global view of women working in their communities for change. The essays examine women in urban, rural, and suburban locations around the world to provide a rich understanding of the common themes as well as significant divergences among women activists in different parts of the world. Manisha Desai is Chair of Sociology and member of the Women's Studies Program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY.n Nancy A. Naples Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies

Grassroots Warriors: Activist Mothering, Community Work, and the War on Poverty (Perspectives on Gender) Who are the grassroots warriors on the front lines of the war on poverty? Through in-depth interviews, Grassroots Warriors presents the voices of over sixty women--African American, Puerto Rican and white European Americans--who fought for social and economic justic in the low income neighborhoods of New York City and Philadelphia. Naples reconceptualizes labor, mothering, and politics from the standpoint of women committed to political organizing on behalf of low income urban neighborhoods. Her analysis reveals significant legacies from past social movements, and examines how gender, ethnicity, and class influence political consciousness and practice.

Nancy A. Naples Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies Teaching Feminist Activism: Strategies from the Field Nancy A. Naples (Editor), Karen Bojar (Editor) From theoretical analysis to practical teaching tools, Teaching Feminist Politics is an indispensable guide for all educators seeking to link feminist theory and activism to their teaching. Themes for the collection include: exploring the relationship between feminist practice and Women's Studies pedagogy, demonstrating how feminist activism can be incorporated into introductory courses as well as senior seminars, and the particular challenges of integrating these methods into classroom practice. Also included are resources such as web sites, videos, recommended texts, and additional course outlines. Karen Bojar is Professor of English and Women's Studies at the Community College of Philadelphia.

Diana Tietjens Meyers - Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies

Diana Tietjens Meyers Gender in the Mirror: Cultural Imagery & Women's Agency How do patriarchal representations of gender imapct women's lives and men's attitudes toward women? How can the deleterious effects of this hostile cultural environment be overcome? Gender in the Mirror examines how cultures encode and transmit feminine norms and analyzes the relations between culturally prevalent gender imagery and the epistemology of individual self-knowledge and self-definition. It proposes alternative imagery of feminine sexuality, beauty, and motherhood and advances an account of feminist discursive politics that takes on the challenge of neutralizing patriarchal imagery.

Diana Tietjens Meyers Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies Feminist Social Thought: A Reader Feminist Social Thought brings together key articles by prominent feminist thinkers, offering students sophisticated treatment of the theoretical topics central to feminist social thought. This reader highlights salient concerns in contemporary feminist scholarship and the advances feminist philosophers have made.

Diana Tietjens Meyers Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies Feminists Rethink the Self Diana Tietjens Meyers (Editor) and Alison Jaggar (Editor) Standing at the intersection of metaphysics, epistemology, and moral and political philosophy, the self is a pivotal philosophical topic. This collection of new papers by leading feminists addresses issues of sexual violence and the self, the social self and autonomy, the narrative self and integrity, self-ownership and the body, forgetting yourself and your race, group membership and personal identity, grief and gender, sympathy and women's diversity, emotion and emancipatory epistemology, and dependency and justice.