Reminder

The date of our upcoming exhibition is set for September 10, 2007.

In preparation, each one of you is expected to research 2 women featured in the triptych. Because some of you had originally expressed interest in the same women, make sure to post your 2 selections by next Saturday to avoid duplicating searches.

Based on the poster template provided here, your findings will be divided into four columns, or three areas of biographical research and one personal essay. These columns, under headings of Biography, Context, Contribution, and Reflections, Discovery will run 500 to 700 words in length and will correspond to four separate assignments for each one of the women selected. The columns' contents are to be organically meshed.

Your research will also include finding two quotes per woman for display in your poster presentation. One of these will be chosen for the companion book to the triptych.

1st & 5th Assignments: BIOGRAPHY – This column should consist of an overview of each woman’s life based on your own interpretation and analysis of the basic facts, events, influences and anecdotes that shaped her life. But really, you are telling a story. Make it a compelling one. Your lead will be important in setting a first tone and in engaging the reader.

Due dates: March 3rd (1st woman)
April 28th (2nd woman)

2nd & 6th Assignments: CONTEXT – This column should define the period in which the woman lived and worked. Consider all aspects: historical, political, cultural, intellectual, social and economic. Think in terms of a global stage. “Context” will inform both the women’s biographies and their contributions.

Due dates: March 17th (1st woman)
May 12th (2nd woman)

3rd & 7th Assignments: CONTRIBUTION – This column should be about the women’s impact and legacy through their accomplishments. Questions to think about: What impact had society on these particular women? How did their cultural, economic and political background affect their development, their actions? How did they advance various issues/causes in their own field, time, and for future generations? What motivated them to take risks, to challenge the status quo, to contribute to their time? How did these women impact the lives of their contemporaries? Were they aware of being role models, of paving the way for generations to come? What did they sacrifice to achieve their goals? How can their contributions help change the course of peoples’ lives in the future? These questions and the answers they yield will inevitably help you choose the most defining quotes.

Due Dates: March 31st (1st woman)
May 26th (2nd woman)

4th & 8th Assignments: REFLECTIONS, DISCOVERY – This column must be a personal, reflective essay on your experience of having researched these extraordinary women and should include a justification for your quote selections. If you wish and as discussed at the meeting, you could also present a part of an interview you conducted, a song analysis, a poem, or whatever else your discovery has inspired you to write.

Due Dates: April 14th (1st woman)
June 9th (2nd woman)


For those of you leaving before the final deadline, you must turn in your work at least a week early so that we can review it and edit it before you go. Your poster presentation has to be perfect for display.

Your contribution to the mission of this project matters. You will be proud of your accomplishment.

And remember, Smart Women make a difference!

Reflection & Quotes

REFLECTION:

As a cradle Catholic, I was immediately exposed to the importance of selfless giving and maintaining an incessant respect for humanity. Those values can certainly be transcribed to the life and work of Mother Teresa. Her initiatives and accomplishments became the cornerstone from which I started to question my own view of what it meant to act courageously and to do good acts throughout my surroundings.

A prayer that Mother Teresa often referred to as one of her favorites also happens to be a prayer that I find very motivating:

Lead me from death to life,
from lies to truth
Lead me from despair to hope
from fear to trust
Lead me from hatred to love
from war to peace
Let peace fill our heart, our world
our universe with peace. Amen

Mother Teresa sought out the poorest of the poor, those who had lost the will or the means to protect and care for themselves; and she graciously committed her whole life’s work to their well-being. Such commitment requires more than dedication, love, and faith. In addition, Mother Teresa illustrated the value of having an open heart even in the face of adversity and fear. The importance of teaching others how to give themselves to the will and work of God was one of the many inspiring lessons Mother Teresa left for the following generations to learn. Her actions constructively questioned the social structures that have existed between the unprotected poor masses and the often negligent, more affluent masses. After reflecting on Mother Teresa’s undertakings, I continue to admire her belief that caring for a person in need is not burdensome, but expected. When she welcomed all into her arms (irregardless of tangible differences), she truly became an instrument of God’s love. Instead of constantly preaching sermons of love, Mother Teresa became a prime example of how the power of love could be a sufficient source of healing.

QUOTES:

“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked, and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

“Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.”

Contribution--Mother Teresa

CONTRIBUTION:

· On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission to start her own order “The Missionaries of Charity”, whose primary task was to love and care for those people who had no one to look after them.

· The order provides food for the needy and operates hospitals, schools, orphanages, youth centers, and shelters for lepers and the dying poor. It now has branches in 50 Indian cities and a number of countries in African, Asia, and Latin America.

· In 1952 Mother Teresa opened the “Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart) Home for Dying Destitutes” in Calcutta. She and her fellow nuns gathered dying Indians off the streets of Calcutta and brought them to this home to care for them during their last days.

· Mother Teresa also organized schools and orphanages for the poor. The Brothers of Charity—the male companion to the Sisters of Charity—was formed in the mid 1960s to run homes for the dying.

· The leper colony Mother Teresa founded with the winnings from her 1971 Pope Paul XXIII Peace Prize has offered a place for outcasts to find acceptance.

· When she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she convinced the committee to cancel the official banquet and used that money to buy meals for 15,000 poor.

· In 1980, one of her first visits as a Nobel Laureate was to Skopje where Mother Teresa was declared a “distinguished citizen of Skopje.” This was in part because a few months earlier, she had opened a house for elderly homeless people—the first time her Order had been able to operate in a communist country.

· In 1985, she opened the first church-sponsored hospice for patients with AIDS in New York City.

· Accomplishments noted in the last two decades of her active life:

o At the start of the 1980s the Missionaries of Charity boasted 140 slum schools, a daily feeding program for nearly 50,000 people at 304 centers, 70 homes protecting 4,000 children, about 1,000 adoptions a year were arranged, 12,000 poor women were taught to earn their living, and many more.

ACCOLADES:

· For her work among the people of India, the Indian government gave her the Padmashree ("Magnificent Lotus") Award in September of 1962.

· By September of 1970 Mother Teresa received the Good Samaritan Award in Boston, and accepted an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters at a degree ceremony in Washington (the first of many honorary degrees to be conferred on her in the coming years.

· In 1971 she received the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize.

· In 1972 the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding.

· In April 1973 Mother Teresa traveled to London to receive the first Templeton Award for Progress in Religion.

· In October of 1979 the Nobel Committee pronounced Mother Teresa as that year’s recipient of the Peace Prize. She received the Nobel Peace Prize for promoting peace and brotherhood among the nations.

· In 1985 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President
Ronald Reagan.

Suu Kyi quotes

1. “To live the full life, one must have the courage to bear the responsibility of the needs of others...one must want to bear this responsibility.”

2. “...Buddhism, the foundation of traditional Burmese culture, places the greatest value on man, who alone of all beings can achieve the supreme state of Buddhahood. Each man has in him the potential to realize the truth through his own will and endeavor and to help others realize it.”

Suu Kyi’s dedication to serving others is what makes her so remarkable. Her belief that a life is completed by such service cannot be reduced to merely words, for her declaration of selflessness has been matched by action. Her dedication to the country and people of Burma, and the cause of peaceful resistance, makes Suu Kyi an outstanding human being of our time. Her life, filled with tragedy, is one of resilience in the face of tyranny, and she has always appeared poised in her battle against adversity. Suu Kyi’s beauty and small stature adds to the intrigue of a gentle looking woman with an extremely courageous heart. The desire to serve fellow human beings on this planet drives her forward in her ongoing struggle against political repression, and although she remains behind the walls of her property, her face and name are associated with the grace of good against autocratic rule that smashes all opposition. In essence, it is Suu Kyi’s inexhaustible spirit of determination that deems her not only one who serves the interests of her oppressed people, but a presence that benefits our entire planet. Not only does Suu Kyi combine a feminine stature with a tenacious mission, but she inspires all of us to stand up and fight for a better state of our world, even against all odds and power. Suu Kyi’s life is one of service, a voluntary undertaking in the name of human dignity.
The emphasis on obligation originates in Suu Kyi’s stong Buddhist faith, which she declares as authentically Burmese. The tradition of Buddhism encourages a realization of truth and the assistance of leading others to that path. Suu Kyi’s dedication to the truth of human dignity has led her on a difficult path against those in power, who she has challenged with her humanitarian convictions. She sees her dedication to others as part of her raison d’etre for living, for to live and only think of one’s own fortune conflicts with her perception of what a full life consists of. The belief that the human individual possesses such transformative capabilities seems like a life mantra for Suu Kyi, for her continual assertion that non-violent resistance will yield results is a voice of hope in an abyss of desperation. Such a positive outlook on the world refuses to accept any status quo, but to always aspire for a better future without falling into desperation at the feet of the powerful and corrupt.

Colette: bibliography

Selected Bibliography
- Colette, Oeuvres Complètes, Paris, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1986.
- Flieger, Jerry Aline, Colette and the Fantom Subject of Autobiography, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1992.
- Ladimer, Bethany Ladimer, Colette, Beauvoir, and Duras, Gainesvill: University Press of Florida. 1999.
- Pichois, Claude and Alain Brunet, Colette, Paris, Editions de Fallois, 1999.
- Thurman, Judith, Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1999.
- Many thanks to Professor Elizabeth Ladenson, PhD Columbia, for her help and suggestions.

Colette: Personal Reflections

Colette: Personal Reflections
By Natalie Allen

Though she was a celebrity and wrote stories that seemed like chronicles of her own life, Colette remained a deeply enigmatic figure. Consciously constructing her image in the public spotlight, she resisted revealing her “true self,” and it is only through the careful juxtaposition of Colette with her characters that we can begin to sketch out her portrait.
Colette never described herself as a “feminist.” In fact, she was hostile to the term. Yet her life seems to incarnate the concept: a liberated, independent woman eschewing traditional standards of male dominance and writing about the complexities the feminine condition, Colette offered to the world her own version of feminism, unwritten in the form of a doctrine but no less powerful.
Colette illuminates the difficulties and nuances of negotiating one’s place as a woman in society. But moreover, she teaches us that this “place” is not a static state, but rather a process of becoming. In both her life and her writing, Colette offers a way of life filled with continual rebirth, self discovery and re-creation. And this rebirth of the self is always linked to an engagement with the world. Colette once said, “We do not look, we shall never look enough, never carefully enough, never passionately enough.” Through her life and work, Colette asks us to look at ourselves and our surroundings with a more astute and open regard, to be incessantly aware of the wonder and richness that fill every day of our lives.

Colette: Contribution

Natalie Allen
Colette: Contribution


Across the tumultuous decades in which she lived, Colette never ceased to make a contribution to her society through writing and other endeavors. A journalist as well as an author of fiction, Colette was one of the first women to report on WWI from the front lines, and she also covered some of the greatest criminal trials of her era. During the war, she set up a hospital for the wounded at her husband’s St. Malo estate, and was later awarded the title of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour for this service. Always interested in the cultural and social actualities of her day, Colette rose to the position of literary editor at Le Matin, a major Parisian newspaper. There, wrote columns on a wide variety of subjects, from fashion, theater and film to unemployment and domestic violence.
Today, we know Colette best for her novels, most of which are strongly autobiographical in nature. In La Vagabond (The Vagabond), Colette drew from her experience as a music hall performer and a divorcée to reflect upon social problems in Belle Epoque France. The poverty, illness, and depression of artists, the hardship but also the liberation of living independently as a woman are major themes in Colette’s writing.
It is certainly this last question, that of womanhood, which interested Colette particularly and with which she experimented most extensively in her works. Her narratives continually depart from traditional uses of voice and plot, and her representations of gender and sexuality are radical for her time. In The Vagabond, Colette refuses a classic “happy ending” when the narrator, “René Néré,” refuses an offer of marriage from her lover, finding her purpose instead in writing. In Chéri, Colette topples conventional modes representation when the protagonist, an aging woman, contemplates the physical beauty of her young lover. This play with the role of the regard reveals a striking affirmation of female subjectivity. Colette’s female characters break with the long-standing model of the woman as “seen,” or “object.” Active in their sensuality, they are looking, distinctly subjects.
As these two examples demonstrate, love, marriage, and aging are central themes in Colette’s writing. She is preoccupied with the question: how can one be a woman in society and still be true to oneself? For Colette, in a world where romantic love is transient, where the reality of aging makes reliance on a youthful feminine esthetic impossible, it is writing that offers itself as the ultimate space for self expression and affirmation. Like her character René Néré, Colette teaches us that art can be a love affair in itself, a way to engage sensually with the world, to find an alternative to the ideal of conjugal union. Through these ruptures with tradition and proposals for new possibilities, Colette paved the way for new generations of 20th and 21st century female writers. Moreover, she challenged women to re-think their notions of femininity, and to look within themselves in order to define and carve out their places in society.

Amy Goodman: Reflection/Rretrospective

I have listened to independent radio station WBAI—and more specifically, Amy Goodman’s show Democracy Now!—since I was about seven. Did my young, unformed mind grasp the intellectual debates and impassioned discussion that rode the airwaves of such news media? Surely not. Yet I managed to catch slips of words that carried some secret, solemn significance: “peace and justice”, “activism” and, above all, “democracy”. Ingrained at a tender age was an approbation for the voices behind those words—particularly that of Amy Goodman’s.

Amy Goodman is a news journalist of the highest caliber. On February 21, 2007, I attended her lecture and book signing held at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and afterwards spoke with her privately in a brief—and much sought after—interview. As I saw her in action, her voice ardent, steady, and clear, her fist pumping emphatically at the end of her speech, I knew I was in the presence of an extraordinary woman. Her slight frame and gentle demeanor belied a passion that was evident since the moment she spoke. “There’s got to be a media outlet, especially in times of war, that’s run by journalists and artists,” she avowed. During the lecture, she broached various topics that had surfaced during my research of her life and work: the threats of media consolidation, the need for relaying the “victim’s perspective”, the importance of transforming the public airwaves into a tool to “break the sound barrier” and provide a forum where the people could speak for themselves. Amy Goodman suddenly became very real to me, ceasing to be a voice without a face but rather a flesh-and-blood person who actively campaigned for her cause. As I heard murmurs of agreement and indignation ripple through the audience, I knew that her siren-call for media untouched by the sordidness of corruption and power-abuse was not lost on her listeners.

For me, researching the life of Amy Goodman has entailed a travel through the dark world of oppressive power and corporate control that quashes all nascent forms of dissent. During her lecture, she referred to that “veil of distortion and lies and misrepresentations and half-truths that obscure reality”. In my eyes, she has joined the ranks of those truth-seekers in history who have clamored for the tearing of that veil of falsehood and oppression. I discerned in her the same ideals that goaded on the great thinkers I dissected and discussed in my college classes: a passion for justice, a loathing of inequality. She referred to, in her speech, the need for a “uniform standard of justice” and an equal arraignment of “crimes against humanity”. She seemed to me democratic in the truest sense of the word—a voice box of the people, that silent majority.

At the end of the lecture, equipped with pen in hand and questions on the tip of my tongue, I eagerly confronted a slightly weary but kind-looking Amy Goodman. I was taken aback by how quickly the interview became a causal conversation; her responses were not wordy, empty, and stylized but succinct, humble and heartfelt. When asked how she would summarize her mission as a journalist, she responded, “To get more people to stand up for themselves.” As we talked, it seemed that her whole life had been a trajectory towards “social justice”, evolving from “first standing up to the principle, then the government”. I asked her how her work testified to the power of the individual. She told me that what she did was a team effort—she “could never do it alone”.

As we exited the lecture room and she placed a call to a friend on her cell, she seemed simultaneously very human and delightfully extraordinary, a strong woman of a penetrating mind who had chosen to dedicate herself to the pursuit of “going to where the silence is”. Hopefully more journalists, authors, and activists can take a cue from her and strive to do the same.

contributions

Aung San has become an international symbol for peace, and her self-sacrificing approach to the non-violent movement keeps hope alive for many in Burma and around the world. Upon her return to Burma in 1988, she wrote an open-letter calling for a multi-party political system. Not only does she demonstrate the independence and education of such a strong woman, but she stands as a historically recognized human being. Aung San Suu Kyi has wond numerous prizes the Sakharov Prize (1990), the Thorolf Rafti Memorialize prize the same year, followed by the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, among other forms of recognition for her humanitarian philosophy and dedication to strong values. She sits in solitude in her home, but she is in the hearts and minds of her fellow Burmese; in essence, she embodies a strong and beautiful form of resistance that makes it acceptable to hope that the world can change for the better. At a time in history where there seems to be so much confusion and violence, Aung San Suu Kyi continues to lead the way to a better, and possible, future, that will stand against all odds without showing weakness in her convictions. If the 1990 elections had been respected, she would have become the leader of her country, the female heir to her father’s dream of a free Burmese population in the post-colonial era. At a time when many of the so-called “first world” countries have never elected a female leader, Aung San Suu Kyi holds universal appeal in a place where she is a glimmer of hope in a hopeless political situation.

Mother Teresa--historical context

Historical Context—Mother Teresa:

1910 was an unstable year in Albania. However, it was a momentous year for the Bojaxhiu family. On August 25^th this Catholic Albanian family, was celebrating the birth of a healthy baby daughter—Agnes (soon to be known as Mother Teresa). This time period was one of disorder and frustration for Albanian nationalists who by the beginning of the twentieth century had a visibly developed sense of their own cultural identity but lacked an independent state. This was primarily because for so long Albania had been used as “a buffer between the interests of Austria-Hungary and those of the Slavs in the Balkans.” Since Catholic Albanians were a significantly smaller part of the Albanian population, they clung tightly to their faith.

Despite the national conflicts that surrounded the Bojaxhiu family, most accounts of Agnes’ childhood describe it as comfortable and somewhat prosperous (it appeared that her parents were relatively successful). Nikola Bojaxhiu, Agnes’ father, was known as a generous local benefactor. He is often referenced as having continuously encouraged his children to be generous and compassionate to those less fortunate then themselves. For him, maintaining those characteristics was as important as working hard in school. Furthermore, historians have recalled one of his most poignant words of advice to his children as being: “never forget whose children you are and from what background you come.” Seen to have motivated her initial charity work, these invaluable words clearly became salient with Mother Teresa. Since Catholics were a clear minority, the church was an important point of emphasis for the Bojaxhiu family, and it provided them with a keen sense of cultural and religious identity.

Agnes and her family lived in the city of Skopje, and since it was not on any borders, this area was spared from the street slaughter that many other Balkan towns had to experience during the Great War. However, being enclosed by the severity of fighting, people dwelling in Skopje would not completely avoid the strife. In fact, during an interview conducted with one of Mother Teresa’s siblings, Lazar Bojaxhiu, he stated that:

“The suffering of our family started when the Yugoslavs and Albanians were fighting for Kosova and the other provinces of Albania in which was the City of Skopje. Our father…was very active in politics and the Albanian National question. He tried very hard to obtain the national rights of Albanians, with all his heart he tried to keep the Albanian territories in Yugoslavia together with Albania. When Yugoslavia took over the territories the family was persecuted and my father poisoned.”

The life of the Bojaxhiu children was recorded as changing dramatically after the death of their father. While such personal and national pain may have fractured other families, this family proceeded and strengthened its faith. While politics and the future of Albania had been the dominating topic in family conversations (a common trend of the time), church liturgy and relevant missionary activity became central to family discussions. With the loss of the male breadwinner, this family was certainly poor, but they still continued to provide hospitality to those who were poorer. Reflecting on her earlier life, Mother Teresa admitted that at the time, she thought the other people regularly sharing meals in her house were distant relatives. However, she later learned that her mother was often feeding and clothing complete strangers. With such faith embedded within her family dynamic, it is easily understood how Mother Teresa admitted that from the age of twelve she was aware of a desire to devote her life to God.

References:
- Mother Teresa: A complete Authorized Biography by: Kathryn Spink

- Faith and Compassion: The Life and Work of Mother Teresa by: Ragu Rai, Navin Chawla