On the heels of President Bush's declaration that women will not see combat in Iraq, and Cynthia H. Enloe Ph.D., research professor at Clark University will address "Where are Women in the War in Iraq?" in a free lecture at Fairfield University. Dr. Enloe, who is known for her research on women and politics in both national and international arenas, will give her talk Monday, February 28, at 4:30 p.m. in the Charles F. Dolan School of Business Dining Room.

Dr. Enloe is a research professor in the International Development, Community, and Environment Department at Clark and teaches the intensive seven-week seminar, "Gender, Militarization, and Development." She has been awarded Clark's "Outstanding Teacher of the Year" award three times and has been named the University Senior Faculty Fellow for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship. She has also served as chair of Clark's Government Department and Director of Women's Studies.

Dr. Enloe's studies often focus on racial, class, ethnic, and national identities and pressures shaping ideas about femininities and masculinities. The roles for and unique concerns of women in the U.S. military, as well as Iraqi women, in the current situation in Iraq will be discussed during her lecture.

"Enloe's knack of laying out simply the tangled webs of connection that link the poor and the rich, the marginal and the privileged, masculine enterprise and female exploitation, is unsurpassed," said Philippa Levine, author of "Prostitution, Race and Politics: Policing Venereal Disease in the British Empire." "This is feminist scholarship at its very, very best: fresh, lively, and uncompromising."

In recent years, Dr. Enloe has been invited to lecture and give special seminars on feminism, militarization, and globalization in various countries, including Japan, Korea, Turkey, Canada, and Britain, along with numerous college campuses across the United States.

She has written for a variety of different media outlets including Ms. Magazine and Village Voice and has appeared on both National Public Radio and the BBC.

Dr. Enloe has been a prolific writer with nine of her books being published by the University of California Press. Some of her titles include "The Morning After: Sexual Politics at the End of the Cold War" (1993), "Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics" (2000), and "Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives" (2000).

Her most recent book "The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire," is a collection of essays making sense of globalization and international politics by taking a deep and personal look into the daily realities in a range of women's lives. She proposes a distinctively feminist curiosity that begins with taking women seriously, from listening to women in Asian sneaker factories to paying attention to Iraqi women's organizing efforts under military occupation.

Dr. Enloe received a Ph.D. from the University of California/Berkeley.

Robbin Crabtree, Ph. D., chair of the Communication Department and a member of the steering committee of the Women Studies Program at Fairfield University, has followed the work of Dr. Enloe.

"It will be enlightening to hear what Dr. Enloe has to discuss about the situation of women in Iraq," Dr. Crabtree said. "With her extensive background of research concerning women in politics, globalization, and human rights questions, she is the perfect person to kick off our celebration of Women's History Month in March."

The Women Studies Program, Honors Program and the Dolan School of Business are presenting the lecture, which is also supported by the Communication, Economics, History, Philosophy, Politics and Sociology departments, along with the International Studies and Peace & Justice Studies programs. It is open to all faculty and students, as well as members of the general public. For more information, e-mail Dr. Crabtree at rcrabtree@mail.fairfield.edu.

Posted On: 02-10-2005 10:02 AM

Volume: 37 Number: 163