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The Biographical Profile of Flowerence Howe

Current Status:

Co-Director, Women Writing Africa, a project of The Feminist Press/CUNY

Emerita Director/Publisher, The Feminist Press at The City University of New York

Emerita Professor of English, City College, The City University of New York

Currently working on a memoir

Education:

Hunter College High School, 1943 1946

Hunter College, 1946–1950, A B., cum laude

Smith College, 1950–1951, A M.

University of Wisconsin, 1951 1954

Honors:

Phi Beta Kappa, 1949

Roosevelt Memorial Scholarship, Hunter College, 1950

Trustee Fellowship, Smith College, 1950–1951

Tuition Scholarship, University of Wisconsin, 1951 1954

Elizabeth Nitchie Summer Fellowship, Goucher College, 1963

Hunter College Hall of Fame, elected 1973

Faculty Exchange Scholar, State University of New York, appointed 1975

Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, New England College, 1977

Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Skidmore College, 1979

Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, DePauw University, 1987

Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, State University of New York/

Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Pace University, 2000

Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Chatham College, 2000.

Experience:

College Teaching:

Teaching Assistant, University of Wisconsin, 1951 1954

Instructor in English, Hofstra University, 1954 1957

Lecturer in English, Queens College, 1956 1957

Assistant Professor of English, Goucher College, 1960–1971

Professor of Humanities and American Studies, State University of New York/

Professor of English, City College and the Graduate School,City University of New York, 1985→2000.

Visiting Professorships:

University of Utah, April 1973; May 1975

University of Washington, summer 1974

John F. Kennedy Institute of American Studies, Free University of Berlin, summer 1978

Denison University, spring 1979

College of Wooster, Drushal Distinguished Professor, spring 1980

Administrative Experience:

Director, Project in the Teaching of Poetry, Goucher College and Baltimore Public Schools,

First Chairperson, Commission on the Status and Education of Women, Modern Language

Second Vice President, First Vice President, President, Modern Language Association,1971 1973

Coordinator of Women’s Studies, SUNY/College at Old Westbury, 1971 1974

Chairperson, American Studies, SUNY/College at Old Westbury, 1975 1976

Chair, Division of Women’s Studies in Language and Literature, Modern Language Association,

Member, Executive Committee, Board of Directors of the National Council for Research on

Editor, Women’s Studies Quarterly, 1972 1982

President and administrator, The Feminist Press, 1970–2000

Co-director—and administrator, Women Writing Africa, a project of The Feminist Press, 1994-

Fellowships. Awards. Contracts:

Research Fellowship, National Endowrnent for the Humanities, 1971–1973

Ford Foundation Fellowship, 1974–1975

Federal contract, National Advisory Council on Women’s Education Programs (HEW), Fall 1976

Fulbright Award to India, November 1977

Federal contract, National Institute of Education, winter and spring, 1978 1979

Scholar in Residence, Miami University, January 1978

Mellon Fellowship, Wellesley College, Center for Research on Women, fall 1979

U.S. Delegate to UNESCO World Conference on Teaching and Research about Women, Paris, May

Mina Shaughnessy Award, Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education, 1982 1983

USIA Department of State travel and lecture grant, to Japan, India, West Germany, October

Asia Foundation travel and lecture grant to South Korea, October 1984

U. S. Representative to UNESCO sponsored International Conference on Teaching and Research

USIA sponsored speaker at first Italian International Conference on Women’s Studies, Rome,

Award from the Women’s National Book Association (one of 70 women honored on the occasion of

Woman of Distinction Award of the National Conference for College Women Student Leaders,

Feminist Achievement Award, National Women’s Studies Association, l989

Jessie Bernard Wise Woman Award, Center for Women Policies Studies, 1990

Outstanding Alumnae Award, Hunter College High School, 1990

Feminist Achievement Award, Women’s Coalition, City University of New York, 1992

State Department award, at request of Argentine government, to give a series of lectures on

Individual Resident Fellowship, Bellagio Center, The Rockefeller Foundation, Villa

Woman of Distinction Award, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY, 1998

Award for Distinctive Service, The Professional Staff Congress/CUNY, 2000

Award for Women’s Equality and Human Rights, Feminist Majority Foundation, 2000

Writing and Society Award, Department of English, University of Massachusetts/Amherst, 2001 Team Award for Women Writing Africa,West/Sahel Region, Bellagio Center, The Rockefeller

Poor Richard Award for distinction in publishing, Small Press Association, 2002

Award “for making a difference,” from the National Council for Research on Women, New York,

“Femmy” award for service to The Feminist Press, New York, 2003.

Major Grants Written and Administered for The Feminist Press:

Core Challenge Grant, 1992 1994, The Ford Foundation, ($250,000).

Women’s Studies Around the Globe, a series of four workshops to be held in Costa Rica, February 22 26, 1993, The Ford Foundation, ($25,000).

Other Professional Activities:

Editorial Board Member:

Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 1971-

SIGNS: Women in Culture and Society, 1974–1983

Journal of Education, 1976–1996

The Correspondence of Lydia Marie Child, 1977–1981

Research in the Humanities (N.Y. Public Iibrary), 1977–1987

State University of New York Press, 1977 1980

Multicultural Review, 1991-

Indian Journal of Gender Studies, New Delhi, 1994–2003

Asian Journal of Women’s Studies, South Korea, 1995-

Advisory Board Member:

Teachers and Writers Collaborative, 1966

American Historical Association, Summer Institutes, 1976 1980

Center for Self Reliant Education, California, 1979 1984

Sex Desegregation Assistance Center, Teachers College, 1979 1980

University of Arizona, Southwest Institute for Research on Women, 1979 1992

Consultancies:

National Endowment for the Humanities, Education, 1969 1971

The Dalton School, spring 1974

Great Lakes Colleges Association, 1977 1979

University of Minnesota, 1978

University of Arizona, 1976

University of Pennsylvania, 1979

The Ford Foundation, 1980–1981

The Claremont Colleges, 1981

Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University, 1982

Towson State University, 1982 1983

Lectures:

Overview:

such national organizations as the Association of American Colleges or the American Political Science Association, and of course regularly in her own professional association, the MLA. Campuses on which she has given major lectures, often on more than one occasion, include the University of Wisconsin, the University of Oregon, Portland State University, the University of Arizona, Lewis and Clark College, San Francisco State University, the University of Wyoming, the University of Utah, Kansas State University, the University of Chicago, the University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University, Antioch College, Albion College, DePauw University, the College of Wooster, the University of Akron, Purdue University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Delaware, Agnes Scott College, Hood College, the University of South Florida, Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University, Dartmouth College, Hamilton College, Wesleyan University, Simmons College, Wheaton College, Hunter College, Cornell University, the University of Massachusetts\Amherst, Mount Holyoke College, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr College, Vassar College.

address on women’s education. In 1980 and again in 1985, she was U.S. delegate to international conferences on women’s education sponsored by UNESCO. In July 1980, with a grant from the Ford Foundation, Howe organized a program of four large panels and 24 smaller roundtables for 500 participants at the United Nations Mid Decade Conference on Women, held in Copenhagen. Similarly, in Nairobi in 1985, but with representatives from 25 countries and 30 organizations, she organized meetings attended by about 1,200 persons at the United Nations End of the Decade Conference.

a speaker as well at that conference. In 1983, she spent six weeks giving 24 lectures on the status and education of women in the U.S. for the USIA program in the Department of State. These lectures engaged general and academic audiences in three Japanese cities, four cities in India, and four in West Germany. In 1984, at the invitation of the Asia Foundation, she went to South Korea for a week of lectures and visits to universities in Seoul. In December 1986, Howe lectured in Rome at the first International Conference on Women’s Studies to be held in Italy, and sponsored by the Italian National Research Council. In April 1990, she gave an invited lecture at the Third Bi-Annual International Women’s Studies conference, held in Dubrovnilc, Yugoslavia. [Many thanks to Florence Howe for this information]

List:

From August l988 to March 1992 (not current/complete)

New York University, “Marginality and Empowerment,” November 1988

Harvard School of Education, “Women’s Studies and Education,” December 1988

Radcliffe College, Conference on Women and the Year 2000, panelist, December 1988

Iowa State University, “Feminist Views of Higher Education,” February 1989

Millersville University, Forum Series, “The Teacher in the Lives of Students,” September 1989

Palm Beach Community College, two lectures on women and literature, March 1990

National Women’s Studies Association, “Seventy Years of Feminist Publishing” June 1990

Howard University Press, Program in Publishing, lecture, June 1990

Hunter College High School, Commencement Address, June 1990

Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College, Lecture on Publishing, October 1990

Nassau Community College, “Feminist Literary Criticism and the Canon We Teach,” February 1991

Lockhaven University, “Why Women’s Studies?” “Why Educate Women?” April 1991

Pennsylvania Humanities Council, “Women’s Studies and the Community,” June 1991

Berea College, “Why We Need a (Feminist) Multicultural Curriculum,” January 1992

Maryknoll College, “Growing Up Female,” March 1992

New Jersey Project, “Commencement” for participants in summer program, June 1992

University of Minnesota, Conference on Rhetoric, Invited to read from memoir, October 1999

Modern Language Association, “Making History and the Danger of Losing It,” December 1999

Second Feminist Expo, Washington, D.C., “Women’s Studies and World Peace,” March 2000

Canisius College, “Publishing for Social Change,” April 2000

Kutztown State University, “Looking Back at Mississippi in the 1960s,” October 2000

CUNY Graduate Center, “The Women Writing Africa Project,” November 2001

Fairfield University, “From Race and Class to the Feminist Press,” February, 2002

Bennett College, “From Race and Class to the Feminist Press,” October, 2002

“The Florence Howe Award for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship”:

Information:

The Florence Howe Award for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship, begun in 1974, is awarded to an outstanding essay in literature or language studies that explores feminist issues.

Past winning essays have been published in two volumes:

List of Winners: