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 Sub-Series
Identifier: Sub- 6

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Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The Women Against Racism Committee records date from 1981 to 1998 and measure 4 linear feet. The records are arranged in five series: Administration, Readings, Parallels and Intersections, Conferences and Workshops, and Photographs.

The Administration series (1985-1998) includes handouts on the committee's guidelines and philosophies. The Correspondence folder includes a 1985 letter from Christine Grant, director of women's athletics, defending the University of Iowa's decision to offer a scholarship to a white female student-athlete from South Africa. (See the packet on anti-apartheid readings in the Readings series put together by the Committee as a response to Grant.) This series also includes an essay by former WAR member Papusa Molina, written in response to a request from another former WAR member, Gloria Anzaldúa, for an anthology that Anzaldúa was editing. In her essay, Molina describes the evolution of WAR and her own evolution as a WAR member.

The Readings series (1981-1994) includes photocopies of the articles that WAR members read, made available to the public, and used for their workshops and conferences. These readings--essays, scholarly studies, memoirs, poems, and reports--address white racism, feminism, sexism, anti-Semitism, lesbian and gay issues, disability, racial and ethnic identity, domestic violence, and environmental issues. The authors include African-American, Latina, Asian American, Native American, Jewish, and white women.

The Parallels and Intersections series (1988-1990) documents WAR's four-day national conference at the University of Iowa in 1989. WAR put together a national advisory board and spent two years planning this conference, which had no registration fee and was attended by over 1500 people, mostly women. All conference activities were accessible to people with disabilities; this series includes conference information written in Braille that was available at the registration table. The Evaluations folder includes over one hundred responses with many comments about the conference. WAR videotaped most of the conference sessions, but ran into technical and administrative difficulties that prevented them from distributing the tapes. This series includes four conference tapes and a folder with details of the tapes' contents.

The Conferences and workshops series (1982-1998), arranged chronologically, contains brochures, posters, correspondence, and promotional material for WAR's annual conferences and intermittent workshops. The Photographs series (1985-1987) includes photographs and slides of the 1985 and 1987 annual conferences. Most of the photographs are not labeled.

Dates

  • Creation: 1981-1998

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The records are open for research.

Extent

From the Collection: 4.00 Linear Feet

From the Collection: 5 videocassettes [V373-377], Photographs in Box 8 boxes

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Repository Details

Part of the Iowa Women's Archives Repository

Contact:
100 Main Library
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City IA 52242 IaU
319-335-5068
319-335-5900 (Fax)