History professor to receive Schillinger award

Associate Professor of History Karen Manners Smith will receive the 2004 Ruth Schillinger Award at a Woman’s History Month receotion March 5 at 3:30 p.m. in the Sauder Center.

“I am very honored to be included among the other Schillinger award winners,” Smith said. “I think it is one of the most prestigious awards on campus.”

The award is given to a faculty member who has made extraordinary contributions to the women of ESU. Ruth Schillinger received the first award in 1996. Smith is the ninth recipient.

Since her arrival at ESU in 1995, Smith has helped coordinate Women’s History month activities and bring women guest speakers to campus, including a holocaust survivor and an all female theatre troupe. Smith also participated in ESU’s first production of Vagina Monologues.

Smith also serves on the General Education Council, First Year Experience Steering Committee, the Ethnic and Gender Studies Steering Committee, and a committee to help reestablish women’s programming at ESU.

“She is truly inspirational,” said Cindy Wilcox, a history graduate student. “In her classes, she shows the different avenues that a woman can take in her life through historical and personal examples.”

Each semester, Smith teaches a course on women’s topics ranging from early America to modern times. In the past, she has co-taught a women’s film class along with a women’s rhetoric and reform course.

Smith also teaches HI 480: Intro to Women’s Studies.

“Women Studies is a genuine cross discipline that incorporates many different subjects including anthropology, literature, history, psychology, sociology and multicultural studies,” said Smith.

It was through last semester’s Intro to Women’s Studies course that Smith realized another need women have.

“By accident, I had an all female class and that is what really gave me the idea that women really need a place to talk,” said Smith. “One of my desires is to have some kind of a women’s center on campus or an ethnic and gender center with special programs for women such as peer counseling. I would like to have some place for women to go to receive help with their adjustment to college life.”

Smith published “New Paths to Power: American Women 1890-192”0 in 1994. She has also published numerous articles, including one in “Beyond Image and Convention: Explorations in Southern Women’s History” and two in “The History of Southern Women’s Literature”.

She currently is working with co-authors on two books. For one of her books, which is about the 1960s, she has collected the personal memoirs of thirty people engaged in a wide variety of “sixties” activities. The other book is an encyclopedia of the Gilded Age.

Last Updated July 2, 2007>