Mary L. Felstiner : An Oral History
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In this oral history, Mary Lowenthal Felstiner, a PhD alumna of Stanford University’s Department of History and Professor Emerita of History at San Francisco State University, offers reflections on her career as a teacher of women’s history and her research on the life of the German Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon and women and genocide. Felstiner discusses her upbringing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, her education at Harvard, Columbia, and Stanford, and how being a part of a dual career academic couple shaped her interest in feminism. Of special note are her discussions of teaching some of the earliest courses in women’s history and women’s studies at Sonoma State and San Francisco State University, the formation of the Teaching Workshop on Women’s History, and the beginnings of the Feminist Studies Program at Stanford. Felstiner also provides thoughtful insights into living with rheumatoid arthritis, the complicated intersections of feminism and disability rights, caregiving as a feminist political issue, and her marriage to the late John Felstiner, Professor Emeritus of English at Stanford.
- Summary
- Growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the 1940s and 1950s • Her parents, Alexander Lowenthal and Anne Lowenthal, and their progressive activism and political views • Lack of discussion about World War II and Holocaust as a child • Mother’s advocacy for unions and marginalized groups as personnel manager for Kaufmann’s Department Store • Parents’ expectations • Getting her polio vaccine from family friend Jonas Salk • Initial interest in medical research and encouragement from Salk’s female lab director • High school education at an all-girls school • Enthusiasm for Latin courses • Undergraduate studies at Harvard • Switch from sciences to history • Lack of women faculty • Difference in treatment for male and female students at Harvard • First job working for the steelworkers union in Pittsburgh on civil rights, a precursor to Union Summer • Transition to graduate school in Latin American history at Columbia • Working on a book with Harvard professor Larry Wylie • Meeting and then re-meeting her husband John Felstiner • Moving to Stanford when John Felstiner joined the faculty of the Department of English • Switching to the Stanford PhD program and reflections on differences between Stanford and its East Coast peers • Expectations and struggles of female graduate students and a growing feminist consciousness • Frustrations of faculty wives who were pursuing their own careers • Difficulty of balancing academics and childcare; advocating for childcare at Stanford • Bringing her child on stage at commencement to protest Stanford’s lack of childcare resources • Teaching a Stanford freshman seminar on the conquest of Mexico to first-generation Mexican American students • Teaching women’s history at Sonoma State in a feminist classroom • Career at San Francisco State teaching women’s history and women’s studies • Separatism and women’s studies and the role of lesbian separatists • Differences between students at Stanford and SF State • Rape Education Project at Stanford • Beginnings of Program in Feminist Studies at Stanford • Center for Research on Women at Stanford • Reflections on teaching across class and racial differences and privilege • Anti-Semitism and other challenges at SF State • Advisors and mentors • Establishing cooperative early childcare at Stanford • Daughter’s work at Bing Nursery • Teaching women’s history courses • Creation and sustenance of the Teaching Workshop on Women’s History • Change over time in student body • Teaching students with disabilities and growing interest in the field of disability studies • Thoughts on gender and academia • Challenges of fashioning a feminist classroom • Origins of interest in women’s art and the artist Charlotte Salomon • Researching the people and places in Salomon’s paintings, including finding Salomon’s former classmates • Studying the experience of Jewish women in Nazi Germany • Researching testimony from the Adolf Eichmann trial at the Hoover Archives • Thoughts on Alois Brunner, the SS officer responsible for Salomon’s death • Out of Joint: A Private and Public Story of Arthritis • Struggles with rheumatoid arthritis • Reflections on the disability rights movement, including amniocentesis, feminism, and suffering • Relationship with John Felstiner and being a part of a dual career academic couple • Raising children in the Stanford community • Caregiving for John in his later years • Eldercare as a feminist political issue • Caregivers’ support group at Avenidas Senior Center • Cultural expectations and demographics of caregiving • Writing as a historian, novelist, and poet • Love of poetry and writing style • Reflections on a career in academia and feminism • Interviewer’s experiences at Stanford and with feminism
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Extent | 1 text file |
| Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
| Date created | May 4, 2018 - 2018-05-06 |
| Language | English |
| Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
| Interviewee | Felstiner, Mary Lowenthal, 1941- | |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | Felstiner, Mary Lowenthal, 1941- | |
| Interviewer | Mahony, Zoe | |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
| Subject | Felstiner, Mary Lowenthal, 1941- |
|---|---|
| Subject | Stanford University. Department of History |
| Subject | Salomon, Charlotte, 1917-1943 |
| Subject | Felstiner, John |
| Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
| Audio |
|
|---|---|
| Finding Aid | |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/yw809mm7048 |
| Location | SC0932 |
| Repository | Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
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