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The Work/Life Narratives Project videotapes interviews with women who have pursued unusual careers, and who serve as leaders in their fields, as well as sources of information and inspiration to young women.  These interviews illustrate many different career patterns and alternative ways of balancing work and personal life, and therefore may assist other women as they plan their own careers.  Because the subjects of these interviews are exceptional women, we also expect this archive to serve as a research resource for future scholars.

The videotaped interviews listed below are available for loan from the Institute for Research on Women and Gender.  The loan period is one week.  Videos may also be viewed at the Institute.  Please contact the Institute at (734) 764-9537 to check video availability or to reserve equipment for viewing.

Laurie Anderson
Musician, Performance Artist

Laurie Anderson has been lauded as one of the most imporant artists of the later 20th century after decades of work as a performance artist, musician, poet, writer and visual artist. Her multimedia performances include not only music, but also film, mime, dance, visual projections, dance, and spoken and written languages. Her visual art has been shown at the Guggenheim Museum in SoHo, New York, and extensively in Europe (including the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris). Anderson's recent projects include the concert film " Home of the Brave," a staging of "Songs and Stories from Moby Dick," and the publication of her stories from The Nerve Bible by Harper Perennial. She has received many awards and honorary degrees, including an Honorary Doctorate from Philadephia College of the Arts.

Interviewed by Stephen Rush, Assistant Professor of Dance and Music Technology, University of Michigan.

Pat Bane
Executive Director
Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation

Murder Victims' Families for Reconcilation is a national organization of family members of murder victims and families of those who have been executed, which advocates for alternatives to the death penalty, seeks alternatives to violence, and supports the needs of victims of violence. MVFR organizes "Journeys of Hope," which are regionally-based campaigns against the death penalty. Their work has been reprensented in TV news documentaries, as well as a Japanese documentary film. Pat Bane, as Executive Director, travels widely to speak about the work of the organization.

Interviewed by Sheryl Pimlott, School of Social Work Lecturer, IRWG Research Investigator, University of Michigan.

Martha Clarke
Dancer, Choreographer

Martha Clarke is universally regarded as one of the most important dance theater artists of the last 25 years. From her early years as one of the first founders of avante garde dance company Pilobolus, Clarke has emerged as a major alternative theatrical visionary creating such important works as The Garden of Earthly Delights (1984), The Hunger Artist (1987), and Miracolo d'Amore (1988). In 1986, she created her most important work, Vienna: Lusthaus, a deliberately fragmentary evocation of the atmosphere of the city before the First World War via identity, sex and gender. In 2002, she "revisited" this production for the contemporary stage, and it became one of the most important theatrical events in the New York season.

Interviewed by Gay Delanghe, Chair, Department of Dance, University of Michigan

Barbara Corday
Professor & Department of Production Chair
School of Cinema-Television
University of Southern California

Barbara Corday was Executive Vice President of prime time programs for CBS television.  She has been a writer, a producer, and was also the co-creator of the multi-award winning and ground breaking television series Cagney and Lacey.  Recently, she was President of New World Television.

Interviewed by Gaylyn Studlar, Director, Program in Film and Video Studies, University of Michigan

Karina Epperlein
Dancer, Filmmaker, Theater Artist

Karina Epperlein is a professional dancer, filmmaker, theater artist and teacher of T’ai chi ch’uan and breath, sound, voice, and movement.  In 1986 she founded Transit 2000, "a vehicle for creating and presenting original works in the fields of video, film, theater, music and poetry."  Its projects address social, political and historical circumstances, giving a voice to the "voiceless" in a personal and poetic way, and promoting the arts as a catalyst for change and healing.  Her video, Voices from the Inside, about her work with prisoners at a federal women’s prison in California, won the National Council on Crime and Delinquency’s Media Award.

Interviewed, along with Leslie Neal, by Sheryl Pimlott, School of Social Work Lecturer and IRWG Research Investigator, University of Michigan.

Liz Lerman
Founder, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange
Washington, D.C.

Liz Lerman is based in DC and is the founder and leader of the company Dance Exchange.  She is well known for dance and performance work that (1) uses community-based amateurs and community history in her performances; (2) explores themes of intergenerational relationships in ways that include using middle-aged and senior folks as dancers; and (3) explores issues of ethnic (often but not exclusively Jewish) identity in her work.  Lerman was here to begin planning for a two-year collaborative project involving the University of Michigan and its surrounding community.  The project is co-sponsored by the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, The University Musical Society and Arts of Citizenship.

Interviewed by Gay Delanghe, Chair, Department of Dance, University of Michigan 

Donna Lopiano
Executive Director 
Women’s Sports Foundation

Donna Lopiano has been a college coach of men’s and women’s volleyball and women’s basketball, field hockey, and softball.  As an athlete, Lopiano participated in 26 national championships in four sports, and was a nine-time All-American at four different positions in softball.  She is a member of the National Sports Hall of Fame, the National Softball Hall of Fame, and the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame, among others.

Lopiano previously served as the University of Texas Director of Women’s Athletics, the President of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, and a Trustee of the Women’s Sports Foundation.  She currently serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society, a Title IX consultant, and an Ethics Fellow of the Institute for International Sport.  A prolific writer and speaker, she is considered by most to be a champion of equal opportunity for women in sport and the ethical conduct of educational sport.

Interviewed by Elizabeth Hackett, Women’s Studies Lecturer, LS&A Academic Advisor, University of Michigan

Jadwiga Maurer
Professor, Author, Holocaust Survivor
&
Halina Filipowicz
Professor, Slavic Languages and Literatures

Jadwiga Maurer is professor of Slavic languages and literatures at the University of Kansas.  She has published extensively on Polish/Jewish themes, and especially on forbidden topics in Adam Mickiewicz scholarship.  Her groundbreaking book on this famous poet’s ties to Judaism, Of a Foreign Mother Born: Adam Mickiewicz’s Ties to the World of the Jews, and many articles and presentations on that topic have changed the course of scholarship in Polish Studies.  Born in Kielce, Poland, and hidden as a child in a Catholic convent in Slovakia during the Nazi occupation, Maurer is also an award-winning writer of short fiction works about Holocaust survivors in Munich and Berkeley after the war. 

Dr. Maurer was interviewed with her former student, Halina Filipowicz, professor of Slavic languages and literatures at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  Professor Filipowicz is the author of several books and numerous articles on theater and drama, diaspora, gender, and Jewish studies.  Her current manuscript in progress is entitled Figuring Transgression: The Performance of Polish Cultural Mythology 1820-1989. 

Interviewed by Magdalena J. Zaborowska, Associate Professor, Program in American Culture, University of Michigan, bringing together three generations of Polish female scholars who work in the United States. 

Bebe Miller 
Choreographer, Dancer

Bebe Miller's choreographic career began in 1978. She formed the Bebe Miller Company in 1985 to explore her "interest in finding a physical language for the human condition." She has created original works for dance companies throughout the world (including the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble and the PACT Dance Company of Johannesburg, South Africa); her work has also been staged in Martinique, South Africa, Britain, and the Netherlands. Miller's many honors include multiple Bessie awards, an American Choreographer Award, and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.

Interviewed by Ben Johnson, Director of Education and Audience Development at the University Musical Society, University of Michigan

Meredith Monk
Composer, Performance Artist

Meredith Monk (composer, singer, filmmaker and director/choreographer) has expanded the boundaries of musical composition. Know as a pioneer in "extended vocal technique, " Monk founded the "The House," a company dedicated to interdisciplinary performances, in 1968 and formed "Meredith Monk: a Vocal Ensemble" a decade later. Monk pioneered site-specific performances such as Book of Days (1988) which aired on PBS. Her career, which spans more than thirty five years, has led her to being heralded as a "voice of the future" and "one of America's coolest composers." Monk is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Brandeis Cretive Arts Award, three Obies, and dozens of other prestigious honors.

Interviewed by Beth Jane, Art History, History of Dance, Residential College, University of Michigan on April 8, 2000.  

Kary Moss 
Executive Director
ACLU of Michigan

Prior to joining the staff in 1998, she was a staff attorney in the national office of the ACLU Women, Executive Director of the NLG/Sugar Law Center, and a clerk in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She obtained her J.D. degree in 1987 from CUNY Law School at Queen Affairs from Columbia University in 1982.  Her books include Man Made Medicine: Women's Health, Public Policy, and Reform (Puffin Books 1997); and The Rights of Women and Girls: ACLU Handbooks for Young Americans (S. Illinois Univ. Press 1994). 

Sara Moulton
Executive Chef for Gourmet Magazine
& Television Host on the Food Network

Sara Moulton is one of the country's most renowned chefs. She is widely recognized from her television program on the Food Network, "Sara's Secrets." Prior to this program, she hosted another show called "Cooking Live." Moulton is also executive chef for Gourmet Magazine, and food editor for ABC's "Good Morning America." She recently released her first book Sara Moulton Cooks at Home.

Ms. Moulton is a graduate of the University of Michigan's Residential College (Class of 1974). She studied at one of America's most prestigious culinary schools, Culinary Institute of America (CIA), where she graduated with highest honors. She has worked in restaurants in Boston, New York, and France, and spent several months as an associate chef for Julia Childs.

Ms. Moulton is one of the country's leading proponents for women in the culinary arts industry. She is co-founder of the New York Women's Culinary Alliance, a group dedicated to providing networking opportunities to female chefs and educating them on how to advance themselves in the field.

Interviewed by Susan Douglas, Professor, Communication Studies, University of Michigan.

Zorica Mrsevic
Professor of Law and Lecturer in Women’s Studies
University of Belgrade

Zorica Mrsevic specializes in the topics of  "Women in Law" and "Women’s Human Rights."  She has researched domestic violence against women in her work with Women in Black, Belgrade’s SOS hotline. In addition, she studies the position of women lawyers in Serbia and the self-organization of women in Serbia during wartime.  Mrsevic was Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Iowa during 1997.

Interviewed by Stasha Jain Kumar, Law Student
and Paula Pickering, Political Science Doctoral student/CREES

Leslie Neal
Associate Professor of Dance
Florida International University

Leslie Neal is a faculty member and director of Leslie Neal Dance, "a dance theatre company committed to social action and the belief that movement and performance can be a positive force for transformation in individuals and communities."  The company particularly ‘addresses the experiences and struggles of women.’  Her Inside Out Program is a dance program for incarcerated women. 

Interviewed, along with Karina Epperlein, by Sheryl Pimlott, School of Social Work Lecturer and IRWG Research Investigator, University of Michigan.

Jane D. Pratt
President and CEO
The Mountain Institute 

Jane Pratt, a former director of various programs at the World Bank, has been President and CEO of the Mountain Institute since 1994.  The Mountain Institute (TMI), founded in 1972, is an international NGO devoted to the conservation of fragile mountain ecosystems and sustainable development for mountain people, rooted in respect for their unique cultures.  TMI works in the Andes, Appalachia, and the Himalayas — the longest, oldest, and highest mountain ranges of the world.  TMI works through partnerships with local people and governments, and is best known for its participatory conservation approaches in managing community-based conservation programs on a very large scale. The Institute is using innovative management in combination with advanced technology to work in some of the most remote, rugged, and poor regions of the earth.  TMI has been a leader in global efforts to promote Earth Summit’s "Mountain Agenda."

Interviewed by Pringle Smith, Editor of Dividend at the University of Michigan School of Business Administration

Nina Rosenblum
President
Daedalus Productions, Inc.

Nina Rosenblum, a documentary filmmaker, is an Oscar nominated producer/director/writer and member of the Directors’ Guild of America, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Women in Film.  Her subjects include the history of race in the United States, the status of the incarcerated, and the history of women in the United States and Central America.  Among her productions are:
Reds (1980)
El Salvador: Another Vietnam/Seeds of Liberty (1981)
Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema (1986)
Through the Wire (1990)
Women’s Rights History (1990)
Liberators: Fighting On Two Fronts in World War II (1992)
Lock-Up: The Prisoners of Rikers Island (1993)
Speaking Out: To Touch The Souls Of Our Ancestors (1994)
Interviewed by Sheryl Pimlott, School of Social Work Lecturer, IRWG Research Investigator, University of Michigan.

South African Constitutional Gender Equality Clause Consultants

(All of the following women were consultants on the drafting of South Africa’s Constitution and proponents of the gender equality clause.)
 
Penelope Andrews
Professor
City University of New York Law School, Queens College
Penelope Andrews is currently a professor at the City University of New York Law School at Queens College. She was an associate in law at the Legal Resource Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. She received the Chamberlain Fellowship in Legislation during which she researched labor relations in South Africa. She has published articles on topics including affirmative action, human rights, and gender in South Africa.
 
Mojanku Gumbi
Legal Advisor to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki
Mojanku Gumbi is a member of the Pan African Congress. She has served as the National Director of the Black Lawyers Association Legal Education Centre, a member of the Legal Working Group: Women’s National Coalition, and the Director of the Women’s Development Bank.
 
Tuli Madonfela
Deputy Director, Planning Unit
South Africa Ministry of Justice
Tuli Madonfela is a former researcher at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies in Johannesburg.
 
The Honourable Mavivi Manzini
Member of South African Parliament
Mavinia Manzini is also Parliamentary Councillor to the Executive Committee and Secretary of the Constitutional Committee. She obtained a master’s degree in Development Studies, with a specialization in Women in Development, at the Institute of Social Studies in Hague. She served on the African National Congress Constitutional Negotiating Team during 1993 and 1994, was a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress Women’s League from 1981-1995, and was a founding member of the Women’s National Coalition.
 
Christina Murray
Professor of Law
University of Cape Town
Christina Murray completed her LLM at the University of Michigan, where she concentrated on American Constitutional Law. She is co-author of the latest edition of Farlam and Hathaway on Contract, but her research focuses on human rights issues. She is a founding editor of the South African Journal on Human Rights and her published work includes articles on international humanitarian law, refugee law, marital rape, and polygamy.
 
Kgomotso Moroka
Advocate
Johannesburg, South Africa
Kgomotso Moroka is a practicing advocate and member of the Johannesburg Society of Advocates. She obtained a B. Proc from the University of the North and an LLB degree from the University of the Witwatersrand. She also was a member of the Judicial Services Commission, a member of Committee for the Restructuring of Social Security: Department of Welfare, and a member of the Technical Committee on discrimination at the Multi-Party negotiations held at Kempton Park. She served on the National Executive for the Black Lawyer Association.

Chrissie Stansfield
Documentary Filmmaker

Chrissie Stansfield originally trained as a social worker in London. She began working in film and video in 1983 as a member of the all woman production company, Sheffield Film Co-Op. There she worked on many documentaries in a variety of capacities. She became a freelance filmmaker in 1991. Ten of her documentaries on political and social issues have been televised. Stansfield’s visit to Ann Arbor was arranged to coincide with the screening of her documentary Bringing It All Back Home. The film analyzes how the patterns of international capital investment and the exploitation of Third World women workers in free trade zones are being brought home to the First World. This film urges women workers in First World countries to learn from the challenges Third World women have made to the concept of development.

Interviewed by Margarita Hurtado, Lecturer in the Program in Film and Video Studies, University of Michigan.

Enid Sutherland,
Composer, Cellist
&
Alice Fulton,
Poet, Writer

In this video entitled "A Conversation with Enid Sutherland and Alice Fulton, the two artists discuss their creative collaboration Mail: Daphne & Apollo Remade, a musical setting composed by Sutherland for a poem by Fulton .

Enid Sutherland is a composer, cellist, and one of America 's foremost proponents of the viola da gamba. She has performed as a soloist and in various chamber groups across the United States, Canada , and the Far East . She is based in Ann Arbor where she attracts students from across the country. Ms. Sutherland has formed the Ann Arbor Concert of Viols and the Sutherland Ensemble.

Alice Fulton is a poet and writer. She has received national acclaim for her poems and essays and is a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and various other foundations. Her publications include Powers of Congress, Central Math, Palladium, Felt, and a collection of essays called Feeling as a Foreign Language: The Good Strangeness of Poetry .

Violette Verdy
Professor of Dance
School of Music, Indiana University, Bloomington , IN

Violette Verdy is one of the great dancers of the 20 th Century. Born in Point-l'Abbé-Lambour, France, in 1933, she began her career in 1945 with the Ballets des Champs-Elysées, and later joined Roland Petit's Ballets de Paris in 1950. She was a principal with the New York City Ballet from 1958 to 1977. She created roles in Le Loup by Petit (1953); in Balanchine's Episodes (1959), Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux (1960), Liebeslieder Walzer (1960), Electronics (1961), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1962), Jewels (1967), La Source (1968), Pulcinella (1972), and Sonatine (1975); and in Dances at a Gathering (1969) and In The Night by Robbins (1970). Verdy was the first woman to be named artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet, where she served from 1977 to 1980. Currently, she is a professor of dance at Indiana University in Bloomington , Indiana .

Interviewed by Beth Genne, Associate Professor, Department of Dance, University of Michigan.

Barbara Zahm
Producer and Director of Films and Videos
New York City

Barbara Zahm has produced and directed numerous award-winning films and videos for public television and educational distribution, including The Last Graduation: The Rise and Fall of College Programs in Prison. She has a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the New School for Social Research, and for the past several years, has taught Anthropology and Documentary Film for Marist College at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut.

Interviewed by Sheryl Pimlott, School of Social Work Lecturer, IRWG Research Investigator, University of Michigan.

Eleonora Zielinska
Professor of Law and Director 
Institute of Penal Law
Warsaw University

Eleonora Zielinska is the author of Social and Legal Assessments of Abortion: A Comparative Study. Zielinska has taught courses on reproductive rights from a feminist perspective, and equal-status laws in Europe. She is the Council of Europe expert on gender equality and violence against women. Zielinska was a Visiting Scholar at Rutgers University in East European Studies.

Interviewed by Jacqueline Payne, University of Michigan Law Student and Pauline Gianoplus, University of Michigan Sociology Doctoral Student.

 

 

Questions? Comments? E-mail irwg@umich.edu.
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Last updated Thursday, May 24, 2007.