cover image DISCIPLINING FEMINISM: From Social Activism to Academic Discourse

DISCIPLINING FEMINISM: From Social Activism to Academic Discourse

Ellen Messer-Davidow, Ellen Messer-Davidow, Messer-Davidow, . . Duke Univ., $21.95 (424pp) ISBN 978-0-8223-2843-8

What happens to a radical grassroots movement when its ideas enter the conventional intellectual climate of the academy? This is the central question addressed in Messer-Davidow's impressively detailed history of the emergence of women's studies in higher education in the U.S. Messer-Davidow, an associate professor of English at the University of Minnesota, illustrates her claims with effective first-person narratives of intellectual struggle and personal transformation. Her discussion of the influence of the antiwar and civil rights movements on the later development of women's studies, and the dubious results of early sex-discrimination suits in academe are particularly thought-inspiring from historical and social standpoints. Messer-Davidow's thorough research into the origins and development of intellectual feminism will serve as a useful resource for feminist scholars wishing to track the development of their discipline. However, she focuses too closely on scholarly minutiae—e.g., outlining the specific foci of various scholarly journals or the responses of individual modern language organizations to feminist criticism. Though she doesn't develop the broader more provocative questions she initially raises about the productive yet potentially damaging relationship between intellectual practice and social change, her discussion expands to include feminist social workers and physicists, the constraining effects of university norms and, in contrast, feminist academia's "superabundance" of "jostling criticisms and jousting practitioners." Messer-Davidow maintains that the great divide between the feminist world's scholars and activists cripples both. It's ironic, then, that academic jargon is so rampant in her book. This forceful account of narrowly focused debates will appeal to feminist studies scholars only. (Feb.)