Noted feminist to tally 'real costs of Iraq War'

"Picking Up the Pieces: Using a Feminist Curiosity to Tally the Real Costs of the Iraq War" is the topic of this year's Karen L. Coburn Lecture at Skidmore, to be delivered by Cynthia Enloe.

Free and open to the public, the talk begins at 6 p.m. Monday, April 19, in Gannett Auditorium of Palamountain Hall.

Enloe, a research professor at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., is the author of The Curious Feminist and other books. Her teaching specialties include women's studies, international development, community, and the environment. She is interested in the ways in which feminism, militarized cultures, women, war, politics, and globalized economics have interacted in countries such as Japan, Iraq, the U.S., Great Britain, the Philippines, Canada, Chile, and Turkey.

In reviewing Enloe's 2004 book, Maneuvers: The Interntional Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives, critic Kathy Ferguson pointed out, "her method for provoking our curiosity is a trademark of her work...she accumulates a critical mass of events, policies, practices, statements, and vignettes. She tacks back and forth between specific examples and general observations about cases. She connects similar stories form different parts of the world, juxtaposing familiar with unfamiliar illustrations?until patterns paint themselves."

Enloe's newest book is Nimo's War, Emma's War" Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War (2010). Her previous 12 books include Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (2000); The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in the New Age of Empire (2004); and Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link (2007).

Enloe earned a B.A. degree cum laude at Connecticut College in 1960 and M.A. (1963) and Ph.D. (1967) degrees at the University of California at Berkeley. Her career has included Fulbrights in Malaysia and Guyana, and guest professorships in Japan, Britain, and Canada. She has lecture din Sweden, Norway, Germany, Korea, Turkey, and at universities around the U.S., and her books and articles have been translated into Spanish, Turkish, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, and German. Enloe has written for Ms. Magazine and has appeared on National Public Radio and the BBC.

Among other honors, Enloe has been selected "Outstanding Teacher" at Clark University three times, and was named University Senior Faculty Fellow for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship.

In 2009 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of London School of Oriental and Asian Studies.

Skidmore's Coburn Lecture honors Karen Levin Coburn '63, co-author of the well-known book Letting Go: A Parent's Guide to Understanding the College Years. Established in 2005, the lecture series is designed to enrich the Women's Studies curriculum and raise the level of conversations about gender studies on campus.