Summary
Estelle Freedman (born 1947) is an American historian. Estelle (Sneezy) grew up in Harrisburg and went to Susquehanna Township High School. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Barnard College in 1969 and her Master of Arts (1972) and PhD (1976) in history from Columbia University. She has taught at Stanford University since 1976 and is a co-founder of the Program in Feminist Studies.
She is the Edgar E. Robinson Professor in U.S. History at Stanford University. Her research has explored the history of women and social reform, including feminism and women’s prison reform, as well as the history of sexuality, including the history of sexual violence.
OnAir Post: Estelle Freedman
News
– January 16, 2020
Growing up in the predominantly white town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, Clayborne Carson learned about the civil rights movement from the news: school desegregation, lunch counter sit-ins, the Freedom Riders. But in 1963, he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)—Black rights activists who “exemplified the rebelliousness and impatience I felt as a teenager,” he writes in his memoir, Martin’s Dream: My Journey and the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. “We admired King, but he was too cautious,” Carson said recently. “In some ways, the relationship was like this generation with respect to President Obama—admiration for him but not waiting for his guidance.” That guidance—and the resulting inflection point that would transform American race relations—came from young people engaging in civil disobedience.
Carson, now a professor of history and the director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford, believes the youth made the protests of the 1960s and 2020 possible by turning out in record numbers. “I think that’s the main role of young people in the past two upsurges of protest,” Carson says. “The ’60s in general was certainly sparked by the students in Greensboro who sat in the lunch counter and set off a wave of sit-in protests.” But Carson sees further parallels between then and now: technological innovations that activists harness to organize, to make people see injustice and to sway public opinion, as well as disillusionment with the national story of progress and equality.
1968 saw uprisings around the world opposing racism, state violence and war. It was also the year that changed the path of Estelle Freedman, then a junior at Barnard College. As a freshman, she had optimistic liberal beliefs but was far from being a radical. “Then I came into contact, in sociology and history and political science—as well as on the streets and in the antiwar movement and in the student movement—with the realization that things are not as you were led to believe and that the government was not so forthcoming about what was happening in the war,” says Freedman, now a professor of history at Stanford. “All of that really came to a head for me in the spring of 1968 during the student protests and strike at Columbia.”
Stanford – August 10, 2019 (00:00)
Stanford University Libraries – January 23, 2016
About
Source: Stanford Department of History
Estelle Freedman is a U.S. historian specializing in women’s history and feminist studies. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in history from Columbia University and her B.A. in history from Barnard College. She has taught at Stanford University since 1976 and is a co-founder of the Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Her contributions to teaching have been recognized by Stanford’s Dinkelspiel Award, Dean’s Award, Rhodes Prize, and Kahn-Van Slyke Graduate Mentoring Award, as well as the Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award for graduate mentorship from the American Historical Association. She is also a recipient of numerous national research fellowships.
Web Links
- Stanford Department of History page
- Stanford Profile
- Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
- Wikipedia
Books
Honors and Awards
Source: Wikipedia
Freedman is the recipient of four teaching awards at Stanford as well as the Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award for graduate mentorship from the American Historical Association[4] and the Millicent McIntosh Award for Feminism from Barnard College.[5] She has received numerous research fellowships, including grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Association of University Women, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.[6] She has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and at the Stanford Humanities Center.
Her first book, Their Sisters’ Keepers received the Alice and Edith Hamilton Prize for best scholarly manuscript on women from the University of Michigan in 1978 and was published in 1981. She has won the Frances Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize from the Western Association of Women Historians three times: in 1982 for Victorian Women: A Documentary Account (shared), in 1997 for Maternal Justice, and in 2014 for Redefining Rape.[7] Redefining Rape also won the 2014 Darlene Clark Hine Award from the Organization of American Historians[8] and the 2014 Emily Toth Award (Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association).[9]
Her book My Desire for History, coedited with John D’Emilio, received the 2013 John Boswell Prize from the Committee on LGBT History of the American Historical Association.[10] Her earlier co-authored book with John D’Emilio, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America, was cited by Justice Anthony Kennedy in his 2003 opinion for Lawrence v. Texas, with which the American Supreme Court overturned all remaining anti-sodomy laws.[11][12] Her 2013 book Redefining Rape: Sexual Violence in the Era of Suffrage and Segregation won the Darlene Clark Hine Award from the Organization of American Historians.[13]
Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations
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Chair, John D’Emilio Dissertation Prize Committee, Organization of American Historians (2016 – 2017)
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Historical Conversations co-coordinator, Department of History (2014 – 2016)
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Faculty Fellow, Clayman Institute for Gender Research, (2015 – 2016)
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Co-convener, Gender/Women’s History Workshop, Department of History, Stanford University (1992 – Present)
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Member, Gita Chaudhuri Prize Committee, Western Association of Women Historians (2014 – 2017)
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Chair, Prize Committee, Department of History, Stanford University (2013 – 2014)
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Department Workshop Planning Committee, Department of History, Stanford University (2008 – 2009)
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Chair, Departmental Graduate Admissions, Department of History, Stanford University (2002 – 2004)
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Chair, Departmental Graduate Admissions, Department of History, Stanford University (2005 – 2009)
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Member, Departmental Policy Committee (elected), Department of History, Stanford University (1989 – 1990)
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Member, Departmental Policy Committee (elected), Department of History, Stanford University (1993 – 1994)
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Member, Departmental Policy Committee (elected), Department of History, Stanford University (2006 – 2009)
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Member, Graduate Studies Committee, Department of History, Stanford University (1976 – 1979)
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Member, Graduate Studies Committee, Department of History, Stanford University (1993 – 1998)
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Member, Undergraduate Studies Committee, Department of History, Stanford University (1983 – 1984)
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Member, Undergraduate Studies Committee, Department of History, Stanford University (1992 – 1993)
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Member, Affirmative Action Committee, Department of History, Stanford University (1976 – 1985)
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Member, Affirmative Action Committee, Department of History, Stanford University (1984 – 1985)
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Chair, Boswell and Nestle Prizes, Committee on LGBT History, AHA (2014 – 2014)
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Member, Nominating Committee, Organization of American Historians (1991 – 1993)
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Co-Chair, Program Committee for 1999 Annual Meeting, Organization of American Historians (1999 – 1999)
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Member, Ad Hoc Committee on the Annual Meeting, Organization of American Historians (2003 – 2004)
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Member, Binkley-Stephenson Award Committee, Organization of American Historians (2005 – 2008)
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Member, Program Committee, Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association (1988 – 1988)
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Member, Roelker Award Committee, American Historical Association (2004 – 2007)
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Member, Coordinating Committee on Women in History
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Member, Academic Advisory Council, Jewish Women’s Archives
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Conference Coordinator, Western Association of Women Historians (1978 – 1979)
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Member, Program Committee, Western Association of Women Historians (1980 – 1981)
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Past Associate Editor, Signs (1980 – 1985)
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Past Associate Editor, Journal of Women in Culture and Society (1980 – 1985)
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Past Editorial Board Member, Feminist Studies (1985 – 1990)
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Past Editorial Board Member, Gender and History (1985 – 1990)
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Past Editorial Board Member, NWSA Journal (1985 – 1990)
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Past Editorial Board Member, Journal of Women’s History (1985 – 1990)
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Past Editorial Board Member, The Journal of Sex Research (1985 – 1990)
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Past Editorial Board Member, The Journal of Homosexuality (1985 – 1990)
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Past Editorial Board Member, The Journal of Lesbian Studies (1985 – 1990)
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Past Editorial Board Member, Journal of the History of Sexuality (1985 – 1990)
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Member, Scholars Selection Committee, Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford University (2007 – 2008)
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Member (elected), President’s Advisory Board, Stanford University (1999 – 2001)
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Member, Faculty Women’s Caucus Steering Committee, Stanford University (1997 – 1998)
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Co-Convener, Stanford Humanities Center Faculty-Graduate Student Workshop on Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Studies, Stanford University (1999 – 2000)
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Co-Convener, Stanford Humanities Center Faculty-Graduate Student Workshop on Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Studies, Stanford University (1997 – 1998)
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Member, program committee, Program in Feminist Studies, Stanford University (1980 – 1985)
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Member, program committee, Program in Feminist Studies, Stanford University (1988 – 1990)
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Member, Program Committee, Program in Feminist Studies, Stanford University (1993 – 1994)
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Member, program committee, Program in Feminist Studies, Stanford University (2001 – 2010)
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Coordinator, Faculty Seminar on Feminist Theory, Stanford University (1980 – 1981)
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Coordinator, Faculty Seminar on Feminist Theory, Stanford University (1987 – 1988)
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Coordinator, Faculty Seminar on Feminist Theory, Stanford University (1984 – 1985)
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Coordinator, Faculty Seminar on Feminist Theory, Stanford University (1994 – 2001)
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Coordinator, Selection, Committee, Graduate Women’s Network, Stanford University (1994 – 1995)
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Member, Faculty Advisory Board, Stanford Women’s Center, Stanford University (1991 – 1992)
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Member, Faculty Advisory Board, Stanford Women’s Center, Stanford University (2002 – Present)
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Member, Faculty Advisory Board, Gender Studies Focus House, Stanford University (1989 – 1990)
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Member, Task Force on the Study of Women at Stanford, Stanford University (1979 – 1979)
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Member, Policy Board, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Stanford University (1977 – 1979)
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Chair, Scholar Selection Committee, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Stanford University (1977 – 1979)
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Faculty Affiliate, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Stanford University (1980 – Present)
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Member, Advisory Board, Simone de Beauvoir House, Stanford University (1977 – 1978)
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Chair, Program Review Committee for Individually Designed Majors, Stanford University (1993 – 1994)
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Faculty course sponsor, Stanford Workshops on Political and Social Issues/Innovative Academic Courses, Stanford University (1986 – 1987)
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Member, Course Selection Committee, Stanford Workshops on Political and Social Issues/Innovative Academic Courses, Stanford University (1986 – 1987)
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Stanford Board member, American Association of University Professors (1986 – 1988)
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Member, Advisory committee, Jewish Studies Program, Stanford University (1987 – 1989)
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Member, Advisory committee, Jewish Studies Program, Stanford University (1994 – 1999)
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Member, Advisory Board, Gay and Lesbian Alliance at Stanford, Stanford University (1987 – 1988)
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Member, Asian American Studies Search Committee, Stanford University (1989 – 1990)
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Chair, Individually Designed Majors Committee, Stanford University (1988 – 1990)
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Member, American Studies Committee, Stanford University (1976 – 1982)
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Member, American Studies Committee, Stanford University (2003 – Present)
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Member, Professional Journalism Fellows Selection Committee, Stanford University (1978 – 1990)
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Member, Advisory Board, Stanford Center for Chicano Research, Stanford University (1980 – 1982)
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Member, Modern Thought and Literature Committee, Stanford University (1976 – 1978)
