On Sept. 22, Karen Weingarten, assistant professor of English, spoke about her recently published book titled Abortion in the American Imagination: Before Life and Choice, 1880 – 1940 in colloquia hosted by the Women’s Studies department. Weingarten discussed how early 20th century literary works, films and culture could help us understand the issue of abortion. “I argue in my book that by looking at abortion rhetoric from the early 20th century, we can see how anti-abortion sentiment emerged from anxieties about race, immigration and changing economic conditions,” Weingarten said. “I think that the current abortion debate is still influenced by those same factors, but the current controversy about abortion tends…
-
-
Queens College professor examines findings in latest book
The women’s studies department held an event on Oct. 21 in Rosenthal Library to showcase Barbara Simerka’s book, which applies cognitive theories to gender, class and identity in early modern Spanish literature. Simerka is a Spanish professor, who has published over twenty essays focusing on interdisciplinary and feminist approaches. She is also a founding executive board member of GEMELA, a group that focuses on medieval and early modern Spain and colonial Latin American women’s writing and culture. Simerka’s latest book, “Knowing Subjects,” draws on the theory of mind in order to analyze early modern Spanish literature, such as works by Cervantes and Gracián. Theory of mind is the ability to…