Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Alice Kessler-Harris, 2015
| Creator: | Kessler-Harris, Alice | Project: | Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality oral history collection.
(see all project interviews) | Phys. Desc. : | Transcript: 108 pages | | Location: | Columbia Center for Oral History | | Full CLIO record >> |
Biographical NoteAlice Kessler-Harris is the R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of American History. She is also Professor in the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. Dr. Kessler-Harris specializes in the history of American labor and the comparative and interdisciplinary exploration of women and gender. She received her B. A. from Goucher College (1961) and her Ph.D. from Rutgers (1968). Her published works include: In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in Twentieth Century America (2001); Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States (1982); A Woman's Wage: Historical Meanings and Social Consequences (1990); and Women Have Always Worked: A Historical Overview (1981). She is co-editor of (1995) and U.S. History as Women's History (1995). Some of Kessler-Harris' essays in women's labor history are collected in Gendering Labor History (2007). Her book A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life and Times of Lillian Hellman was published in 2012. Kessler-Harris came to Columbia in 1999, and was the first person to be hired with a half-line in IRWGS
Scope and ContentsAcross this four-session interview, Alice Kessler-Harris discusses her research and early career which emerged from the women's movement of the 1970s. Kessler-Harris discusses her role as a lead witness in the 1986 case brought against Sears, Roebuck and Company for gender discrimination, and her related 1990 publication A Woman's Wage. Kessler-Harris talks about the beginnings of her academic career, including her experiences teaching at Rutgers University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Hofstra University. She also discusses the guidance she received from Rutgers historian Warren Sussman and her work with District 65 of the United Automobile Workers union before accepting a position at Columbia University. Kessler-Harris discusses the introduction of gender as a category of analysis in the 1990s and, upon her arrival at Columbia, the transition within the women's studies department from activist scholarship to public intellectualism, and the increasingly post-structural, theoretical direction of women's studies. Additionally, Kessler-Harris describes what she sees as a decline in student activism while also acknowledging the role of students in helping her create safe spaces for transgender students. Furthermore, Kessler-Harris discusses her program "Social Justice After the Welfare State" at the Center for the Study of Social Difference, and the role of intersectionality in the future of IRWGS.
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2015
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