UA Department of American Studies Raising Funds for Lecture Series

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The department of American studies at The University of Alabama is raising funds to support a new lecture series: The Rose Gladney Lecture on Justice and Social Change.

Dr. Rose Gladney, who recently retired as an associate professor of American studies, spent her career working on issues of social justice and change. She was one of the early professors in UA’s women’s studies department and helped craft the master’s program in that field. She also helped develop and sustain the African American studies minor.

Her role in working for equity for all people on the UA campus and in the larger Tuscaloosa community led to a 1987 award of the first Autherine Lucy Foster Award for service, leadership and support for minority programming.

“I’ve always been interested in people’s lives and oral histories,” she said. “We have to write our own history and get past the idea that only whites are Southerners. The South is a multi-cultural region. All its people have created the culture and are worthy of study.”

Gladney grew up in Louisiana, and it was while working on her doctorate in New Mexico in the early 1970s that she was introduced to Lillian Smith. That introduction led to a 1993 book, “How Am I to Be Heard?: Letters of Lillian Smith,” which Gladney edited. In it, she explored Smith’s views of Southern self-deception about race, class, gender and sexuality and the ways in which the South’s attitudes and institutions perpetuated dehumanizing experiences for all its people.

“It was because of Smith’s work that I knew it was important for me to teach in the South and to teach about Southerners who have both appreciated and challenged their culture,” Gladney said. “Lillian Smith was about using the past to move into the future, and so am I.”

The department is working toward a goal of raising $20,000 that will enable the lecture series to become a yearly event. Anyone interested in making a contribution to the establishment of the fund should contact Dr. Lynne Adrian, associate professor of American studies, 205/348-9762.

The departments of American studies and women’s studies are housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest public liberal arts college in the state, with approximately 5,500 undergraduates and 1,000 graduate students. The College has received national recognition for academic excellence, and the College’s students have been selected for many of the nation’s top academic honors, including 13 Rhodes Scholarships, 14 Goldwater Scholarships, seven Truman Scholarships and 15 memberships on USA Today’s Academic All-American teams.

Editor’s Note: To interview Dr. Rose Gladney, contact Elizabeth Smith in media relations.