From Suffragettes to #MeToo

Professors Lynn Chancer (GC/Hunter, Sociology) and Nancy K. Miller (English, Comparative Literature, and French) have written two timely books on feminism.

In her forthcoming book, After the Rise and Stall of American Feminism: Taking Back a Revolution, Chancer chronicles the development of the feminist movement in the U.S. and unpacks its potential in this age of Me Too and shifting cultural norms.

In her book, My Brilliant Friends, Miller merges memoir and biography to create a portrait of her friendships with three prominent feminist scholars: Carolyn Heilbrun, Diane Middlebrook, and Naomi Schor.

In separate interviews with The Graduate Center, they discussed their books and their motivations for writing them. 

Why This Book Isn’t Called ‘I’m Not a Feminist, But …’

How do you tell the story of a movement that’s making headlines daily?

That was the task facing Professor Lynn Chancer as she tackled her latest book, After the Rise and Stall of American Feminism: Taking Back a Revolution.

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My Feminist Friends

Over seven years near the beginning of the 21st century, Distinguished Professor Nancy K. Miller lost three dear friends. She’d met and fashioned friendships with the scholars Carolyn Heilbrun, Naomi Schor, and Diane Middlebrook at varying points in her academic career. They had in many ways helped her identify and pursue her passion for writing, but also helped her navigate the fraught nature of academia in the 1970s, when women were fighting for recognition as well as a seat at the table. Without them, Miller not only felt bereft, but unsure of who she was.

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