"Liz brought great wisdom and experience to the UA. Her integrity, work ethic and sheer stubbornness to get the right outcome in any situation are unparalleled."
~ Miranda Joseph, associate professor, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies.
Above: Dr. Liz Kennedy speaks at the Women's Plaza of Honor dedication ceremony, 2005. Photo by Christine Scheer.
Dedication to a Groundbreaker
The Liz Kennedy Endowment
Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, a longtime faculty member and former head of the UA Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, is a major founding figure in women’s studies. As Kennedy prepares for retirement, her colleagues and friends have banded together to fund an endowment in her name.
Kennedy founded one of the first women’s studies departments at the State University of New York (SUNY)/Buffalo in 1971. Perhaps more importantly, in “Kindling in the Groves of Academe,” she and her colleagues wrote about their experience, sparking the proliferation of women’s studies departments across the country.
Kennedy’s next book “Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold” (co-authored by Madeline Davis) was a groundbreaking oral history project of working-class lesbians.
“She and a handful of other scholars pioneered the field of lesbian and gay history,” said Professor Laura Briggs, a donor to the endowment. “It seemed like Liz mentored everybody who was working on a dissertation on a topic in LGBT history, no matter how far they were from SUNY/Buffalo. When I came to the University of Arizona, Liz’s leadership was a huge part of my decision to pursue a career in gender and women’s studies here.”
“Liz Lapovsky Kennedy has contributed immeasurably as a scholar to LGBTQ history and women’s studies; it would not be an exaggeration to say that she is a founder of both fields,” said Caryl Flinn, head of the UA Department of Gender and Women’s Studies.
Among the things that have mattered most to Kennedy during her career is mentoring students, and in 2009, Kennedy was honored with a UA Graduate and Professional Teaching and Mentoring Award.
“What is most impressive is how Liz combines her intellectual insight and her warm personality,” said Meredith Trauner, a former student. “She is deeply committed to collaboration and mentoring. Liz has been extremely generous in inviting students to co-author books and essays.”
Kennedy’s dedication to her students is one of the reasons her colleagues decided to honor her by creating the Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy (ELK) Endowment, which will support graduate students who are working on the kinds of issues to which Liz devoted her career: indigenous peoples, LGBTQ history, oral history, race and class inequality, and social movements.
It is a testimony to Kennedy’s popularity that all of the staff and faculty in her department have donated to the fellowship endowment.
“Liz brought great wisdom and experience to the UA. Her integrity, work ethic and sheer stubbornness to get the right outcome in any situation are unparalleled,” said Miranda Joseph, an associate professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies.
To securely donate to the endowment online, visit this link.
For more information, please contact Caryl Flinn at 520-626-5908 or
cflinn@email.arizona.
For more information, contact Lori Harwood at 520-626-3846 • Editor