THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Judith Ezekiel
“As far as my connection to feminists, it’s in my bloodline.”
An activist against the war in Vietnam, and in the labor, antiracist and feminist movements in the U.S and France. Professor emerita in Women’s Studies and African American Studies at Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. Author of Feminism in the Heartland, and has published on the U.S. and French women’s movements, Franco-American misrepresentations, and intersectionality of race and gender in numerous journals around the world. Co-founded the French, European and International Women’s Studies Associations, the first French women of color research group, and a founding member of the Conseil Répresentatif des Associations Noires.
Interviewed by Judy Waxman, July 2022
Photo. Feminism in the Heartland, by Judith Ezekiel.
More About Judith:
- Select articles and talks by Judith Ezkiel
- Confederate statues are monuments to the ‘Lost Cause’ cult of white supremacy, July 23, 2020
- Black Women’s Lives Matter. July 21, 2020
- Changing race: Judith Ezekiel at TEDx Dayton, February 9, 2014
- “My 1968 in the Heartland,” by Judith Ezekiel, Against the Current, No. 133, March/April 2008
- Celebrating Women: from Mothers Day to International Women’s Day, August 18, 2011
- “Biography of Rachel Brill Ezekiel, 1870 – 1965,” by Judith Ezekiel, Women’s Studies, Wright State University
- Select publications by Judith Ezekiel
- (With Kelli Zaytoun), “Sisterhood in Movement: Feminist Solidarity in France and the U.S.,” Frontiers 37:1 (2016) 195-314.
- “I Grew Up White: Crossing Borders and Changing Race.” Meridians 10:2, (April 2010) 124-140.
- “Left Feminism or Feminism for the Left: A Franco-American View.” In Frigga Haug, ed, Herausgegeben im Auftrag der Programmkommission der Partei Die Linke, Berlin, 2009. Rpt in Frigga Haug, ed. Feministische Briefe aus der Ferne, Hamburg: Argumentverlag, 2010.
- “French Dressing: Race, Gender and the Hijab Story.” Feminist Studies 32:2 (Summer 2006)
- “Katrina à la Nouvelle-Orléans: le genre de la catastrophe.” L’Homme et la Société 158 (Winter 2005) 155-156.
- “Magreb Meets Magritte: This is Not a Veil.” Australian Feminist Studies 20 (July 2005), 47. Rev. ed and trans as “Magritte rencontre Maghreb: ceci n’est pas un voile.” Confluences Méditeranée 59 (automne 2006), 43-56.
- Construction and Demonization of American Feminism in Contemporary France.” In Georgy Katzarov, ed. Regards sur l’antiaméricanisme: Une Histoire culturelle. Paris: Harmattan/Musée d’Art Américaine, Terra Foundations for the Arts, 2004, 233-49.
- “Le Women’s Lib: Made in France,” European Journal of Women’s Studies 9:3 (August 2002).
- “Le ‘Spectre de la ‘victime’: Femmes, féminisme en Amérique aujourd’hui.” Les Temps Modernes 593 (April-May 1997), 167-200.
- “Antiféminisme et antiaméricanisme: Un Mariage politiquement réussi? Nouvelles Questions Feministes 17:1 (February 1996), 59-76.
- Archives
- Union Maids film, referenced in Judith’s interview, directed and produced by James Klein, Miles Mogulescu and Julia Reichert. Features the oral histories of 3 women labor activists involved in the workers’ movements in the early 1930s: Kate Hyndman, Stella Nowicki, and Sylvia Woods. Nominated for an Oscar in 1978 for best feature documentary and winner in 1978 of the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics’ “Critics Award” for Best Short.