| Judith Gold Stitzel, Ph.D. |
". . . Social change does not happen automatically but requires our concerted attention . . . we must come together to strengthen each other and renew our committments."
--Judith Stitzel, March 20, 1991
Dr. Judith Gold Stitzel is the "founding mother" of women's studies in West Virginia. Her retirement, in from West Virginia University, after 33 years on the faculty, provided an opportunity to honor her, recognize the strength of the women's studies program that she developed here, and reflect on her pioneering work on behalf of women's studies across the state and nation.
Dr. Stitzel received her B.A. in English from Barnard College in 1961, her M.A. in English from the University of Wisconsin in 1962, and her Ph.D. in English from the University of Minnesota in 1968. She was a teaching assistant and instructor at the University of Minnesota, then joined the faculty of WVU as an instructor in the Department of English in 1965. She was promoted to assistant professor in 1968, to associate professor in 1972, and to professor in 1979. In 1980, she became the first coordinator for the women's studies program and, in 1984, the first director of the Center for Women's Studies, serving in that position until 1992. She also initiated the WVU Writing Lab in 1967. In addition, she assisted in the development of the undergraduate certificate in African and African-American Studies at WVU.
Under Dr. Stitzel's leadership, women's studies at WVU grew from a few courses in the Department of English to a multidisciplinary program that included faculty and students across the university. Women's studies became an established academic discipline, with students earning an undergraduate certificate in women's studies. She developed or co-developed courses on Images of Women in Literature, Women Writers in England and America, Teaching Women's Literature from a Regional Perspective, Women in International Development, Women and Science, Methods and Perspectives in Women's Studies, Introduction to Women's Studies, Feminist Theorizing, and Honors Senior Seminar on Women as Knowers, and Mothers and Daughters. Many of her publications have dealt with feminist pedagogy and women and literature.
Dr. Stitzel has always been interested in public outreach related to women's studies. She founded and directed the Joanne and Charles Dickinson Symposium for twelve years, bringing scholars to the WVU campus to present programs on a wide variety of subjects related to women. She initiated and co-chaired the Centenary of Women's Education at WVU, was a member of the Humanities Foundation of West Virginia's board of directors (now West Virginia Humanities Council), served as a humanities consultant for numerous Humanities Foundation grants, and has presented programs around the state related to women's issues. She has also been active in the North Central Women's Studies Association National Women's Studies Association and has lectured on women's studies at universities in Australia, England, Denmark, Indonesia.
Dr. Stitzel has received numerous awards for her outstanding teaching and contributions to women. She received Outstanding Teaching Awards from WVU in 1974 and 1979, and Outstanding Teacher Award from the College of Arts & Sciences in 1989, was named the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) West Virginia Professor of the Year in 1989 and was a CASE Silver Medalist in the National Professor of the Year in 1991, when she also received a WVU Foundation Outstanding Teacher Award. In addition, Dr. Stitzel has received WVU's Mary Catherine Buswell Award for Outstanding Service to University Women (1982), the Minority Students Faculty Recognition Award (1983), the International Students Award (1984), the WCLG Outstanding Woman of the Year Award (1985),the WV N.O.W. 6th Annual Susan B. Anthony Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Advancement of Women in West Virginia (1986), the Celebrate Women Award in Education from the West Virginia Women's Commission (1995), and the WVU Neil S. Bucklew Social Justice Award (1998).
For more information on Judith Stitzel's ongoing legacy to the Center for Women's Studies, see the Judith Gold Stitzel Endowment for Excellence in Women's StudiesTeaching and Learning and the annual Women's Studies Residency in Honor of Judith Gold Stitzel.