Background on Sylvia Forman
The anthropologist Sylvia Helen Forman (1944 or 1945-1994) received her doctorate from the University of California Berkeley in 1972 for her study of law and conflict in rural highland Ecuador and the following year she joined the faculty at UMass Amherst. From early in her career, she stood out as an advocate for her students and was instrumental in building cross-connections among anthropologists in the Five Colleges to expand opportunities for study, and she forged strong connections as well with the developing programs in women's studies.
A feminist and activist, deeply involved in campus politics, Forman was known around the UMass campus for her passion for social justice and her commitment to challenging the image of her field as a white men. In the profession, she was known as one of the founders of the Association for Feminist Anthropology in 1998. When Forman died of lung cancer in 1992, she bequeathed $100,000 of her estate to endow a fund to support a scholarship fund for Third World students wishing to study anthropology at UMass.
Scope of collection
The nine papers in this collection were the products of studies by students enrolled in Forman's Anthropology 497 class at UMass Amherst. All are intensive analyses of issues of race, gender, and social justice in local communities, including disability, teenage pregnancy, child care, Cambodian refugees, and attitudes toward community living and community change.
Inventory
Barnaba, Pier and Tryna Hope: The right of return: perspectives on community living
1985 Aug.
Box 1
Blanchard, Eliza; David Chevalier; and Maritza Guzman: Teenage pregnancy: a needs assessment of young women's perceptions about and access to family planning services and prenatal care in Holyoke
1987 June
Box 1
Deliso, Peter and Michelle Patterson: Crossing lines: a community relations project: Amherst-Hadley-the University of Massachusetts
1984 Aug. 2
Box 1
Fabel, Elizabeth; Lisa Sammet; and Joan White: Community growth: planning for the future of Leverett
1985 Dec.
Box 1
Frick, Gregory D. and Hans A. Helgerson: Knowing Deerfield: A survey of perceptions, information transfer, and citizen involvement in Deerfield, Ma.
1983 June
Box 1
Groves, Alison: Pelham and change: a study in citizen perception with regard to growth in Pelham, Massachusetts
1987
Box 1
Halverson, Sheril and Cheryl Tausky-Hollocher: Availability of child care to lower-income parents in Amherst : A needs assessment
1984 May 31
Box 1
Lopez, Felice and Joyce Conlon: Reaching out: a report in cultural diversity
1987 June 15
Box 1
Schneider, Cathy and Suellen Loyd: An informational study of a select group of Cambodian refugees and their sponsors
1986 Feb.
Box 1
Administrative information
Search terms
Subjects
- Amherst (Mass.)--Social conditions--20th century
- Anthropology--Massachusetts
- Cambodians--Massachusetts
- Child care--Massachusetts
- Community and college--Massachusetts--Amherst
- Deerfield (Mass.)--Social conditions--20th century
- Hadley (Mass.)--Social conditions--20th century
- Holyoke (Mass.)--Social conditions--20th century
- Leverett (Mass.)--Social conditions--20th century
- Pelham (Mass.)--Social conditions--20th century
- Teenage pregnancy--Massachusetts--Holyoke
- University of Massachusetts Amherst--Students
Contributors
- Forman, Sylvia Helen, 1944 or 1945-1992 [main entry]
Link to similar SCUA collections
