Virginia Yans

Thursday, June 19, 2003
3:15 pm - 4:45 pm

Panel Two: Biographical Interpretations at Historic Sites, On Stage, and In Film

Virginia Yans is a professor of history and former chair of women’s studies at Rutgers University, where she has taught since 1978. She is the author, coauthor, or editor of several books, including Family and Community: Italian Immigrants in Buffalo, 1880-1930, Immigration Reconsidered: History, Sociology, and Politics, and Ellis Island and the Peopling of America: The Official Guide. Her documentary film, Margaret Mead: An Observer Observed, aired on PBS television in 1996 and continues to be broadcast around the world. Yans is currently working on a biography of Mead and was an advisor to the Library of Congress on its recent exhibition Margaret Mead: Human Nature and the Power of Culture. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships and serves on various public history boards, including the advisory boards for the Museum of Women and Learning Center, now being planned for lower Manhattan, and the Sewall-Belmont House, home of the National Woman’s Party, in Washington, D.C. In fall 2003, Yans will begin a two-year study at the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis on the history of single persons.

Web site:
http://history.rutgers.edu/People/vyans.htm