Women and Gender Studies

In The Quest for Citizenship, Kim Cary Warren examines the formation of African American and Native American citizenship, belonging, and identity in the United States by comparing educational experiences in Kansas between 1880 and 1935. Warren focuses her study on Kansas, thought by many to be the quintessential free state, not only because it was home to sizable populations of Indian groups and former slaves, but also because of its unique history of conflict over freedom during the antebellum period. After the Civil War, white reformers opened segregated schools, ultimately reinforcing the very racial hierarchies that they claimed to challenge. To resist the effects of these reformers' actions, African Americans developed strategies that emphasized inclusion and integration, while autonomy and bicultural identities provided the focal point for Native Americans' understanding of what it meant to be an American. Warren argues that these approaches to defining American citizenship served as ideological precursors to the Indian rights and civil rights movements. This comparative history of two nonwhite races provides a revealing analysis of the intersection of education, social control, and resistance, and the formation and meaning of identity for minority groups in America.

Organized in three broad categories--leadership and politics; teaching and research; and students, protest, and sports--these essays draw upon a wealth of archival material, including interviews and yearbooks, student publications, and alumni sources, to create a full and richly textured picture of growth and change over five decades. These essays detail the school's transformation from a bucolic college into a sprawling university, capturing the personalities and spirit of each of the eight chancellors who have guided KU through these challenging times. The essays describe innovations in learning, from the liberal arts through international studies and graduate research. And they reveal the changing character of student life in curricular and extra-curricular activities, in campus activism, scholarship, and athletics. Together the essays comprise a living portrait of the university, broad in scope and vivid in detail, growing and adapting to a rapidly changing world, prepared to meet the challenges of the new century.