Sylvia Forman Collection
Shortly after receiving her doctorate from the University of California Berkeley in 1972, the anthropologist Sylvia Helen Forman joined the faculty at UMass Amherst. A staunch feminist and activist, Forman was known for her commitment to her students and to the political life at the university, and for her engagement in the community. She died of cancer in 1992, just 48 years old.
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.
Background on Sylvia Forman
The anthropologist Sylvia Helen Forman (1943-1994) received her doctorate from the University of California Berkeley in 1972 for a 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.
Contents 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.
Administrative information
Access
The collection is open for research.
Language:
Provenance
Gift of Sylvia Forman, 1989.
Processing Information
Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, Aug. 2017.
Copyright and Use (More information
)
Cite as: Sylvia Forman Collection (MS 341). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.