Women making history--in the home, in the community, in the state house. Over the past decade the Iowa Women’s Archives in the University of Iowa Libraries has acquired hundreds of collections of letters, diaries, photographs, oral histories, and other materials that illuminate this rich legacy of Iowa women. On November 15-16, scholars, community members, students, activists, and donors of historical materials will gather at the Iowa Memorial Union in Iowa City for a lively discussion of the resources available to academics and public alike in the Iowa Women’s Archives. The symposium “Making Women’s History” will be dedicated to the memory of Louise Noun, the archives’ co-founder who died August 23, 2002.

The symposium will begin at 1 p.m. on Friday, November 15 and continue through 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 16. Panel discussions will focus on rural women, political activists, and African-American women in Iowa. One session will examine the ways in which students and scholars have used the collections in the archives. For the complete schedule, visit the Iowa Women’s Archives website.

Gerda Lerner, professor emerita in history at the University of Wisconsin and an Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor, will give the keynote address, “Archives and Women’s History.” Lerner’s pioneering scholarship and activism was instrumental in shaping the field of women’s history. Her speech begins at 8 p.m. on Friday, November 15 in Shambaugh Auditorium, Main Library, University of Iowa, and is free and open to the public.

Christine Grant, the longtime director of women’s intercollegiate athletics at the University of Iowa, will speak at the Saturday luncheon on the topic “Why the History of Women and Sport Matters.”

Registration for the symposium is available by phone (319) 335-4039 or on the web www.uiowa.edu/~confinst/. The symposium fee is $40 if postmarked by November 1 and $50 after that date. Students are admitted free with student identification. A separate fee of $35 covers dinner on Friday, November 15 and lunch on Saturday, November 16.