By Steve Seepersaud
Since age 12, Bonnie Morris, MA '85, PhD '88, has enjoyed journaling. She has filled book after book, every word written by hand with a fountain pen. She is now on volume 214; each one at least 200 pages long. We'll do the math for you. That's more than 42,000 pages.
So, yes, Morris loves to write, and that passion carries into her professional life. She is a women's history professor at the University of California-Berkeley, and has taught for George Washington University, Georgetown, and Harvard. Morris attributes her professional success to her doctoral studies at Binghamton.
"Binghamton was the only place in the nation with a specific doctoral program in women's history," Morris said. "I spent six years completing my PhD, and not only had tremendous friends and faculty, but quickly moved from being a TA for the memorable Warren Wagar to teaching my own classes. I began my teaching career at age 23 in the School of Education and Human Development with returning adult students. This served me well as an educator forever, and I also wrote a one-woman play about my early teaching experiences.
"Moreover, while living in Binghamton — with its five women's bars and four synagogues — I was able to be my whole self as a Jewish lesbian scholar. I did not have to compartmentalize my identities or mask who I was. I found a muse in nearly everyone."
Morris has written 19 books, which she fondly refers to as "old friends." She is proud of each for different reasons. Her large Smithsonian volume The Feminist Revolution made Oprah's list, was translated into French, and distributed by Random House. Women's History for Beginners led to an author profile on C-Span. She even got a fan letter from First Lady Michelle Obama. Girl Reel earned Morris a variety of awards and nominations. Eden Built by Eves, written about the culture of women's music festivals, was a Pride Month feature at Barnes & Noble stores across the country.
"I am preparing two different books for publication, a novel that addresses (in disguised fiction) the challenge of recovering lost LGBT archives, and a bigger scholarly memoir of my 40 years' work recording songs and speeches at women's music festivals," Morris said. "This latter volume draws upon my personal archive of 400 90-minute cassette recordings. I am also working in July at the 50th anniversary of the National Women's Music Festival, narrating the role of Anne Frank in an original orchestra composition, a huge honor."
This fall, Morris will return to Binghamton for the 10th anniversary celebration of the on-campus Q Center and will be the speaker at next year's Lavender Graduation. She has long associated her years at Binghamton with her identity in LGBT culture and scholarship. Morris said she's living proof it's possible to be out for one's entire adult and scholarly life and to achieve one's dreams.
"I know that my work moves the readers in the very community I seek to document, from the many emails I receive year round," Morris said. "I want to add that when I was a grad student at Binghamton, there were at least 14 lesbians in my program, but none of us did our scholarly work on lesbian history. The field was just starting to evolve into credible platform for academic research. We've come a long way, and we need to hold on to our hard-won progress."