Bound By a Mighty Vow: Sisterhood and Women's Fraternities, 1870-1920

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments I could not have written this book without the support, guidance, and gentle prodding of many people. My deepest gratitude and indebtedness go to Hasia R. Diner, my adviser, mentor, and friend, who saw the value in this study even before I did and who, through her own example and constant support and guidance, pushed me to stick with the project and bring it to fruition. I am also grateful to the rest of my doctoral committee at the University of Maryland, College Park: Barbara Finkelstein, Gordon Kelly, and John Caughey—all three extraordinary teachers and mentors—and to my outside reader, astute critic Robyn Muncy. Thanks, too, to Eugene Tobin, Vincent Auger, and the late Sydna Weiss, professors at Hamilton College who nurtured my love of learning and encouraged me to enter academia. I was extremely fortunate to attend graduate school with a group of wonderful, bright, fellow American Studies students: Jenny Thompson, Eric Olson, Deana Whitaker Greenberg, Dave Lott, and David Silver, all of whom offered support and critique as well as timely reminders of when it was time to put away work and meet at the Tick Tock or Bentleys. Special thanks go to Shelby Shapiro, whose intellectual challenges enlivened many a seminar and whose keen insight on early drafts of the dissertation and extensive feedback on final drafts of the book helped sharpen my arguments and clarify my prose. I am also grateful to colleagues, present and former, in the School of Education at New York University, especially Robby Cohen, whose own careful scholarship coupled with his unfailing support for colleagues provide the best model possible for a junior faculty member to follow; also, Chelsea Bailey, Laura Dull, Kendall King, Cynthia McAllister, Joel Westheimer , and Jon Zimmerman, all of whom provided important feedback on various aspects of this project. Jessica Shiller did crucial research and copyediting for the book, and Emily Klein read and commented on nearly every single line and provided constant support and encouragement, as ix well as frequent reassurance that I would still be a good person even if I never did finish. I also owe thanks to those who assisted me in my research: John Straw, former archivist of the Student Life and Culture Archives at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who offered early and crucial guidance in shaping this project; Ellen Swain and Chris Sweet, also of the Student Life and Culture Archives, who helped with photograph selection and assisted on numerous additional tasks; archivists and librarians, too many to name individually, at the College of Wooster, DePauw University, Northwestern University, U.C. Berkeley, the University of Vermont, and the University of Wisconsin; and Noraleen Young, Kappa Alpha Theta staff archivist, who helped me locate many hard-to-find documents and assisted with photographs and fact checking. Special thanks go to Judy Alexander, former Fraternity Historian of Kappa Alpha Theta, who shepherded me through the hurdles of gaining access to fraternity archives; Lissa Bradford , former president of Kappa Alpha Theta and chair of the National Panhellenic Congress, who provided not only hours of oral history interviews but also encouragement and invaluable insight into the mechanisms of the fraternity world; Mary Jane Beach, president of Kappa Alpha Theta, who gave her blessing to my research; and Mary Edith Arnold, fraternity archivist of Kappa Alpha Theta, who guided me through the intricacies of nineteenth-century fraternity life, helped me secure documents and materials from other fraternities and sororities and served as my friend and fraternity guide throughout the duration of this project. In many ways, it was the interest of these women to know more about the history of their fraternity that made this project possible. For that and for their support for and trust in me, I extend my deepest appreciation. I am also grateful to New York University for financial support in the form of a Research Challenge Fund Award and a Goddard Faculty Fellowship Award; Suzie Robinson Hoppe for offering me a home while conducting my research; anonymous readers who critiqued earlier drafts of the manuscript; and Emily Park and Eric Zinner at New York University Press. More than to anyone, I owe my deepest thanks to my wonderful family: mymother,BarbaraTurk,whoismygreatestrolemodel;mylatefather,Bob Turk, whose pride in me still sustains me; my sister, Karen Turk, whose critical eye, wisdom, and goodness I aspire to; my grandmother, Pearl Cohen, a model of “true womanhood” in every way; my mother-in-law Ellen Meisner , a most loving...