On Second Thought

Luisa Del Giudice, Ph.D., has taught at UCLA, was founder-director of the Italian Oral History Institute. In 2008 she was named honorary fellow of the American Folklore Society and Cavaliere (knight) of the Republic of Italy.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: A Convocation of Wise Women and Reflections on Lives of Learning – Luisa Del Giudice1. Bridging the Spiritual and the Political: My Scholarly Becoming – Edvige Giunta2. Becoming Storied –Christine Zinni3.Walking between the Worlds: Reflections on a Life of Scholarship –Sabina Magliocco4. Predestination? –Mary Ellen Brown5. Making Dead Bones Sing: Practicing Ethnography in the Italian Diaspora – Luisa Del Giudice6. Chicana Art Historian at the Crossroads –Charlene VillaseÑor Black7. When I’m Tired of Walking, I FLY – Karen Guancione8. Rising and Falling and Rising –Jennifer Guglielmo9. Repining Restlessness –Joanne Leslie10. Finding My Female Zen Ancestors: Is There Such a Thing as a Woman? –Grace Schireson11. The Arc of Becoming – Willow Young12. Sacred Medicine: My Healing (R)Evolution – Annalisa Pastore13. The Ground I Stand On – Lauren VitielloList of ContributorsIndex

“These women bring both experience and an ability to see the overarching picture as they examine the paths that have led to their current positions. Not since Mary Catherine Bateson’s Composing a Life have I seen something similar.”—Kerry Noonan, Associate Professor, Core Division, Champlain College“Very well written and engaging. Reading this collection was an enriching and significant experience. These are women who don’t mess around!”—Cristina Bacchilega, author of Fairy Tales Transformed?: 21st-Century Adaptations and the Politics of Wonder"This book is a visionary collection of essays examining the cultural and spiritual wellsprings that have sustained the contributors’ scholarship and shaped their purpose as women of learning."—Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, author of Behind the Mask of the Strong Black Woman“A captivating collection of personal essays from folklorists, activists, anthropologists, artists, historians, memoirists, and writers that is not hindered by academic jargon....The narratives are sometimes amusing, sometimes emotional, always intriguing.”—Western Folklore “An intriguing and thoughtful collection… On Second Thought is a profound contribution, particularly to the current field of the anthropology of knowledge at the interface of biographical and gender research. It is highly recommended as a textbook for students, since it provides insights not only into the plurality of knowledge, but also into how our pursuit of understanding the world is deeply intertwined with social structures, cultural settings, and the individual search for fulfillment, and thus with biographies and gender.”—Journal of Folklore Research