Honey Meconi appointed Susan B. Anthony Professor
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Honey Meconi says who Susan B. Anthony was and what she made possible for women “really mean a lot to me.”Shortly after learning she was to be named the Susan B. Anthony Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University, Honey Meconi visited the grave of the suffragist and civil rights leader in nearby Mt. Hope Cemetery to say “thank you.”
“I know it sounds corny, but it’s true,” says Meconi, who also serves as director of the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies. “Who she was and what she made possible for women really mean a lot to me.”
The institute is supported by more than 100 faculty associates and affiliates in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences across the University. After all, “women make up about half of the world’s population, and gender covers the entire world,” says Meconi.
Despite the stereotype that gender studies are of interest only to women, classes in the institute include both male and female students. All classes are cross-listed in the College, making the courses available to all undergraduate and graduate students and gaining the attention of hundreds of students per semester who often take the courses out of personal interest rather than for academic credit.
Meconi says students in the program often ask themselves how they can use what they’ve learned to give back to the community. She points to a program created as part of the internship or independent study required by all students majoring in gender and women’s studies. Four years ago, several students created a program inside the Sojourner House, an organization in Rochester that provides shelter and structure to women and families in need. Over the course of four weeks, women at the Sojourner House are taught about their legal rights as women—often for the first time—and about how society views women, through the context of the history of feminism. Meconi says the course has been a success because “knowledge is power, and a woman needs to feel empowered in order to enact change.”
In addition to her role as director of the Susan B. Anthony Institute, Meconi is a musicologist with a special interest in music before 1600, especially how it relates to women. “I was drawn to the University by how the faculty and administration embrace interdisciplinary research,” she says.
Meconi joined the faculty in 2004 as a professor of music in the College’s music department and a professor of musicology at the Eastman School. She became director of the Anthony institute in 2007. She also serves as vice president for the American Musicological Society, where she previously served on the Committee on the Status of Women.
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