March 2, 2009
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The Father of Women’s Sports: Senator Birch Bayh
When ERA failed to be ratified, Indiana Senator Birch Bayh turned his energies to a law that would mandate equal opportunities for men and women in federally funded educational programs and activities. Title IX did not explicitly address athletics, but the impact of the 1972 legislation has been most visible in the context of high school and collegiate sports teams and programs.
March 9, 2009
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Survival and Forgiveness: Eva Kor
The founder of Terre Haute’s CANDLES Holocaust museum was once the subject of medical experimentation by Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous “Angel of Death.” Eva Kor, recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Spirit of Justice Award and the Sagamore of the Wabash, among others, espouses a philosophy of forgiveness, a controversial position among survivors of the Holocaust.
March 16, 2009
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Restoring Utopia: Jane Blaffer Owen
The third recipient of Indiana’s highest honor is neither a legendary coach nor a university president. Jane Blaffer Owen was presented with the 2007 Sachem Award in recognition of her philanthropic efforts in historic preservation and the arts. The Houston native is best known for her work to restore the southwestern Indiana town of New Harmony to the spirit in which it was founded.
March 23, 2009
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Effa Funk Muhse
Talk of zoology at Indiana University often turns to a scholar whose research shifted from gall wasps to human sexuality, shaking the world in the process. Decades before Alfred Kinsey began his groundbreaking work, however, the IU Department of Zoology became noteworthy for another reason—also related to sex and gender.
Having earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in zoology, Effa Funk Muhse made history as IU’s first female Ph.D. when that same department awarded her the degree in 1908.
March 30, 2009
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Sorority Girl, Farm Wife, Environmental Advocate: Rachel Peden
In two long-running newspaper columns and three books, IU graduate Rachel Peden dispensed lessons gleaned from a life lived in tandem with the land. Since 1952, the Children’s Farm Festival at the Peden Family Farm outside Bloomington continues to be a long-awaited spring tradition.
