Bonnie Zimmerman is a

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

and women's studies scholar. Her works looked at women's roles, women's literature, and lesbian criticism. She has received numerous prestigious awards for her work.Susan Resnik and Bonnie Zimmerman
“Dr. Bonnie Zimmerman: Distinguished Faculty and Administrator”
''SDSU Library & Information Access'', September 7, 2010 Zimmerman retired from teaching in 2010.

History

Born in 1947, Bonnie Zimmerman grew up in a secular Jewish family in the suburbs of Chicago. Stemming from this background, she says, "No matter how the social and academic landscape changes, and no matter that I am now a university administrator, I will always be a child of the '60s and '70s: a new-left, radical-feminist, counterculture, dyke intellectual" Following high school, she entered the music program at Indiana University with a focus on classical voice. However, when she graduated with honors in 1968, it was with a degree in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

. Afterwards, at the State University of New York at Buffalo, she earned her doctorate in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

. University at Buffalo is where Zimmerman discovered her

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

politics. She also became one of the founding members of the Women's Studies College at SUNY Buffalo in 1970. She was offered a temporary position as a lecturer at San Diego State University in their Women's Studies program (the first in the country), and used this opportunity to begin teaching lesbian literature in 1979. She credits her article, "What Has Never Been: An Overview of Lesbian Feminist Criticism," from that same year, as making her reputation. It was later anthologized in the ''Norton Anthology of Theory & Criticism''.Bonnie Zimmerman, "What Has Never Been: An Overview of Lesbian Feminist Literary Criticism," ''Feminist Studies'' 7, no. 3 (1981): 451-475. She states in her article 'A Lesbian-Feminist Journey Through Queer Nation,' "Although I do not think I will ever publish much queer or gay and lesbian scholarship, I have also been instrumental in beginning LGBT studies on my campus, as I was in beginning Lesbian Studies within Women's Studies during the 1970s."Zimmerman, Bonnie. "A Lesbian-Feminist Journey Through Queer Nation." ''Journal of Lesbian Studies'' 1-2, no. 11 (2007): 37-52. In 1983, she became Professor of Women's Studies at SDSU. She was President of the National Women's Studies Association from 1998 to 1999, and acted as the Women's Studies Department Chair at San Diego State from 1986 to 1992 and again from 1995 to 1997. Zimmerman retired in 2010. Zimmerman's papers are held in the collection of San Diego State University.

Publications and awards

Zimmerman is the author of numerous articles and books exploring women's studies, LGBTQ theory, and feminist theory. Some of these awards include the Positive Visibility Award from

GLAAD GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...

in 1996, the Most Influential Faculty Award in Women's Studies (which she received 3 times in 1985, 1990, and 1999), and the Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award in 2004. Her publications include ''Professions of Desire'' (1995), which examines the experience of LGBTQ individuals in academia and in the classroom, and ''The Safe Sea of Women'' (1990) which examines and analyzes literature specifically through the lens and themes of lesbian experience.Zimmerman, Bonnie. ''The Safe Sea of Women: Lesbian Fiction 1969-1989''. Boston: Beacon Press, 1990. She credits her article "What Has Never Been: An Overview of Lesbian Feminist Literary Criticism" (1981) as the primary source of her role as a pre-eminent lesbian and feminist scholar of her day. Her contributions to academia include articles, classes, and several books.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmerman, Bonnie 1947 births Living people 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers American feminist writers Critical theorists Feminist studies scholars Lesbian academics Lesbian feminists American lesbian writers Jewish American writers Jewish feminists Radical feminists People from Chicago Writers from Chicago Indiana University alumni University at Buffalo alumni San Diego State University faculty