The Banshees traces the feminist contributions of a wide range of Irish American women writers, from Mother Jones, Kate Chopin, and Margaret Mitchell to contemporary authors such as Gillian Flynn, Jennifer Egan, and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

"Changing the Way We Teach: Writing and Resistance in the Training of Teaching Assistants" draws on eighteen case studies to illustrate the critical role writing plays in overcoming graduate student resistance to instruction, facilitating change, and developing professional identity. Sally Barr Ebest argues that teaching assistants in English must be actively engaged in the theory and practice underlying composition pedagogy in order to better understand how to alter the way they teach and why such change is necessary.
In illustrating the potential for change when the paradigm shift in composition is applied to graduate education, Ebest considers recent discussions of composition pedagogy; post-secondary teaching theories; cognitive, social cognitive, and educational psychology; and issues of gender, voice, and writing.
Stemming from research conducted over a five-year period, this volume explores how a cross-section of teaching assistants responded to pedagogy as students and how their acceptance of pedagogy affected their performance as instructors. Investigating reasons behind manifestations of resistance and necessary elements for overcoming it, Ebest finds that engagement in composition strategies--reflective writing, journaling, drafting, and active learning--and restoration of feelings of self-efficacy are the primary factors that facilitate change.
Concerned with gender as it relates to personal construct, "Changing the Way We Teach "traces the influence of familial expectations and the effects of literacy experiences on students and draws correlations between feminist and composition pedagogy. Ebest asserts that the phenomena contributing to thedevelopment of a strong, unified voice in women--self-knowledge, empathy, positive role models, and mentors--should be essential elements of a constructivist graduate curriculum.
To understand composition pedagogy and to convince students of its values, Ebest holds that educators must embrace it themselves and trace the effects through active research. By providing graduate students with pedagogical sites for research and reflection, faculty enable them to express their anger or fear, study its sources, and quite often write their way to a new understanding.

"Changing the Way We Teach: Writing and Resistance in the Training of Teaching Assistants" draws on eighteen case studies to illustrate the critical role writing plays in overcoming graduate student resistance to instruction, facilitating change, and developing professional identity. Sally Barr Ebest argues that teaching assistants in English must be actively engaged in the theory and practice underlying composition pedagogy in order to better understand how to alter the way they teach and why such change is necessary.
In illustrating the potential for change when the paradigm shift in composition is applied to graduate education, Ebest considers recent discussions of composition pedagogy; post-secondary teaching theories; cognitive, social cognitive, and educational psychology; and issues of gender, voice, and writing.
Stemming from research conducted over a five-year period, this volume explores how a cross-section of teaching assistants responded to pedagogy as students and how their acceptance of pedagogy affected their performance as instructors. Investigating reasons behind manifestations of resistance and necessary elements for overcoming it, Ebest finds that engagement in composition strategies--reflective writing, journaling, drafting, and active learning--and restoration of feelings of self-efficacy are the primary factors that facilitate change.
Concerned with gender as it relates to personal construct, "Changing the Way We Teach "traces the influence of familial expectations and the effects of literacy experiences on students and draws correlations between feminist and composition pedagogy. Ebest asserts that the phenomena contributing to thedevelopment of a strong, unified voice in women--self-knowledge, empathy, positive role models, and mentors--should be essential elements of a constructivist graduate curriculum.
To understand composition pedagogy and to convince students of its values, Ebest holds that educators must embrace it themselves and trace the effects through active research. By providing graduate students with pedagogical sites for research and reflection, faculty enable them to express their anger or fear, study its sources, and quite often write their way to a new understanding.

IN THIS TIMELY COLLECTION OF ESSAYS, twenty-two widely respected writers, historians, theologians, and feminists thoughtfully reflect on their own personal experiences with the Catholic Church. The essayists movingly describe how they have, or in some cases have not, come to terms with a church that does not permit them full participation. In so doing, they offer practical suggestions for ways in which the church can become more open to the concerns of its progressive members. Among the essayists and essays featured in this collection are Rosemary Radford Ruether, who provides a brief history of twentieth-century reform movements; internationally-known Irish journalist Mary Kenny, who writes on the abortion debate in Ireland; Pulitzer Prize-winner Madeleine Blais, who discusses her youth in parochial schools; short-story writer and New Yorker contributor Jean McGarry, who describes the clash of Catholic and secular cultures; and Grail co-founder Janet Kalven, who depicts the history of this widely recognized religious reform movement. A foreword by Sandra Gilbert and an introduction by Sally Barr Ebest and Ron Ebest provide context for these personal and poignant essays. In a format that is easily accessible to general readers, Reconciling Catholicism and Feminism? explores issues of concern to progressive and feminist Catholics, including abortion, birth control, clerical celibacy, and the ordination of women.

In a series of critical and biographical essays, Too Smart to Be Sentimental offers a feminist literary history of twentieth-century Irish America. This collection introduces the reader to the works of twelve contemporary Irish American women writers, some of whom are well known, such as Joyce Carol Oates, Alice McDermott, and Tess Gallagher, and some of whom are equally deserving of recognition. Each chapter focuses on a particular writer, describes and discusses that writer's most important works, contextualizes the discussion with relevant biographical material, and highlights why the writer is representative of the Irish American literary tradition. Too Smart to Be Sentimental-the first critical study of contemporary Irish American women authors-will be invaluable to students and scholars of Irish studies and Irish American literature.

IN THIS TIMELY COLLECTION OF ESSAYS, twenty-two widely respected writers, historians, theologians, and feminists thoughtfully reflect on their own personal experiences with the Catholic Church. The essayists movingly describe how they have, or in some cases have not, come to terms with a church that does not permit them full participation. In so doing, they offer practical suggestions for ways in which the church can become more open to the concerns of its progressive members. Among the essayists and essays featured in this collection are Rosemary Radford Ruether, who provides a brief history of twentieth-century reform movements; internationally-known Irish journalist Mary Kenny, who writes on the abortion debate in Ireland; Pulitzer Prize-winner Madeleine Blais, who discusses her youth in parochial schools; short-story writer and New Yorker contributor Jean McGarry, who describes the clash of Catholic and secular cultures; and Grail co-founder Janet Kalven, who depicts the history of this widely recognized religious reform movement. A foreword by Sandra Gilbert and an introduction by Sally Barr Ebest and Ron Ebest provide context for these personal and poignant essays. In a format that is easily accessible to general readers, Reconciling Catholicism and Feminism? explores issues of concern to progressive and feminist Catholics, including abortion, birth control, clerical celibacy, and the ordination of women.