Pauline A. Phipps

Constance Maynard's Passions: Religion, Sexuality, and an English Educational Pioneer, 1849-1935 - Studies in Gender and History Pauline A. Phipps

Commendation Quotes: &lquo; Here finally is a richly detailed biography of Constance Maynard that does full justice to the complexity and significance of her life and work. In clustering faith, desire, and sexual identity Pauline Phipps sheds new light on one woman's struggle to reconcile human love and divine love. Particularly striking for me in this thoughtful discussion of Maynard's intense relationships with women is Phipps's innovative historiographical methodology. In learning more about this compelling life story we also learn more about how to write the history of sexuality.&rquo; - Laura Doan, Professor of Cultural History and Sexuality Studies, University of Manchester, and author of Disturbing Practices: History, Sexuality and Women's Experience of Modern War"Table of Contents: Introduction: Seeking great Reward from Thee 1. Sweetest of Earth s Glories, Love!: 1849 712. Crisis, Restraint and Liberty: 1869 723. Caught in the Current: 1872 754. An Unhappy Marriage: 1876 805. A Man or a Woman?: 1880 836. Years of Gloom: 1883 947. Glorious New Spring: 1896 1913Conclusion: Shadow of Outer Darkness Close to Me "Commendation Quotes: At its core, Constance Maynard's Passions is the story of a fascinating woman who was both a professional pioneer and tormented soul. There is much to learn from her story about the emotional trials of this early generation of educational pioneers. - Jacqueline R. deVries, Professor of History, Augsburg College"Publisher Marketing: Successful but self-tormented, English educational pioneer Constance Maynard (1849 1935) was a deeply religious evangelical Christian whose personal atonement theology demanded that one resist carnal feelings to achieve personal salvation. As the founder of Westfield College at the University of London, Maynard championed women s access to a university education. As the college s first principal, she also engaged in a string of passionate relationships with college women in which she imagined love as God s gift as well as a test of her faith. Using Maynard s extensive personal papers, especially her diaries and autobiography, Pauline A. Phipps examines how the language of her faith offered Maynard the means with which to carve out an independent career and to forge a distinct same-sex sexual self-consciousness in an era when middle-class women were expected to be subservient to men and confined to the home. Constance Maynard s Passions is the fascinating account of a life which confounds the usual categories of faith, gender, and sexuality."

Contributor Bio:  Phipps, Pauline Pauline A. Phipps teaches in the Department of History and the Women's Studies program at the University of Windsor.