Martha Naomi Gardner
Martha Naomi Gardner graduated from Brown in 1988 with an AB in Women's Studies. She completed her PhD in U.S. History at Brandeis University in 2002 with a dissertation entitled "Midwife, Doctor, or Doctress? The New England Female Medical College and Women's Place in the Nineteenth Century Medical Profession," and is currently an Assistant Professor of History and Social Sciences at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
In Part 1 of this interview, Martha discusses the women's march and speakout held in the spring of 1985. She describes the fraternity activities and campus conditions that prompted female students to plan a day of events that addressed sexual violence, gender discrimination, and homophobia at Brown. Part 2 focuses on the aftermath of the 1985 women's march and speakout; Martha's involvement with the Sarah Doyle Women's Center; gay and lesbian outreach and activism on campus; and her work as a women's peer counselor. In Part 3, she describes fraternity activities that precipitated and followed the speakout; the women's peer counselor program; coming out as a lesbian at Brown; and the citizens' arrest organized by Brown students in response to a campus recruitment visit from the CIA.
