Study abroad programs have fundamentally transformed American higher education and presented new opportunities for thousands of students.

Often forgotten is how crucial study abroad programs have been for female students from the United States.  A new article by Alice Kaplan, professor of French at Yale University, argues that study abroad experiences were formative for American feminists in the postwar period.  Kaplan focuses especially on the Parisian sojourns of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis.

Alice Kaplan’s article appears in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

NIU students who are affiliated with the Women’s Studies Program or who are taking French history courses will be interested in this article.