Merle Woo is an American academic, poet and activist who has been described as "a leading member of the Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party". Her essay "Letter to Ma" was selected for inclusion in the 1981 feminist anthology ''

This Bridge Called My Back ''This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color'' is a feminist anthology edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa, first published in 1981 by Persephone Press. The second edition was published in 1983 by Kitchen Tabl ...

.''

Early life

Woo was born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

on October 24, 1941 to a Chinese father and a Korean mother, Richard and Helene Woo. Woo attended Catholic schools, as her parents believed them to be better than public schools.

Education

In 1965, Woo received a B.A. in English from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...

. In 1969, Woo received a M.A. in English literature from

. While in college Woo met and married her husband, with whom she had two children. It was while she was studying for her M.A. that Woo witnessed the 1968–69 Third World Student Strikes at the University, which had a huge impact on her becoming an activist. Woo also believes that these strikes had a positive impact on her ability to later find work. By the late 1970s Woo had come out as a lesbian.

Career

After completing her degree in 1969 Woo began working at San Francisco State University with their Equal Opportunity Program, where she taught Lesbian Literature, among other classes. She was later given a job offer by the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where she began teaching in 1978 until she was fired in 1982 due to openly criticizing the way the Ethnic Studies Department was run and stating that they were a result of right wing activities. She fought against the dismissal and was briefly reinstated in 1984, upon which point she formed the Merle Woo Defense Committee to ensure that all issues would be heard. In 1986 Berkeley declined to renew Woo's teaching contract, a move she believed to be discrimination and retaliation. Woo once again successfully fought against the dismissal, winning a union arbitration against the university in 1989. She went on to teach at San Francisco State University and

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

. In 1977 Woo performed in Lonny Kaneko's play ''Lady is Dying''. She also participated in a performance group named Unbound Feet with Nellie Wong and Kitty Tsui, which dispersed in 1981. Woo has also published a play, ''Home Movies: A Dramatic Monologue'', which has been described as an "outcry against both sexism and racism".

Bibliography

* ''Yellow Woman Speaks: Selected Poems'' (1986, Radical Women Publishing)

External Links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woo, Merle American feminist writers American poets American poets of Asian descent Lesbian feminists Living people 1941 births American writers of Chinese descent American writers of Korean descent American women poets American LGBT people of Asian descent Socialist feminists Lesbian academics Activists from San Francisco