Monika Triest Explained

Monika Triest
Birth Name:Monika Maria Triest
Birth Place:Aalst, Belgium
Other Names:Monika Abicht, Monika Maria Abicht, Monika Abicht-Triest
Occupation:Academic, writer, civil rights activist
Years Active:1963–present

Monika Triest (born 1941) is a Belgian academic, writer, and civil rights activist. After earning a degree in classical philology at Ghent University, she moved to Canada to teach at the University of New Brunswick in 1965. Three years later when she moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio to teach at Antioch College, Triest became involved in the civil rights and women's liberation movements in the United States. She participated in demonstrations against the Vietnam War and in favor of Roe v. Wade. While she was earning her PhD at the University of Cincinnati, she and Sylvia Tucker offered one of the first women's study courses at the university in 1971. After earning her PhD in 1976, Triest returned to Belgium and in 1985 became the first chair of the women's studies program at the University of Amsterdam, and first women's studies professor in the Netherlands. She continued to teach at various educational facilities until her retirement in 2008.

Early life and education

Monika Maria Triest was born in 1941 in Aalst, Belgium. She attended Catholic schools and was involved in her first protest action in the late 1950s, although it was not of her own volition. According to Triest, the administration of the school required all of the students to participate in a demonstration to oppose Léo Collard, who served at the Minister of Education for Belgium from 1954 to 1958. She studied Latin and Greek languages at Ghent University, and completed a Phd in classical philology. In 1963 married, a fellow student at the university. While she was in Ghent, she became involved in anti-nuclear protests and participated in marches in Brussels. Both Abichts taught at a college in Blankenberge, but were let go because of their activism, and decided to go abroad in 1965.

Career

Canada and the US (1965–1977)

Initially, the couple settled in Fredericton, and Triest (who during this time used the surname Abicht), began teaching at the University of New Brunswick. In 1968, the couple moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio and Triest worked as a lecturer at Antioch College. While teaching at the progressive school, she studied the roots of discrimination, exclusion and racism. She became active in the civil rights and women's liberation movements, and participated in protests against the Vietnam War and in favor of Roe v. Wade. She also began teaching a woman's study course "Advanced Seminar on Sex Roles: Sex Role Stereotyping in Schools with Sylvia Tucker in 1971 at the University of Cincinnati. At the time, there were only two women's studies courses being offered in Ohio, the other one being at Cleveland State University. The previous year the only women's offering available in Ohio was a no-credit, six-week course called "Strictly for Women" hosted by the University of Cincinnati, which would not establish an official Office of Women's Studies until 1974. Triest completed her PhD thesis Women's Leadership Roles in Two Selected Labor Unions in the United States and Belgium: A Comparative and Descriptive Study in 1976 and taught at Antioch through 1977.

Return to Belgium

Triest and Abicht had two children before their marriage began to fall apart and she returned to Belgium in 1977, settling in Antwerp. She became an editor for the journal Dutch; Flemish: Links en Feministisch (Left and Feminist) and became involved in the feminist-socialist movement, joining the activist group (Women's Consultation Committee, VOK). From 1981 to 1983, she served as chair of the VOK, and taught sociology at the Dutch; Flemish: Arbeidershogeschool|italics=no (Sicuak Academy) in Brussels in 1984. Triest was hired as an extraordinary professor at University of Amsterdam in the economics department in 1985. Her three-year chair, was a part-time position and was designed to focus on women and work. Hers was the first appointment in the Netherlands for a professor in women's studies. By 1987, women's studies courses had also been launched under Iteke Weeda at the University of Groningen and Joyce Outshoorn at Leiden University, but each of their positions were part-time and with three-year contracts. Triest's contract was not renewed and she left Amsterdam in 1988. She then taught at the Free University of Brussels, and other educational facilities until 2008. Although she retired from teaching, Triest continued to publish works and began volunteering at the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library in Antwerp.

Research

Triest's work has often examined how marginalization impacts and controls social development of various sectors of society. Her study with Lou Gils on witches, Triest argued that the idea of witches was used to reinforce gender norms and behaviors. As representatives of women who had power and were not submissive, they served as a reminder to society of evil and reinforced proper behavior, including sexual purity and motherhood. Other works examined power and the impact that the succession of women rulers of the Netherlands in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had on societal ideas of traditional male sovereignty. In 2019, Triest returned to the United States for a reunion with some of her fellow activists from the 1960s and 1970s. Conversations with them, led her to write a book about the ongoing activism against racism, exploitation, and sexism in the Trump and post-Trump era. Each of those issues as well as the Red Scares targeting leftists and communists were prevalent in both periods. Triest believes that these issues will continue to be part of the fabric of American culture because activists on the one hand press for social equality, against the government and power structure's desire to maintain their authority and resist dissent.

Selected works

References

Bibliography

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