Bonnie Zimmerman

Bonnie Zimmerman is a literary critic and women’s studies scholar. Her works looked at women’s roles, women’s literature, and lesbian criticism. She has received numerous prestigious awards for her work. Zimmerman retired from teaching in 2010.

History

Born in 1947, Bonnie Zimmerman grew up in a secular Jewish family in the suburbs of Chicago. Stemming from this background, she says, “No matter how the social and academic landscape changes, and no matter that I am now a university administrator, I will always be a child of the ‘60s and ‘70s: a new-left, radical-feminist, counterculture, dyke intellectual”

Following high school, she entered the music program at Indiana University with a focus on classical voice. However, when she graduated with honors in 1968, it was with a degree in philosophy. Afterwards, at the State University of New York (SUNY), at Buffalo, she earned her doctorate in English literature. SUNY is where Zimmerman discovered her feminist politics. She also became one of the founding members of the Women’s Studies College at SUNY Buffalo in 1970.

She was offered a temporary position as a lecturer at San Diego State University in their Women’s Studies program (the first in the country), and used this opportunity to begin teaching lesbian literature in 1979. She credits her article, “What Has Never Been: An Overview of Lesbian Feminist Criticism,” from that same year, as making her reputation. It was later anthologized in the Norton Anthology of Theory & Criticism.

She states in her article ‘A Lesbian-Feminist Journey Through Queer Nation,’ “Although I do not think I will ever publish much queer or gay and lesbian scholarship, I have also been instrumental in beginning LGBT studies on my campus, as I was in beginning Lesbian Studies within Women’s Studies during the 1970s.”

In 1983, she became Professor of Women’s Studies at SDSU. She was President of the National Women’s Studies Association from 1998 to 1999, and acted as the Women’s Studies Department Chair at San Diego State from 1986 to 1992 and again from 1995 to 1997. Zimmerman retired in 2010.

Publications and Awards

Zimmerman is the author of numerous articles and books exploring women’s studies, LGBTQ theory, and feminist theory. Some of these awards include the Positive Visibility Award from GLAAD in 1996, the Most Influential Faculty Award in Women’s Studies (which she received 3 times in 1985, 1990, and 1999), and the Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award in 2004.

Her publications include Professions of Desire (1995), which examines the experience of LGBTQ individuals in academia and in the classroom, and The Safe Sea of Women (1990) which examines and analyzes literature specifically through the lens and themes of lesbian experience. She credits her article “What Has Never Been: An Overview of Lesbian Feminist Literary Criticism” (1981) as the primary source of her role as a pre-eminent lesbian and feminist scholar of her day. Her contributions to academia include articles, classes, and several books.