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Martha Ackelsberg

Martha Ackelsberg is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Martha Ackelsberg rather than just read about it. In short: Martha A. Ackelsberg (born 1946) is an American political scientist, anarchist and women's studies scholar.

Key takeaways

  • Martha Ackelsberg belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Martha Ackelsberg to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Martha Ackelsberg from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Martha A. Ackelsberg (born 1946) is an American political scientist, anarchist and women's studies scholar. Her work focuses on the nature of power and its relationship with communities. Cases used in her research include feminist activism in the United States and the Mujeres Libres, an anarcha-feminist women's organization during the Spanish Revolution of 1936.

Early life and education Ackelsberg was born in 1946. She attended Radcliffe College where she earned a BA in 1968, and Princeton University where she graduated with an MA in 1970 and a Ph.D. in 1976. She was a co-founder of the New York Women's Health Collective in 1970. The following year, while a graduate student, she campaigned for the university to report names to potential employers in a gender-neutral way. She also co-founded Ezrat Nashim in 1972, an organization dedicated to women's equality in Judaism.

Career Ackelsberg joined the faculty at Smith College in 1972. Ackelsberg was one of the first professors in the Women's studies program at Smith College, which she has been credited with helping to build. Throughout her first several decades as a professor, Ackelsberg was active in Jewish feminist activism with groups like B'not Esh. In 2006, she was appointed the Five College 40th Anniversary Professor at Smith College, and in 2007 she was named the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor. She retired in 2014. Ackelsberg has written and edited several books. In 1991 she published Free Women of Spain: Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women, which has since been reissued. The book is a history of the Mujeres Libres (Free Women), a women's organization during the Spanish Revolution of 1936 that distinguished itself from other anti-fascist groups by seeking a broad emancipation of women in Spanish society. Ackelsberg also wrote the 2010 book Resisting Citizenship: Feminist Essays on Politics, Community, and Democracy. This collection of essays studies the connection between community and power, using the United States as a case study to investigate this connection in the context of democratic theory. The essays particularly focus on power as obtained and expressed by feminist activists among their lager communities. Together with Kristen Renwick Monroe and Rogers Smith, Ackelsberg received the 2010 Frank Johnson Goodnow Award from the American Political Science Association, a lifetime award that "honors service to the community of teachers, researchers, and public servants who work in the many fields of politics." Ackelsberg's work has been covered in media outlets like Nexo Jornal and the Jewish Voice, and she has written for Gotham Gazette. Her partner is Judith Plaskow, professor emerita of religious studies at Manhattan College. The Jewish Women's Archive has described Ackelsberg as a Jewish lesbian feminist anarchist activist.

Selected works Women, Welfare, and Higher Education: Toward Comprehensive Policies, edited, with Randall Bartlett and Robert Buchele (1988) Free Women of Spain: Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women (1991) Resisting Citizenship: Feminist Essays on Politics, Community, and Democracy (2010)

Selected awards Frank Johnson Goodnow Award, American Political Science Association (2010)

See also Anarchism in Spain

References

External links Martha Ackelsberg papers at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Special Collections Martha Ackelsberg papers at the Smith College Archives, Smith College Special Collections

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Martha Ackelsberg

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Martha Ackelsberg claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Martha Ackelsberg before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Martha Ackelsberg ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Martha Ackelsberg

In research
Martha Ackelsberg appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Martha Ackelsberg in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Martha Ackelsberg is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1946 births, 20th-century American Jews, 20th-century American LGBTQ people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Martha Ackelsberg outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Martha Ackelsberg in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Martha Ackelsberg means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Martha Ackelsberg out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Martha Ackelsberg in simple terms?

Martha A. Ackelsberg (born 1946) is an American political scientist, anarchist and women's studies scholar.

Why does Martha Ackelsberg matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Martha Ackelsberg?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Martha Ackelsberg.

Tags

  • 1946 births
  • 20th-century American Jews
  • 20th-century American LGBTQ people
  • 20th-century American academics
  • 20th-century American non-fiction writers
  • 20th-century American political scientists
  • 20th-century American women non-fiction writers
  • 20th-century anarchists
  • 21st-century American Jews
  • 21st-century American LGBTQ people
  • 21st-century American academics
  • 21st-century American non-fiction writers

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