Special Collections Department
403 Parks Library
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-2140

RS 21/7/230
Deborah Fink
Papers, 1986-2010


Descriptive summary

creator:

Fink, Deborah

title:

Papers

dates:

1986-2010

extent:

0.21 linear ft. (1 half-document box)

collection number:

RS 21/7/230

repository:

University Archives, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University.

 

Administrative information

access:

Open for research

publication rights:

Consult Head, Special Collections Department

preferred citation:

Deborah Fink Papers, RS 21/7/230, Special Collections Department, Iowa State University Library.

 

Biographical note

Deborah Ruth (Walters) Fink is an anthropologist with an interest in the U.S. meatpacking industry and the livelihood of rural farm women. She received her B.A. (1965) in mathematics from Doane College and an M.S. (1967) in mathematics from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. She continued her education at Iowa State University where she received a second M.S. (1974) and her Ph.D. (1979) both in anthropology.

Throughout her career, Fink has been an active researcher and teacher. She has conducted field research in Ghana, Iowa, Nebraska, Denmark, and Mexico. She has had numerous teaching appointments at colleges and universities across the Midwest including appointments at University of Nebraska, University of Minnesota, Grinnell College, and University of Iowa. She also held appointments at Iowa State as Assistant Professor (1980-1981) in anthropology and Adjunct Instructor (1983) in women's studies.

Fink has written and spoken extensively about the U.S. meatpacking industry and rural Midwestern women. She has contributed chapters to nearly a dozen books, written numerous articles, and authored or coauthored three books: Open Country, Iowa: Rural Women, Tradition and Change (call no. HQ1438.I7 F56 1986), Agrarian Women: Wives and Mothers in Rural Nebraska, 1880-1940 (HQ1438.N2 F56 1992), and Cutting Into the Meatpacking Line: Workers and Change in the Rural Midwest (call no. HD8039.P152 U535 1998). Fink has also offered her services as a consultant and speaker on these topics for the past three decades.

Deborah Fink is married to A. M. (Arlington Michael) Fink and currently (2010) resides in Ames, Iowa.

 

Collection description

This collection (1986-2010) includes biographical information, writings by Fink, and a review of one of her books. The biographical information includes a copy of her vita, news clippings, and library catalog records of her books. Copies of some of her published papers are included in the collection. They reveal her interests in the meatpacking industry and in rural women, specifically those living in the Midwestern United States.

 

Organization

The collection is organized alphabetically.

 

Container list

Box

Folder

Title

Dates

1

1

Biographical information

2010

1

2

Biographical information: vita

2010

1

3

Excerpts from Fink's book, Open Country, Iowa: Rural Women, Tradition and Change

1986

1

4

Paper: "Plains Women: Rural Life in the 1930s"

1988

1

5

Paper: "What Kind of Woman Would Work in Meatpacking, Anyway? World War II and the Road to Fair Employment"

1995

1

6

Review of Fink's book, Cutting Into the Meatpacking Line: Workers and Change in the Rural Midwest

1999