Rosemary Keefe papers

Rosemary Keefe (1940-2012) was a feminist scholar and pioneer in the field of women’s studies. She was a former Catholic nun who left her order, married, had a daughter, divorced and ultimately came out as a lesbian. The last twenty years of her life she used her family name, Keefe, rather than Rosemary Curb, her married name. Keefe became nationally known after the 1985 publication of Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence, an anthology of the experiences of about 50 nuns and former nuns, which she wrote with Nancy Manahan. After appearances on national television, including The Phil Donahue Show, the book gained the cache of being “banned in Boston” due to pressure by the Catholic Church there, a distinction that caused book sales to soar.

Keefe received her BA in biology from Rosary College, part of Dominican University in Illinois, in 1962. As Sister Mary Geralda, O.P., she taught high school biology, religion, and English courses until 1965 when she left the order and returned to school. She went on to earn a Master's degree and her PhD in English from the University of Arkansas. For the next thirty years, taught English and women's studies, including at Rollins College, where she also served as director of Women's Studies from 1979 to 1992 and at the University of Wisconsin-Superior from 2000 to 2007. A staunch advocate for civil rights, her dissertation was entitled "The American Dream in Afro-American Drama: 1960-1970." Keefe entered the field of women's studies just as it was developing and was a prolific scholar whose research focused primarily on feminist and lesbian theater. In addition to Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence(1985) and Amazon All Stars: Thirteen Lesbian Plays(1996), which she edited, Keefe published hundreds of articles on feminist theater and women playwrights. An activist as well as an author, she served as president of the Orlando, Florida, chapter of the National Organization for Women and the Southeast Women’s Studies Association and was active in the anti-nuclear peace movement.