Draft:Barbara DiBernard

Barbara DiBernard was an American scholar, professor, feminist, and LGBT activist. DiBernard was Professor of English at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where she taught women's and lesbian literature courses for many years and served as director of the Women's Studies program.

Early Life
DiBernard was born to Josephine (Esposito) DiBernard and Vincent DiBernard in Dover, New Jersey. DiBernard received her B.A. in English from Wilson College in 1970 and her Ph.D. in Modern British Literature from SUNY Binghamton in 1976.

After finishing her Ph.D., DiBernard spent two years teaching in the general college at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. In 1978, DiBernard joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she taught English and Women's and Gender Studies courses for 33 years.

Initially hired to teach 20th century British fiction, DiBernard was soon invited by the Women's Studies program to teach women's literature courses. She later served as Director of the Women's Studies program from 1992-1997 and co-established the LGBTQ/sexuality studies minor.

DiBernard and Judith Gibson became life partners in 1988 and were married June 15, 2015, becoming the first same-sex couple in Lancaster County, Nebraska to receive a marriage license.

Works
"Alchemy in Finnegans Wake." James Joyce Quarterly 14.3 (1977): 274-289.

Alchemy and Finnegans Wake. State University of New York Press, 1980.

"Alchemical Number Symbolism in" Finnegans Wake"." James Joyce Quarterly 16.4 (1979): 433-446.

"Zami: A Portrait of an Artist as a Black Lesbian." Kenyon Review (1991) 195-213.

"Being an I-Witness: My Life as a Lesbian Teacher." Private Voices, Public Lives: Women Speak on the Literary Life, edited by Nancy Owen Nelson, University of North Texas Press, 1995.

"'Imagine My Surprise': Being Out as a Lesbian Teacher, 1990-2010." Counterpoints 397 (2011): 125-133.

“Teaching What I’m Not: An Able-Bodied Woman Teaches Literature by Women with Disabilities.” Teaching What You’re Not: Identity Politics in Higher Education, edited by Katherine J. Mayberry, New York University Press, 1996, pp. 131–54.