I just heard the sad news about Connie. She was a remarkable spirit--a smart, ethical, and caring scholar I feel honored to have known from my time at NYU. What a support she was to me and to other young women scholars and students, and to anyone who wanted to make the world
a better place, politically and socially. She pushed me to be more of a feminist and connected me to great feminists anthropologists. I admired her and was so fond of her because of these commitments. I feel sad that I lost touch over these last years. Having lost my own mother four years ago, another radical academic, I can't help feeling that a generation of strong women who didn't have it easy paved the way for us, and have now passed. The sense of loss is more personal for her family, of course, but there are many of us out in the world for whom she was a shining light and loving lively generous intellectual presence.
—Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia University