I first met Connie Sutton when I was a child. She was my mother’s first anthropology professor and her dear friend. When I was looking for a job right after college, Connie hired me to organize the files of the organization she founded in the 1970s, the New York Women’s Anthropology Congress. For two months, I sat in the spare bedroom of her apartment pouring through the boxes of reports, notes, receipts, and articles that Connie had collected over decades as part of her work to create a transnational alliance of feminist anthropologists. At mid-day, Connie and her husband Antonio Lauria, welcomed me to their kitchen table and fed me lunch. It was during this period that Connie became my teacher and friend. When she asked me questions, she made it clear that she took me seriously. Despite our age difference and my inexperience, she trusted me and helped me recognize that I had a useful perspective and an analysis. In seeing myself through Connie’s eyes, I grew up. Connie had such panache and love for the world and for her students. She reinforced for me that anthropology could be fierce, feminist, and activist.
—Naomi Schiller, Brooklyn College CUNY