HISTORY OF WISE (excerpted from Tobe Levin's article in Women's Studies Quarterly No. ¾, 1992, pp. 153-162.) In 1985, at the NGO End-of-U.N. Decade for Women Conference in Nairobi, "Women's Studies International" hosted a session called "Linkages and Future Developments: Inside and Beyond the Network" at which I delivered a paper on "Women's Studies Undergraduates Abroad: An Idea Whose Time has come." Requested to report on global exchanges among women' studies scholars and students functioning at an institutional level, among and between universities, polytechnics and colleges, I found, regrettably, few such initiatives. (Antioch University seemed the singular exception.) "I especially admire the attention in Antioch's programme to hands-on experience," I said at our informal Nairobi breakfast caucus at which time, over scrambled eggs and coffee, the idea of a WISE, then an acronym for Women's International Studies Exchange, took shape. Also Erna Kas from the Dutch Women’s Studies Association proposed in Nairobi a world-wide association for womens’ studies. However this was at that point in time ‘a bridge too far’. "Anyone having dealt with universities in the British tradition will know," Jalna pointed out, "that it's easier to set up programmes for postgraduates." As discussion continued, difficulties mounted. Should we try to interest institutions in joining a consortium? Should we encourage the development of courses with a multi-cultural approach to women's lives? Underlying our enthusiasm was a conviction that cross-cultural encounters, foreign study, direct experience of feminist organizations and women's studies programmes in diverse contexts would enable us all the sooner to realize our aims as feminist educators (codified in the WISE constitution), "to promote knowledge that will improve the quality of women's lives." A follow-up workshop which Jalna Hanmer and Tobe Levin offered in 1987 at the Third International Interdisciplinary Congress in Dublin overflowed the assigned room: obviously interest was high. Telephone networking after the event led to a propitious meeting. Ellie Lissenberg, in criminology at the University of Amsterdam, invited Jalna Hanmer and me to her office. Meeting us at SISWO were Erna Kas and Riky van Og of the Netherlands, Eileen Green (UK) and Angelika Köster-Lossack (BRD ). Although discussions in Nairobi had simply assumed the desirability of a global feminist exchange network, in Amsterdam our vision became both more practical and more modest. Aware that the ERASMUS programme offered support for university exchange among European Community countries, we modified our name - making the "E" now stand for "Europe" though the idea of exchange was retained - and applied for a grant. The Community's aim to promote mobility among students within the EC and also sponsor faculty attempts to develop new curricula with a European orientation in various fields matched ours for women's studies. Funds awarded for 1988 (a smaller sun renewed in 1989) allowed the seven of us named above to function as a steering group whose tasks were to find feminist scholars from eleven EC countries (those with universities) -- an undertaking greatly facilitated by GRACE, the feminist database - and invite them to week-end convocations. These scholars were requested to present papers on the seminar theme; send curricula vitae explaining their involvement in women's studies teaching and/ or research; be committed to supporting the development of a European Association; bring with them names and addresses of feminist scholars and lecturers in their countries; and report to their national associations, networks, or interested women at home. Thus, in May 1990, specialists in "The Feminization of Poverty and Labour Markets" met at Sheffield City Polytechnic, while scholars concerned with "Women Refugees, Migrant Workers and Immigration" conferred at the University of Bradford. In June 1989 at the University of Heidelberg, experts discussed the themes of "Human reproduction, Sexuality and Violence against Women" and "The Relationship between Women's Studies and Women's Movements in Europe." The following year, in May 1990, at the University of Valencia themes were "Women in Science and Technology" and "Literature and Communication." The format of each week-end included an open presentation to a community and academic audience Friday evening followed by closed sessions on Saturday and Sunday at which participants exchanged more precise information concerning courses, credits, and the development of women's studies in their fields and at their institutions. (For details see Köster-Lossack and Levin, "Women's Studies in Europe: Conference Reports. Part II," NWSA Journal. Vol. 2, No. 2 Spring 1990, 264-268; the 1990 seminar is treated extensively in WISE Women's News No. 1, 1991.) The next step, of course, was a founding convention. Modifications in the ERASMUS programme eliminated the EC as a source of funding for organizational work, but the steering group, now enlarged to include representatives from Spain, Italy and Greece, judged that the need was sufficient and interest high enough to justify launching an autonomous association. Thus, on the week-end of November 8-10, 1990, approximately 80 educators specializing in women's studies --- who, had illness not prevented some of those registered from appearing, would represented all eleven EC-countries - met in Driebergen, the Netherlands, to vote on a constitution whose preamble reaffirms the link among scholarship, policy-making and activism, and prescribes WISE support for projects and groups "seeking to establish or extend women's studies teaching and research". Aims also include initiating exchange of women's studies students and staff between members of the association who will be backed-up in their efforts to set up joint programmes in teaching and research, including those leading to degrees. Models of such initiatives have been successfully launched by WISE members, often with ERASMUS support; examples include the universities of Bradford, Utrecht, Barcelona, and Paris. Further WISE aims include encouraging the development of new women's studies courses; extending the association to women's studies networks in Europe while encouraging their development where none have yet been launched; and "defending the interests of women's studies on a European level in all appropriate institutions and organizations".