Theodora J. Kalikow collection, 1968–2016

Full finding aid (pdf)

Collection Scope and Content

This collection includes correspondence, scholarly articles, reviews, conference papers, speeches and newspaper columns by Kalikow. It also includes interviews with her, dissertations about her, and various awards and recognition.

Biographical/Historical Note

A native of Swampscott, Massachusetts, Theodora Kalikow received an A.B. in chemistry from Wellesley College in 1962. After working in a laboratory at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, she attended graduate school in the Boston area, receiving an Sc.M. in philosophy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston University in 1974. During the academic year 1967-68 she served as tutor in philosophy at the University of Exeter, England; and in 1968 she began teaching at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, where she attained the rank of professor and served as department chair and faculty union president. In 1981 Kalikow became the interim assistant to the president at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, and during 1983-84 academic year she served as an American Council on Education Fellow at Brown University.

From 1984 to 1987 she was dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Northern Colorado, and in 1987 she moved to Plymouth State College in New Hampshire, where she served as dean of the college (with one year as interim president) until 1994. In 1994 Kalikow was named president of the University of Maine at Farmington, a position she held until her retirement in 2012. In 2012, Kalikow was named president of the University of Southern Maine.

In 2000 Kalikow received the Maryann Hartman Award in from the University of Maine women’s studies program, and in 2001 she was inducted to the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame. The University of New England honored Kalikow with the Deborah Morton award for her leadership in Maine’s educational and civic life in 2006. In 2007 she received the Green Building Leadership Award from the Maine Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council for her pioneering work in establishing high standards of environmental responsibility for higher education in Maine. In 2011 Princeton Review named UMF a “Top Green College” in its 311 Green Colleges guide.

Under President Kalikow’s leadership, the 2,000-student University of Maine at Farmington, was named one of 20 model universities committed to maximizing student potential in “Student Success in College: Creating Conditions that Matter,” published by the American Association for Higher Education. President Kalikow was engaged with an array of state organizations, including the Maine Campus Compact Executive Board, the State Sub-Cabinet for Multicultural Affairs, the Maine Economic Growth Council, and the Finance Authority of Maine. She chaired the University of Maine system’s diversity committee, and was a frequent presenter at academic conferences and the author of numerous scholarly articles, reviews and a book titled Konrad Lorenz’s Ethological Theory: Explanation and Ideology, 1938-1943. In addition Kalikow wrote a column from 2007 to 2015 for the Waterville, Maine, Morning Sentinel editorial page. In 2016, the University of Maine Farmington named its newly-built education center after Kalikow.