Researcher, Semiotician & Author
Genevieve Vaughan is an independent researcher (Bryn Mawr College ’61). Born in Texas in 1939, she has lived between the USA and Italy most of her life.
Her first article in semiotics, Communication and Exchange, appeared in the journal Semiotica in 1980. She founded the all-women multicultural Foundation for a Compassionate Society, 1988 – 2005. She also founded the academic and activist network International Feminists for a Gift Economy, 2001- present.
Her books are For-Giving; A Feminist Criticism of Exchange, Plainview Press (1997), Homo Donans, VandA Press (2008), The Gift in the Heart of Language; The Maternal Source of Meaning, Mimesis Press (2015). She is editor of Athanor: Il Dono/the Gift, Meltemi (2004), Women and the Gift Economy; A Radically Different Worldview is Possible, Inanna Press (2007), and The Maternal Roots of the Gift Economy, Inanna Press (2018). Genevieve’s other collective work can be found in Canadian Women’s Studies Journal: Vol. 34, Feminist Gift Economy: A Maternalist Alternative to Patriarchy and Capitalism (2020) and Mothering, Gift and Revolution: Honoring Genevieve Vaughan’s Life Work, Vanda Press (2021).
Many of her books and articles as well as her three children's books and a collection of her songs can be found free at gift-economy.com. An ongoing series of webinars on various aspects of the gift are available at maternalgifteconomymovement.org and on Gift Economy channel on YouTube. She has three daughters and two grandchildren.
