Helen Graves
About this Interview
Helen Mataya Graves was a professor of political science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1975 to 1996 and at University of Michigan-Ann Arbor from 1996 to 2006.
Graves was the creative force behind UMD’s comparative political internship program in Ottawa, Canada, which began in 1984. She expanded the political internship program to Lansing, Washington, D.C., and Windsor. She also extended the program into the private sector. Graves led the political internship program for over twenty years, which attracted students from both the Dearborn and Ann Arbor campuses.
Graves led a life of service and activism both on campus and in her community. Prior to her PhD program, she advocated for the creation of Three Mile Park in Grosse Pointe, ran for Grosse Pointe city council, and founded a committee that created the Northeast Child Guidance Center in Detroit. While Graves was a professor at UM-Dearborn, she co-organized the campus’s Commission for Women in 1974.
Graves was interviewed by Karen Morgan on April 21, 2004. She approached this interview with her characteristic candor; she did not hesitate to either praise or critique men in power, particularly UM-Dearborn administrators and faculty. Her interview reveals much about the early days of the political internship program; issues that women faculty, administrators, and staff faced at UMD; and the relationship between UM-Ann Arbor and UM-Dearborn. It also provides an intimate portrait of Graves herself, revealing the inextricable ties between the personal, the political, and the professional aspects of her life.
