Editing Rita Arditti

{{Short description|Argentine biologist, educator, activist, and writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name            = Rita Arditti
| image           = 
| alt             = 
| caption         = 
| birth_date      = {{Birth date|1934|09|09|df=yes}}
| birth_place     = [[Buenos Aires]], Argentina
| death_date      = {{Death date and age|2009|12|25|1934|09|09|df=yes}}
| death_place     = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]], Massachusetts, United States
| death_cause     = 
| other_names     = 
| occupation      = Biologist, educator, writer
| spouse          = Mario Muchnik
| partner         = Estelle Disch
| children        = 1
| awards          = 
| education       = [[Sapienza University of Rome]]
| website         = 
}}
'''Rita Arditti''' (9 September 1934 – 25 December 2009) was an Argentine biologist, educator, activist, and writer.

She became interested in the history of the [[Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo]], research that she published in a book in English in the United States, her country of residence.

She was a co-founder of [[New Words Bookstore]], the [[Women's Community Cancer Project]], and [[Science for the People]]

==Career==
===Academic training and teaching===
Rita Arditti was born in [[Buenos Aires]] on 9 September 1934.<ref name=cambridgechronicle>{{Cite news |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/wickedlocal-cambridgechronicle/name/rita-arditti-obituary?n=rita-arditti&pid=138179617 |title=Rita Arditti |newspaper=[[Cambridge Chronicle]] |date=2010-01-05 |access-date=2022-09-16 |via=Legacy.com}}</ref> She attended [[Barnard College]] in the United States for one year, in 1952.<ref name=eSefarad>{{Cite web |url=https://esefarad.com/rita-arditti-a-sephardic-human-rights-activist/ |title=Rita Arditti, a Sephardic Human Rights Activist, died December 25, 2009 at age 75 |website=eSefarad |access-date=2022-09-19}}</ref> She moved to Rome in 1955, where she studied biology at [[Sapienza University of Rome|Sapienza University]], achieving a doctorate in that specialty.<ref name=teoria>{{Cite news |url=https://www.pagina12.com.ar/2000/00-10/00-10-01/pag16.htm |title=Historia, homenaje, teoria de la memoria: El libro de las Abuelas |trans-title=History, Tribute, Theory of Memory: The Grandmothers' Book |first=Andrew |last=Graham-Yooll |newspaper=[[Página 12]] |location=Boston |page=16 |language=es |date=2000-10-01 |access-date=2022-09-16}}</ref> In 1965, she began a postdoctoral fellowship at the biochemistry department of [[Brandeis University]], and in 1966 became a research associate at [[Harvard Medical School]].<ref name=eSefarad/>

She dedicated herself to teaching at [[Boston University]], and for the last 30 years of her career at the [[Union Institute & University]], where she worked with doctoral students.<ref name=cambridgechronicle/>

===Activism===
She was a longtime activist, co-founding [[New Words Bookstore]] in 1974, the [[Women's Community Cancer Project]], and [[Science for the People]].<ref name=eSefarad/><ref name=Feminaria>{{Cite magazine |url=http://res-publica.com.ar/Feminaria/Feminaria12.pdf |title=Dossier: Porque el cáncer es un tema feminista |trans-title=Dossier: Because Cancer is a Feminist Issue |first=Lea |last=Fletcher |magazine=[[Feminaria]] |volume=VII |number=12 |page=22 |language=es |date=May 1994 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210829174914/http://res-publica.com.ar/Feminaria/Feminaria12.pdf |archive-date=2021-08-29 |url-status=dead |access-date=2022-09-20}}</ref><ref name=Salud>{{Cite magazine |url=http://matriz.net/mys18/18_12.htm |title=Cáncer de mama y Principio de Precaución |trans-title=Breast Cancer and the Precautionary Principle |magazine=Mujeres y Salud |number=18 |language=es |date=Summer 2006 |access-date=2022-09-20}}</ref> She coedited ''Test Tube Women: What Future for Motherhood?'', a work based on the new technology of reproduction, and ''Science and Liberation'', about politics and science.

===Human Rights in Argentina===
Arditti became interested in investigating the events that occurred in Argentina during the [[Dirty War]], under the [[National Reorganization Process|military junta]] that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983. She performed research and engaged in political activism.

She focused on the activities of the [[Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo]]. After reading their 1985 book ''Botín de Guerra'' (Spoils of War), she was deeply affected by the [[Enforced disappearances in Argentina|disappearance]] of babies carried out by the Argentine government. She met members of the Grandmothers during their visit to Boston, which further aroused her interest. She made several trips to Argentina, where she visited the organization's offices. She poured this knowledge and experience into the book ''Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Disappeared Children of Argentina'', published by the [[University of California Press]] in 1999, with the Grandmothers' approval.<ref name=eSefarad/><ref name=teoria/> It was the first major work in English about the group, and was one document used to support their nomination for the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in 2001.<ref name=eSefarad/><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://openarchives.umb.edu/digital/collection/p15774coll10 |title=Disappeared Children in Argentina: Rita Arditti's Interviews with the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo |publisher=[[University of Massachusetts Boston]] |access-date=2022-09-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/searching-for-life-the-grandmothers-of-the-plaza-de-mayo-and-the-disappeared-children-of-argentina/ |first=Nina C. |last=Ayoub |title='Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Disappeared Children of Argentina' |newspaper=[[The Chronicle of Higher Education]] |date=1999-05-14 |access-date=2022-09-20}}</ref>

==Awards and recognition==
The Washington Center for Women's Policy presented Arditti with the Jessie Bernard Wise Woman Award in 1994. In 1999, the City of [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]] conferred its Peace and Justice Award, and the Union Institute & University made her a faculty member emeritus for her 30 years of experience there.<ref name=eSefarad/>

==Personal life==
===Childhood===
Her parents were Jacques Arditti and Rosa Cordovero, who met in Argentina after independently emigrating from Turkey. They married, both professed the [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardic Jewish]] religion, and had three daughters – Edith, Rita, and Alicia.<ref name=eSefarad/> Later they brought three children from Turkey – first cousins of the girls.

===Marriage===
When she was attending Barnard College, Arditti met Mario Muchnik, an Argentine who was studying at [[Columbia University|Columbia]], and they began an exchange of correspondence. Later they both returned to Argentina, intending to continue their university studies, but the disorder that prevailed in the country's universities at that time made them relocate to Italy. They started doctorate programs at Sapienza University of Rome – Arditti in biology, and Muchnik in physics. They married, and their son Federico was born in 1960. A year later, Arditti completed her doctorate and got a job in a laboratory in Naples, after which they divorced.

In the early 1980s, she began a relationship with her life partner, Estelle Disch.<ref name=cambridgechronicle/><ref name=Globe>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/109651983/deaths-arditti-rita/ |title=Deaths: Arditti, Rita |newspaper=[[The Boston Globe]] |page=B12 |date=2009-12-29 |access-date=2022-09-16 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

===Breast cancer===
Arditti suffered from [[metastatic breast cancer]] for the last 30 years of her life. This led her to participate in various conferences on the subject, to keep a personal diary about the development of her disease, and to co-found the Women's Community Cancer Project.<ref name=Feminaria/><ref name=Salud/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mbcn.org/2016/07/21/rita-arditti-lived-over-30-years-with-mbc/ |title=Rita Arditti: Lived over 30 years with MBC |first=Katherine |last=O'Brien |website=MBCN News |date=2016-07-21 |access-date=2022-09-20}}</ref>

It eventually caused her death, on 25 December 2009, while she was undergoing a medical procedure in Cambridge.<ref name=Globe/>

==Publications==
* {{Cite book |title=Women as Objects: Science and Sexual Politics |publisher=KNOW |oclc=320852435 |date=1974}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/scienceliberatio0000unse |title=Science and Liberation |editor1-first=Rita |editor1-last=Arditti |editor2-first=Pat |editor2-last=Brennan |editor3-first=Steve |editor3-last=Cavrak |publisher=[[South End Press]] |date=1980 |via=Internet Archive}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/testtubewomenwha00ardi |title=Test Tube Women: What Future for Motherhood? |editor1-first=Rita |editor1-last=Arditti |editor2-first=Renate |editor2-last=Duelli Klein |editor3-first=Shelley |editor3-last=Minden |publisher=Pandora Press |isbn=0863580300 |date=1984 |via=Internet Archive}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://www.google.com/books/?id=upf0Y0N-E54C |title=Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Disappeared Children of Argentina |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=9780520921665 |date=1999-04-19 |via=Google Books}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Arditti, Rita}}
[[Category:1934 births]]
[[Category:2009 deaths]]
[[Category:21st-century Argentine women scientists]]
[[Category:21st-century Argentine women writers]]
[[Category:Argentine biologists]]
[[Category:Argentine expatriates in the United States]]
[[Category:Argentine human rights activists]]
[[Category:Boston University faculty]]
[[Category:Deaths from breast cancer in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Sapienza University of Rome alumni]]
[[Category:Union Institute & University faculty]]
[[Category:Writers from Buenos Aires]]