Genevieve Vaughan, USA/Italy

Genevieve Vaughan was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA in 1939. She lived in Italy from 1963 - 1983 when she moved back to Austin and started the Foundation for a Compassionate Society, an all-woman activist foundation which initiated many innovative projects based on the idea of the gift economy and the political implementation of 'women's values'. The Foundation partially closed in 1998 but continued functioning in reduced form until 2005. Vaughan has recently moved back to Italy. She travels widely to conferences nationally and internationally and gives presentations to a variety of audiences. She is a member of the international network, Feminists for a Gift Economy and is active in the anti-globalization and peace movements . Her book For-Giving, a Feminist Criticism of Exchange was published in 1997. A web book Homo Donans appeared in 2006. She has edited two volumes of articles by international women on the gift economy: Athanor: Il Dono/The Gift published in English in Italy by Meltemi Press, 2004 and Women and the Gift Economy: A Radically Different Worldview is Possible, Innana Press 2007. She has written two children's books Mother Nature's Children 2002 and Free/Not Free, 2007. A film on her life Giving for Giving has recently been released and can be seen on Free Speech TV.

All of her material is available free on her website www.gift-economy.com.