Eastern Michigan University
Women’s and Gender Studies
Newsletter
Engaging in Feminism since 1975
Winter 2013
Department Members Margaret Crouch and John Palladino
Receive Teaching Excellence Awards
Professor Margaret Crouch and Associate
Professor John Palladino were both honored at
the Alumni Association's Teaching Excellence
Awards Breakfast on Saturday, November 3,
2012.
Dr. Crouch, whose home department is History
and Philosophy, teaches extensively in the
Women's
and
Gender
Studies,
and
Pictured above, Dr. Palladino and Dr. Crouch.
Pictured below, WGST faculty and alumni.
was
nominated by several graduates of our Master
of Arts in Women's and Gender Studies
program for her work as a mentor and for
supporting our graduate students in their
thesis work.
Dr. John Palladino, whose home department is
Special Education, was nominated by his
department for his exceptional work with
children and his commitment to foster care in
the State of Michigan. He teaches WGST 202:
Introduction to Gender and Sexuality.
More inside!
Pg. 1
Our Mission
The Women’s and Gender Studies
department of Eastern Michigan
University maintains a commitment to
interdisciplinary perspectives that
investigate the intersections of gender
with race, ethnicity, class and sexual or
affectional orientation, in order to
“embrace the experiences, voices, and
concerns of all those who have been
excluded from academic tradition.”
Note from the Interim Department Head
Suzanne Gray, sgray17@emich.edu
We’re off to an exciting year in WGST. The department is currently
undertaking a national search for a permanent Department Head, our
website has been fully redesigned, and we have begun a monthly
colloquium series to enhance scholarly dialogue among faculty, lecturers,
and graduate students. Interest in both our Master of Arts and Certificate
programs has been particularly high this year, with 6 new students
beginning in the fall, and another 4 in the winter term. We also have an
incredible slate of programs scheduled for Women’s History Month this
March. I hope that you will join us at many of these events, and support our
WGST students through your continued engagement with our department.
Please keep up to date with WGST by visiting emich.edu/wgstudies, and like
us on Facebook.
WGST Senior Teaching
Abroad in South Korea
While studying abroad, Raven LaPointe connects
with students half way around the world teaching
English in South Korea. A former resident of Ann
Raven, pictured on
the left
Arbor and currently a senior in EMU’s WGST
program, Raven looks forward to traveling more
after she completes her degree and then moving
on to pursue her Masters. As an undergrad, Raven
is currently on the Dean’s list. She was also a
Margaret M. Smith and Francis R. Warren
Scholarship recipient. We sat down (virtually) and
were able to talk about her experiences with
WGST and how it has made a difference in her life.
How does WGST inspire you? The WGST
program inspires me to look at the world through
a different lens and from a different angle. For me,
this program is all about seeing the world through
another person's eyes, which means repositioning
myself to align with all the factors that have they
…continued on page 7
2
WGSSA Update
The Women’s and Gender Studies
Student Association is excited to start
out this semester by welcoming its
new members. We look forward to
helping support multiple events
during Women’s History Month in
March.
Visit us online @ Facebook
www.facebook.com/emuwomengen
derstudiesstudentassociation
Students and Faculty Attend
2012 NWSA Conference
The WGST department headed to sunny
California for the 2012 National Women’s
Studies Association Conference in Oakland this
past November. They presented in numerous
sessions and made our department very proud!
Dr. Solange Simões moderated "Does English
Use as Lingua Franca of Feminism Foster an
International Division of Feminist Labor?,"
which featured papers presented by EMU WGST
graduate students Shuli Han, Melissa Lininger, and
Chelsea Miles. Suzanne Gray moderated "Bridging
the Gap Between Theory and Activism: Enhancing
Student Research Projects Through Feminist Action,"
which featured papers by Solange Simões & Suzanne
Gray, EMU Women's Resource Center Coordinator
Jess Klein, and WGST 200 honors students Brooke
O'Neil and Madelyn Prebola. Dr. Elizabeth Currans
moderated a session entitled "Transforming Our
Research Methodologies: Intersectionality and
Borderland Epistemologies," and Lecturer Nicole
Carter participated in the Women of Color
Leadership Project Preconference.
WGST students and faculty at NWSA Conference
______________________________________
NEW Queer Studies Minor
The WGST Department is excited to
announce their new Queer Studies Minor,
effective winter 2013. This minor will foster
critical and creative thinking about sexual
and gender norms, identities, bodies, and
experiences in global, national, and local
contexts.
Through
examining
and
contextualizing debates in the field,
students will develop skills that inform
approaches to lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and queer history and politics,
enabling participation in communities and
scholarship.
______________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________
WGST @ EMU Women’s Basketball
On January 16th, WGST faculty, staff, alumni and students
gathered together in the Academic & Student Affairs
Convocation Center Suite to cheer on the EMU Women’s
Basketball Team (3-13, 1-2 MAC) as they took on the
University of Toledo Rockets. Everyone had a great time
catching up with one another and enjoying the game. The
team played with determination but unfortunately was
defeated with a final score of 56-40. Top scorers for the game were Natachia Watkins with 16
points and India Hairston with 7 points. Good luck Eagles at your next game. We will be
cheering for you!
3
Congratulations 2012-13 Scholarship Recipients
In the fall of 2012, Amina Mansaray and Laurie
Stevens were awarded the Margaret Smith Award
Scholarship. Jennie Rokakis was awarded both
the Evans Strand Diversity Award by the College
of Arts and Sciences and the Distinguished
Leaders of Women's Studies Scholarship.
Laurie Stevens is the first member of her
family to attend graduate school. She chose the
WGST department because it encapsulates so
many vital parts of her identity and interests:
feminism, queer theory and race. She is
currently a marketing
intern with Eastern's
Center for the Study of
Equality and Human
Rights, which seeks to
bolster
pro-LGBT
community
action
through
research.
Laurie received her
Bachelor's in Literature
and
her
area
of
specialty is the depiction of women and LGBT
characters in illustrated texts. She will be
presenting a project on this topic at the 2013
Undergraduate Symposium.
The Margaret M. Smith Scholarship for the
Advancement of Women is named in honor of
Margaret (Peg) Smith, a community feminist,
librarian, EMU alumna, and state athlete, by the
contributions of friends and family in the
celebration of her 80th birthday in 1994. The
fund enhances the educational advancement of
women through a scholarship award.
The
Distinguished Leaders Scholarship Award is
named in honor of EMU’s first-generation of
women’s studies faculty. The fund enhances the
educational advancement of WGST majors
through a scholarship award.
The Evans Strand Scholarship modeled after the
Nobel Peace Prize, annually recognizes an
individual for significant contributions that
advance the understanding and acceptance of
diversity at EMU. To contribute to WGST
scholarships visit: www.emich.edu/wgstudies/
giving
Jennie Rokakis is a senior majoring in
Women’s and Gender Studies with a minor in
Nonprofit Administration. Jennie is passionate
about working with the lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender community. She is currently
the Advocacy Coordinator at the LGBT
Resource Center on campus where she started
EMU’s
LBGT
Peer
Mentorship Program. She
volunteers
with
the
national
LGBT
organization,
Campus
Pride, as well as gives
presentations about how
to make schools safer for
LGBT youth. She will be
giving two presentations in
the Undergraduate Symposium, one about
aging within the LGBT community, and the
other will be her thesis presentation about the
persecution of homosexuals during the
Holocaust. Jennie hopes to work for an LGBT
nonprofit organization after she graduates.
Amina Mansaray is an International Affairs
major and Human Biology minor. She is the
founder of the African
Students' Association and
former vice president of
the nationally ranked
Poetry Society. Amina
currently
works
as
a liaison for
a
nonprofit organization based
out of Chicago, IL that
improves the social and
economic status of my
country of origin, Sierra Leone. After EMU, she
will pursue a Masters in Nursing at New York
University to become a Nurse Practitioner in
global and community health.
4
Women’s History Month 2013
seeking to provide formerly incarcerated women
This March is Women’s History Month 2013 and it is
and their families with the tools to renew their
just around the corner! Our theme for WHM is
lives.
Breaking Boundaries: Women at the Forefront of
Change. This year we have over eighteen diverse
We hope that alumni, faculty, staff and students can
events that cover a variety of feminist issues. There’s a
attend as many events as possible.
wide range of activities and events for everyone and
Please visit emich.edu/womenshistorymonth/ to
contributions by individuals from the community as
view the full list of events. All of these events are
well as nationally known speakers and educators.
Learning Beyond the Classroom approved.
____________________________________________________________
Laurie Finke, Kenyon College, 2012-2013 McAndless
Scholar in Residence, will speak on March 19 at
WGST Grad Assistants
7:30pm in the Student Center. Her
talk focuses on Disneyland as
work disguised as play; school
Shuli Han holds a MA in Art History from SUNY at
disguised as vacation. Drawing on
Buffalo and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s
Sarah Ahmed’s phenomenological
Studies
reading of orientation in Queer
current
phenomenology,
approach
this
lecture
from the University of Kansas. Her
interests
in
emphasize
transnational
a
comparative
feminist
dialogue
investigates the ways in which Disney’s didacticism is
between US and China. She works as a Graduate
made material through practices and procedures
Assistant in helping teaching WGST courses taught
designed to orient the park’s visitors, to ensure that
by Professor Solange Simões.
those visitors always know where they are and who
Maggie Martin began working on her MA in the fall
they are, as a means of educating ‘good’ citizens.
of 2012. She is looking forward to working with the
department in planning and organizing Women’s
Patrice Gaines
will
be
featured speaker on March
our
History Month. She is also the president of WGSSA
at
and is an active volunteer at The SafeHouse Center
7pm, in the Student Center
of Ann Arbor. Her research interests are in
Ballroom with a book signing to
domestic violence and sexual assault.
follow.
Patrice
is
26th
an award
Rebekah Ward is completing her final full semester
winning journalist and former
in the program. She is working on a culminating
Washington Post reporter. She
project that critiques YA literature for LGBTQ teens
works to empower girls and
and the rhetoric of "It Gets Better". Her GA
young women at risk, drawing from the heart of her
responsibilities this year have been to assist Dr.
experiences on the streets and in prison. She is the co-
Currans.
founder of Brown Angel Center, an organization
5
WGST Alumni Spotlight…
Coralie Cederna Johnson
One of the main highlights of my time as
a grad student at EMU was when Professor
Margot Duley, Program Director asked me to
teach my first WMST200 class. That was in
2000 and I've been teaching every since. I
love what I do! Working with students of
all ages and levels of experience in life, and
having them share their perceptions,
beliefs, and values in classes is one of my
favorite ways to teach. We learn so much
from others. We learn when we're sharing
and when we're listening and evaluating.
Women and Gender Studies are about us—
each one of us personally. We have so
many issues in our current culture that we
must deal with; it is enlightening to learn
how others feel, believe, and act. Issues of
concern today are still patriarchy and its
far-reaching effects leading to the
oppression of women everywhere. This is
the basis for many of the issues we discuss
in my WMST200 Intro class.
I currently teach online and am
thrilled to see so many women returning to
school after long years away from studies.
That is my own personal story for I was
employed at the University of Michigan as
a manager in a health care facility when I
decided to fulfill my lifelong dream of
completing my undergraduate degree and
earning a masters. I tell my students it's
never too late to begin again. No matter
one's circumstances, it will all be worth it
in the long run. I worked full time, took
two classes at a time, and completed my
degrees. It took years but nothing makes
me happier or prouder than this
accomplishment.
Working on my masters at EMU was
one of the most exciting times in my life. I
studied playwriting at EMU and joined this
with my research on women and religion to
produce a play of monologues for women entitled
SACRIFICIAL OFFERINGS. The play was
presented in Quirk Theater for my masters
program and for Women's History month at EMU.
In 2001, my play PIGEONS IN THE PARK
was selected as one of the best plays of the year
and was featured at EMU and Performance
Network Professional Theater. Another play,
BEES, which I created in a work-study under the
guidance of Professor Kerry Graves was
presented at the Boarshead Professional Theater
in Lansing.
I am now retired from the University of
Michigan but still teaching for EMU. I taught a
playwriting workshop this past spring at our
Carnegie Library and many of the people in my
writing group are now writing their own plays.
My current project is called THE RED DRESS
DIARIES, another play of monologues for women.
The play in progress has already received two
table-readings and I look forward to many more
presentations. It will receive its first public
performance on March 16 for Women's History
Month at The Fourth Wall in Jackson, MI at 8pm
and is open to the public. The monologues
address the issues we women face in our world
today...vitally important to each and every one of
us, whether, female or male! We're all in this
world together!
_________________________________________________________
Thank you, Coralie, for sharing your thoughts and
experiences with us. Good luck in your future
endeavors!
6
cont.
…continued from page 2
influenced their life, including sex, race,
age, where grew up, etc. The fact that this
program constantly asks the individual to
question both them self and the world is one of
the most difficult aspects of the program, but has
Women’s History Month is coming up soon!
Turn to page 3 to find out more information
actually been a huge benefit to me as I study
abroad
Upcoming Colloquium
Series Winter 2013
1.
2.
3.
Any particular courses or professors who
have inspired you? Dr. Mihaly has always been
a huge source of support and inspiration.
Women Political Prisoners
and Theatre of Witness in
Argentina
Any last thoughts? Studying abroad has been an
Dr. Deanna Mihaly, WGST &
World Languages January,
January 25, 2013, 11-noon, 319
Pray Harrold
life. I don't think anything compares to studying
Digital Voice: Egyptian
Feminist Cyberactivism in
the Revolution and Beyond
strengths and abilities. I know that I'll leave
Dr. Carol Haddad, WGST
&Technology Studies February
experiences of women living half a world away.
Does English Use as Lingua
Franca of Feminism Foster
an International Division of
Feminist Labor?
Thanks, Raven, for sharing your experiences
amazing experience and has resulted in many
positive changes in so many dimensions of my
abroad when it comes to opening your eyes to
the challenges of others or realizing your own
Korea much more self aware than when I arrived
as well as much more knowledgeable about the
________________________________________________________
with us. We can’t wait to welcome you back
home!
Shuli Han, Melissa Lininger, and
Chelsea Miles, WGST Graduate
Students
Dr. Solange Simões, WGST &
Sociology, Anthropology, &
Criminology April
________________________________________________________
EMU Women’s and Gender Studies
Women’s and Gender Studies
Student Association
EMU Students for Choice
7
EMU Alumni Keep in Touch!
Eagles Shout Out! Your Alma Mater is interested
in you! Tell Us Your News…
Name: _______________________________
Class Year: ___________________________
Address: _____________________________
____________________________________
Email: _______________________________
Phone: ______________________________
Alumni and friends, please let us know when you move, change e-mail, careers or your name.
Mail to : EMU WGST 714 Pray Harrold, Ypsilanti, MI 48197
Contact: Anna Brogan-Knight abrogan@emich.edu
Comments/Corrections? Please contact the editor: Maggie Martin mmarti50@emich.edu
Check us out on the Web at http://www.emich.edu/wstudies/
The Women’s and Gender Studies
Newsletter
Women’s and Gender Studies
714 Pray-Harrold
Eastern Michigan University
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
734.487.1177