Where are we going, where have we been

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Where are we going, where have we been
Reflections and Recognitions
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2009 WGS Graduates

• Undergraduate Program

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Kristin Burton

• Project description
• A critical view of sexual identity and the ways
  the media creates norms for minority identities
  such as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.  Also, the
  project looks at how these media images present
  ways you can act out these identities to be
  visibly identifiable as a member of a specific
  group.  It will also touch on the ways these
  norms are being challenged through scholarship
  and queer and/or feminist theory. 
• How has WGS been important to me?
• WGS has provided a great opportunity to study in
  many of the academic disciplines I am interested
  in while enhancing my knowledge of what it means
  to be female and feminist in our culture.

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Kelly Frick

•  
• Project description
• My project is an attempt to look at the idea of
  accessible feminism and what that concept looks
  like.  Using the work of bell hooks and Kurt
  Vonnegut, I hope to show that humanism/feminism
  as written through literature is a pivotal point
  of accessibility for strangers to feminism.
• How has WGS been important to me?
• WGS has been important to me because it has
  completely changed the way I view the world.  I
  feel more aware of issues, ready to embrace the
  feminist agenda and the struggles that come
  with being a feminist.

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Sarah Hamrick

• Project description
• Since I am going to graduate school to become a
  dietician, I am very invested in connecting my
  work within WGS to the field of nutrition.  My
  project examines the implications and importance
  of nutrition in womens lives using a feminist
  analysis.  I also critique and examine nutrition
  as a discipline and within the healthcare system
  using this same analysis.  I consider the ways in
  which race, class, and gender influence access to
  nutrition education and resources, as well as how
  these issues affect womens relationship with
  food and understanding of nutrition.  Finally, I
  propose changes that can be made within nutrition
  as a discipline to make it more useful and
  accessible to women.
•  How has WGS been important to me?
• WGS has been important to me in that it has
  taught me to think critically about everything! 
  I t has also informed my understanding of the
  importance of feminism and how it affects
  everyone on a daily basis.  WGS has also given me
  a better understanding of myself and ways in
  which I operate in the world around me. 

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Laurel Hopper

•  
• Project description
• I have chosen to conduct an interview with three
  retired women to study the role of feminism and
  the evolution of gender roles during their
  lives.  My purpose is to develop an understanding
  of the ways they view these terms.  I will also
  answer the questions Why did I find a language
  gap, and how do we distribute the language of
  gender ideology and feminism to the mainstream
  population?
• How has WGS been important to me?
• I have found that WGS has helped me to discuss my
  own identity as well as role in society.  I have
  a better understanding of the ways in which
  society functions.  Although this academic area
  is always complicated, and there are never clear
  answers to the questions, it is always
  interesting.

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Chrissy Turpin

•   Project description
• My project is concerned with defining female
  characters within the teen horror genre and how
  these definitions affect that audiences
  perspective of feminism and feminist characters. 
  Additionally, I am analyzing ideas of sexuality
  in regards to these female characters and how
  these ideas also affect an audiences perspective
  of feminism.  I have chosen to focus on Sidney
  Prescott from the Scream triology and Willow
  Rosenberg from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
•  How has WGS been important to me?
• WGS has helped to define myself who I am, what I
  am, how I think, feel and what I believe.  Its
  been a real source of emotion, energy, and pride.

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Erin Cowan

• Project description
• My project is on black feminism. I focus on what
  black feminist criticism is focused on, and how
  this has evolved from historical black female
  experiences. I am mainly focused on Joan Morgans
  When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost and how she
  describes black female identity and what black
  feminists should be focused on.
•  How has WGS been important to me?
• WGS is important to me because it has taught me
  to think creatively and critically.  Whether I
  have loved my papers or not, I have loved the
  research and provocative thought.

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Taryn Cowart

• Project description
• My project this semester delves into the world of
  feminist art, asking
• questions about how differing identities can be
  accounted for in works
• inspired by normative white feminists. I continue
  my argument forward into
• a discussion of Social Practice art, which I
  think provides a space for a
• new way to think about describing art as
  'feminist,' and for delineating a
• way of thinking about identity in artwork that
  aims to be collaborative.
• How has WGS been important to me?
• WGS gives me a way to think about myself and my
  place in the world in
• such a way that I can feel both comforted by and
  critical of it as an
• intellectual movement. I am proud to be a part of
  it!

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Melody Heath

• Project Description
• Today disabled women are still fighting for the
  equal right to reproduce if they choose to. Many
  people in our society think that disabled women
  should not be allowed to have babies because they
  are afraid that more and more disabled people
  will overburden and overpopulate our society and,
  to them, that is not right. They view disabled
  individuals as childlike and incapable of taking
  care of themselves and making mature decisions.
• In my research project I am going to explore this
  idea and look at what disabled women face today
  regarding their own reproductive rights. First, I
  am going to try to define the term disability and
  explain what it means to those who are disabled
  and for those who are non-disabled. Then I am
  going to look at a brief history of the eugenics
  movement in the United States and how that
  affected disabled womens rights to reproduction.
  Finally, I am going to look at the feminist view
  of abortion and how it affects todays fight for
  the disabled womans right to reproduce.

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Erin Andrews
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Amy Brown

• Project description
• My final project covers the topic of the
  oppressions that upper and middle class white
  women have faced from the 19th to the 21st
  century.  I feel like this will be a way to
  analyze the interpretation of women in society
  through using the concept of white supremacy.  I
  hope to shed light on this issue and how it may
  affect other women of other races also.
• How has WGS been important to me?
• Womens and Gender Studies has allowed me to
  question what is or is not real.  I believe that
  it has allowed me to look at the bigger picture
  of everything in life.

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Clarissa Morency

•  Project description
• My senior project is an exploration of the
  Missing White Woman Syndromea term used to
  describe the overreporting of missing white women
  versus the underreporting of missing people of
  minority races or classes.  This is a very
  important topic for me as it works to create not
  only a culture of fear for white women regarding
  their safety but also a culture of fear for
  minorities whose stories are deemed unimportant
  by the media.  Missing White Woman Syndrome works
  to show that no matter how far we have come as a
  nation, there is still a large cultural bias
  present that needs to be addressed.
• How has WGS been important to me?
• WGS has been important for me not only by
  teaching me about the struggles that women have
  fought and overcome so far but also about the
  work yet to be done within our society.

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Seemab Urooj

• Project description
• My project is about the instilled separation of
  black and white.  It focuses on the treatment of
  women during slavery, the reasoning behind sexual
  exploitation, and how it has affected America
  until today.  I discuss the manipulative ways
  this society has shown us what feminism and
  equality are on the surface.
• How has WGS been important to me?
• Womens and Gender Studies has been extremely
  important to me because it has taught me to
  spread my passion and become aware of our
  socialization.  I have learned to question all
  motives because tolerance and silence will not
  protect or help me gain awareness.

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Shermunda Lawrence

• Project description
• My project is on domestic violence and how the
  media portrays it.  Im focusing on the outcomes
  the media brings to societys attention about the
  different genders in their roles.  Im also
  researching important ways to look for signs,
  and/or to prevent the issue.
• How has WGS been important to me?
• WGS has been important to me by allowing me to
  focus and open my eyes to another perspective.

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Brittany Holt

• Project description
• For my final project, I am analyzing how womens
  body image is affected by the media and popular
  culture.  Using feminist theories, I am revealing
  that most of the popular analyses of media
  portrayals of the ideal body are not feminist
  at all and in turn cause body dissatisfaction, as
  women compare themselves to famous women and
  internalize the notion of the ideal body.
• How has WGS been important to me?
• WGS has been an important part of my life as it
  has opened several windows for me to see who I
  really am and the change I can offer to others.

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2009 WGS Graduates

• Graduate Program
• Master of Arts

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Natasha Edwards

• Affects of Media in Forming Identity
• Hip Hop Rap and its effects on Race and Gender
  Identities
• Hip Hop and Rap are phenomenas that reach every
  person in the United States and arguably in the
  world. It has been said that we now live in a hip
  hop culture, if that is so then this form of
  media undoubtedly affects our psyche consciously
  or unconsciously this media affects our daily
  decisions from what we say, do, wear, and
  (un)critically process the world around us. For
  many, this media/culture is also a source of
  valuable knowledge and skill for survival.
• The object of my project was to try to understand
  how people in the academy internalize the
  messages of Rap and Hip hop, and what messages
  the hear/see/believe about their race and gender.
  More importantly how we can use hip hop as a tool
  in the classroom, Social Justice Rap Education
  Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy) and community to
  empower people to be activist and critically
  challenge oppressive hierarchies that are
  barriers to equality.

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Isabell Moore

• The Honest Living Project
• My culminating project, titled "The Honest Living
  Project," is on how people find ways to make a
  living while living their politics. Its about
  how people who care about social justice figure
  out issues of life path, jobs, vocation, and
  livelihood and how all that connects with race,
  class and gender.
• For the project, I have 1) done reading and
  research, 2) interviewed and had conversations
  with folks, 3) started a blog (www.honestliving.wo
  rdpress.com) which has had over 800 views, and 4)
  done an online survey (www.honestliving.wordpress.
  com/survey), which has had over 70 responses. I
  plan on keeping the blog going after graduation
  and perhaps doing some workshops/discussions on
  the topic.

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Tamara Snell

• The Angry Black Woman Syndrome
• I chose to embark on an unusual project that
  examined the Angry Black Woman (ABW) syndrome
  because I found myself being labeled such a term
  and I wanted to identify what this really means
  for myself as well as my fellow sisters. The
  Angry Black Woman syndrome presents a negative
  image of the black woman as consistently being a
  smart-mouthed, often loud, assertive neck-roller
  determined to make the world around her
  unpleasant. This stereotype is not only real but
  inaccurate. Identity is something that I hold
  very dear and I believe that it is important to
  acknowledge that there is a lot for black women
  to be angry about-we face a triple oppression
  that can not be ignoredoppression from the white
  man, the white woman and the black man.
• For this project, I created a blog where
  like-minded individuals could discuss this topic
  and so much more, as well as designed a website
  about the ABW.

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Kimber Heinz

• Queer Pedagogies
• My final project is an intervention into the
  fields of Queer Studies and Critical Pedagogy,
  looking at how identities play out in the
  classroom in terms of teacher authority,
  assumptions about expert knowledge, the ways
  that particular bodies are read, and how we
  teach about difference.
• I also look at the field of Queer Studies as
  situated in the context of the corporate
  University in which minority discourses such as
  queerness are often taken up as one among many
  voices of difference within a multicultural
  framework. I critique this framework for the ways
  it focuses on inclusion instead of challenging
  dominant constructions of culture and identity.
• I call for a embodied queer pedagogy that is not
  simply for people who identify as LBGTIQ or
  queer, but one that is for anyone who is
  interested in challenging dominant forms of power
  in the classroom.

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Amy Bodsford

• Young Women, Sexuality and Education
• My culminating project was meant address the fact
  that women typically have very little, if any,
  opportunity to learn about and discuss sexuality
  openly. In public school sex education curriculu,
  sexually transmitted infection (STI) statistics
  are often exaggerated and much misinformation is
  presented as fact. There is no space for open
  discussion of sexuality. Due to the stigma
  attached to female sexuality, girls often receive
  even less information about their bodies in
  relation to sex than their male counterparts.
• The purpose of my project was to create a space
  where young women could gather, discuss and share
  their knowledge and experience, and hopefully
  start thinking about sexuality in different ways.
  I held 2 meetings/workshops on campus with young
  women where we discussed sexuality and related
  issues in an open manner. I sought to remain
  reflexive of my positioning as a researcher
  throughout the entire process.
• I really enjoyed working with young women for my
  project and hope to continue this work in the
  future!

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Year in Review
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The Cone Sisters of Baltimore
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Love Your Body Week
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WGS Salon

• A year long series of
• Discussions
• Organized by MA
• students

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WGS Salon
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Fall WGS Signature Lecture
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The Linda Arnold Carlisle Distinguished
Excellence Professorship presents
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Silent Choices
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The Vagina Monologues
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(No Transcript)
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Womens History Month Lecture
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The Linda Arnold Carlisle Research Grant
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(No Transcript)
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2008-2009
From the keynote address at UNCGs 117th
commencement May 15, 2009 The 21st century,
perhaps more than any other, will be defined by
innovation , and the leaders of this century will
be those who have the boldness to take on the
impossible, to raise new questions and to tackle
old problems from new angles. Beverly
Perdue Governor of North Carolina