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Columns::November 11, 2002
University receives $894,000 grant for new autism program
Wrigley is named senior vice president for external affairs
UGA Press announces winners of annual Flannery O’Connor Awards
Speaking off the cuff
Pay dirt
On guard
Kudos
Retirees
Independent streak
Brick by brick
Campus News
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| Women’s Studies Program staff (from left): Kristen Smith, assistant to the director; Pat Miller, director; Mary Carruth, assistant director; and Joan Yantko, office manager. (Photo by Peter Frey) |
Women’s Studies Program celebrates 25 years on campus
By Phil Williams
phil@franklin.uga.edu
It began as a small effort to study women’s issues but developed into a strong program with a national reputation. The Women’s Studies Program at UGA this fall celebrates 25 years of bringing feminist and gender studies to students and to the
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| Former WSP administrators Pat Del Rey (left) and Heather Kleiner. |
intellectual marketplace.
Through its sponsorship of lectures, films, concerts and numerous other events, the Women’s Studies Program has become an integral part of campus. Now, with a new director and a bachelor of arts degree, it is poised to push further into teaching and scholarship than ever before in its history.
“Ours is one of the larger programs in the country, and across the board there is growing interest in our faculty’s research, which ranges from women in the Caribbean, to feminist critiques of theories of human development, to dating relationships of black college women,” says Pat Miller, a respected scholar and psychologist, who came from the University of Florida to become the first full-time director of the program last year. “Women’s studies is a model for interdisciplinary research, and our students are attracted to the range of subjects women’s studies encompasses.”
Indeed, the program is seeing a renaissance these days. The bachelor’s degree program was approved a scant two years ago, and already there are 25 students majoring in it. The program also offers a minor, as well as undergraduate and graduate certificates. In all, the program has more than 90 listed courses, and nearly 1,000 students took these courses last year.
In some ways, Miller and new assistant director Mary Carruth came at a perfect time. Former administrators Pat Del Rey and Heather Kleiner took over the program in 1988 and essentially restructured it, pushing it into the national spotlight before their recent retirements.
Though the program is operated out of UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, its core and affiliated faculty represent colleges and departments all over campus. The program has 10 core faculty now, including two who have just started, Patricia Richards and Susan Thomas, who have joint appointments in sociology and music respectively. The 57 affiliated faculty members are from the College of Education, the Institute of Higher Education, the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and several others in addition to Arts and Sciences.
“While one might think the program appeals mostly to women students, many men take courses in the program,” says Kristen Smith, assistant to the director, “especially Multicultural Perspectives on Women in the U.S., which fulfills students’ multicultural requirement.”
“I’ve been impressed by how pervasive the program is on campus,” says Carruth, who is a specialist in women’s autobiography, early American literature and feminist theory. “The reach of the program is significant.”
Students who have been a part of the Women’s Studies Program praise it highly.
“My women’s studies education was the best I could have ever had,” says Kathryn Rhodes, a double major in women’s studies and political science and an Honors student and magna cum laude graduate; she’s attending law school this fall. “This subject covers so many different fields and areas of thought. Women’s studies allows anyone to think ‘outside the box’ and question why many things are the way they are.”
Her sentiments are echoed by Lotus Seeley, a double major in sociology and women’s studies, and an Honors student who graduated summa cum laude.
“The program was a source of unbelievable solace for me as a lost sophomore trying to find a niche in a large university,” says Seeley. “I was given a chance to flourish and let my intelligence grow. I will be forever grateful to the program for providing a home on campus where I felt respected and appreciated.”
A panel of faculty participants in the program will discuss its development over the past quarter-century on Nov. 15 at 12:20 p.m. in room 137 of the Tate Student Center.
In the coming year, the program hopes to increase connections between its core faculty and others on campus who research women and gender. And fund-raising efforts are under way to support student and faculty travel and research.
Miller says that one key concept about the program, often overlooked, is that it is not just about women.
“In fact, what we do is to analyze inequities in the social system in such areas as gender, race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, physical ability and age,” she says. “Women’s studies is like a lens through which we can view any aspect of society in a different way. It’s a way to ask new questions.” |
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