Women's Studies: Friday Speaker Series

From a women’s perspective:  Friday Speaker Series brings together diverse women for thought-provoking lectures

By Jessica Luton

jluton@uga.edu          

Beginning later this month, a Friday speaker series in the Franklin College Institute for Women’s Studies will feature female representatives from a variety of disciplines. 

Faculty and staff from many areas of campus—marine sciences, health promotion, religion, political science, communication studies—are represented in the series, but the idea is to offer speakers who can speak to the feminist perspective. 

“Speakers are chosen from our core faculty, our pool of over 80 affiliate faculty members, or our graduate teaching assistants from across campus,” said Terri L. Hatfield, Program Coordinator for the Institute for Women’s Studies.  “We invite our speakers to present on current research that relates to gender or women's studies.  Because our affiliate faculty and graduate teaching assistants come from many different schools and colleges across our campus, the variety of topics within the theme of gender and women's studies is very broad.”

 “The purpose of our Friday Speaker Series is to produce an occasion for students, faculty and staff to learn about research on gender and women's studies on a weekly basis throughout the semester,” she added.  “It provides an opportunity for faculty to share their research, and for students who may have never taken a women's studies course before to hear what kinds of topics they would learn about in this discipline.”

While many may associate the field with feminist movements in the past, the field is just as important today as it has ever been, explains Institute for Women’s Studies director Juanita Johnson-Bailey.

“The Institute for Women’s Studies (IWS), which offers an undergraduate major/minor and a graduate certificate, is an interdisciplinary field that examines scholarship and research within the academy with a feminist and gender-conscious lens. From the time the first women’s studies departments were founded in the late 1960s to the present day, Women’s Studies has provided crucial critiques of our society and culture and have had significant impact on research and scholarship,” she said.

“Women’s studies continues to be important place in the academy because we’ve maintained our place as the leader of interdisciplinarity and have been vigilant in our mission to devote attention to issues of gender, race, class, and sexuality,” she added.  “And in the 21^st century the value and importance of interdisciplinary work and social justice are essential to the mission of U.S. colleges and universities.”

Women’s studies provides students with a unique learning opportunity—to gain a different perspective and promote social justice and equality for all. Students at UGA are fortunate to have the breadth of courses and professors who are a part of the IWS.

“Women’s studies is one of the few places in the academy where you can gain knowledge about the historical and contemporary contributions that women have made to society, through our core courses, cross-listed courses, and our recommendations on courses across the University,” Johnson-Bailey said. “Additionally, IWS is a site of activism, promoting social justice and the equality of women and men in both the private and public spheres. Most important are the critical thinking skills that encourage and foster in our students. Essential tenets are the assessment and deconstruction of knowledge, which shapes our students’ ability to think analytically and globally.”         

The series is Blue Card and Odyssey First-year approved, so mark your calendars and delve into the world from a woman’s perspective. 

Image: Studies of Women's Head. Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). drawing. Musee de Louvre.