From the Chair
Dear Friends of Women and Gender Studies,
It has been a busy fall at the Cottage! The department is in the write-up stage of our seven-year Program Review—a process that continues to consume much of my semester-long term as interim chair. And I’m very much looking forward to handing things back over to our chair, Lorraine Bayard de Volo, when she returns from sabbatical in January.
Bureaucratic chores aside, WGST has a number of things to celebrate this fall: We welcomed our newest faculty member, Samira Mehta, who brings her expertise on the intersections of religion, culture, and gender to WGST and Jewish Studies. Two WGST faculty achieved career milestones this past year: Lorraine Bayard de Volo was promoted to full professor and Emmanuel David was tenured and promoted to associate professor. Two WGST faculty were recognized with major awards: Celeste Montoya received the Craig L. Brians Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research and Mentorship from the political science education section of the American Political Science Association and Emmanuel David won ƷSMӰƬ’s Best Should Teach Gold Award. Last but not least, our program assistant Alicia Turchette won the first ever Social Sciences Employee of the Month Award this past September.
More details on these impressive accomplishments appear on the pages that follow, along with more of the latest faculty, staff, students, and alumni achievements.
Thank you for your continued support of Women and Gender Studies. As always, we’d love to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Robert Buffington
Interim Chair & Professor, Women and Gender Studies