Women's Studies

What is the difference between sex and gender? What is a “woman” anyway? What do these questions tell us about socially constructed ideas about gender? Women's Studies is more than just classes about women. When addressing gender, we cannot ignore issues of race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and geography.
At Saint Rose, the Women's Studies program integrates courses in American studies, art, biology, communications, English, history, philosophy, political science, psychology, religious studies, and sociology to craft a composite view of the systems and issues that shape women's lives.

THE SAINT ROSE DIFFERENCE
The Saint Rose major in Women's Studies is an interdisciplinary major that aims to build an awareness of the rich history, contemporary status, and interconnections among local and global issues affecting women, as well as future possibilities for social justice. In any given week, you might discuss the marriage plot in Jane Austen and the effects of IMF policies on Third World Women; select current movies for a film series; attend a brown-bag lunch lecture on women's financial planning; participate in service learning projects; and work as an intern at a local women's organization. Throughout the course of your study, you will work closely with a core group of dedicated faculty whose commitment to these themes is reflected in their scholarly, activist, and creative projects.

The Women's Studies program offers an active schedule of events for students, the campus community, and the community-at-large. A typical semester might include:

• The Women's Studies Film Series, which addresses gender in a variety of forms;
• The Women's Studies Brown Bag Lunch Series, which examines women's issues, such as health, financial planning, and domestic violence, through dialogue;
• The prestigious Women's Studies Lecture Series, which has featured notable speakers Susan Bordo, Mary Daly, Susan Gubar, Catharine Stimpson, and Charlotte Bunch;
• A celebration of student work in Women's Studies through the presentation of the annual Women's Studies Awards; and
• A service-learning opportunity for students to work in community organizations, enabling them to understand the immediacy of women's issues.

OUR EXPERIENCED FACULTY
The faculty members that make up the Women's Studies Steering Committee represent several disciplines and bring years of scholarship and experience into the classroom. Throughout your course of study, you will work closely with these dedicated faculty members, whose commitment to the study of women's issues is reflected in their scholarship, activism, and creative work.

FACILITIES
The Women's Studies program employs state-of-the-art technology, such as "smart" classrooms with individual computer workstations for students and teacher workstations with projection capabilities and Internet access.

The College's Neil Hellman Library is an excellent resource for student research. Staffed by expert and helpful reference librarians, the Library offers excellent electronic resources, efficient and accessible inter-library loan services, and a solid collection of materials to address the ways in which gender, race, class, sexuality, religion, and geography structure our ideas, relationships, and societies.

FIELD EXPERIENCE
The Service Learning component of the introductory course requires students to work in community organizations to enable them to understand the immediacy of the issues they study during the course.

Advanced Women's Studies majors complete an internship, an intensive professional or activist experience, that gives students a chance to put their feminist commitments to work. Internships allow students to explore their career choices and better understand their own interests and values.

CAREERS
Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the Women's Studies program, graduates excel as educators, medical professionals, small-business owners, lawyers, counselors, activists, social workers, and journalists. As workplaces become more diverse, Women's Studies graduates increasingly find employment as human resources professionals, helping organizations adapt to new challenges and create positive change. They are also well qualified to pursue graduate work in a wide variety of fields including law, business, social work, counseling, or the humanities.

MODERATE PRICE AND
AGGRESSIVE FINANCIAL AID
The College of Saint Rose has one of the lowest tuitions of all New York state private colleges, and we offer a variety of scholarships, including multicultural and academic talent. More than 90 percent of our students receive several forms of financial aid.

FACULTY

Bridgett Williams-Searle, Ph.D.
associate professor of history, women's studies coordinator

Specializes in U.S. women's history; history of sexualities; colonial U.S. and early Republic history; gender and empire; and environmental history.

Aviva Bower, Ph.D.
assistant professor of educational psychology

Specializes in social construction of gender through talk and interaction; gender and education; and identity construction in youth cultures.

Catherine Cavanaugh, Ph.D.
professor of English

Specializes in Early Twentieth Century British and American Literature; Irish Literature; Late Eighteenth/ Early Nineteenth Century British Literature.

Jenise Depinto , Ph.D.
assistant professor of History

Specializes in the gendered history of the British empire; intersectional studies of race and working-class history in 19th century Europe; and post-colonial subaltern studies.

Megan Fulwiler, Ph.D.
assistant professor of English

Specializes in composition; rhetoric; autobiography; and American women writers.

Lisa Kannenberg, Ph.D.
associate professor of history

Specializes in twentieth century U.S. history; U.S. women's history; and U.S. labor history.

Kathryn Laity, Ph.D.
assistant professor of English

Specializes in medieval literature and culture, gender in popular culture, and film studies.

Angela D. Ledford, Ph.D.
associate professor of political science

Specializes in feminist theory; democratic theory; American political thought; and the politics of collective action.

Kim Middleton Meyer, Ph.D.
assistant professor of English

Specializes in contemporary American and British literature; popular culture; and Asian American studies.

Mary B. O'Brien, Reiki Master
coordinator of student assistants, exhibits, and programs for the Neil Hellman Library

Specializes in Native American Resources and the Healing Arts.

Janet Spitz, Ph.D.
associate professor of business

Specializes in business globalization; comparative corporate cultures and their effects on democratic process in economically developing regions; business and structural inequality; applied research in employment discrimination and its remediation.

Ryan Strause , Ph.D.
assistant professor of political science

Specializes in race and U.S. educational policy; public policy; urban politics in US and comparative settings.

Laura Weed, Ph.D.
associate professor of philosophy/religious studies

Specializes in Feminist Social and Political Philosophy; and feminist critiques of the History of Philosophy, especially of Analytical Philosophy and of World Religions.