Interdisciplinary Studies
College of Humanities and Social Sciences

"Women and Gender Studies' courses have given me the tools and vocabulary that I need in order to be a feminist scholar. Feminist Theory with Dr. Rachel Lewis helped expose me to the foundational tools of feminist scholarship and Feminist Research Methods with Dr. Angela Hattery has allowed me to learn how to apply theory into practice."

One of my first graduate level women’s studies courses was Gender and Racial Ideologies of Early Jim Crow America. It was exactly as mind-blowing and unfortunately depressing as the title suggests. In that course, taught by the genius Dr. Yevette Richards Jordan, I learned about the truly systemic nature of racism in America post-Reconstruction era and the role, to my privileged surprise, white women played in the disenfranchisement of black men to amplify their own marginalized voices. It was a bit of another wake up call for me.

In an article in the New York Times, Meredith Lair, director, MAIS, and faculty member, Department of History and Art History, recalled the Tet offensive of 1968 and how news of it changed Americans' perceptions of the conflict in Vietnam.

The Smithsonian Institution has selected Violeta Palchik, a graduate student in the Folklore Program, as one of three participants in the United States for their Communities Connecting Heritage program. This program was designed in partnership with the Department of State to create an exchange between cultural heritage students in the United States and India.