Default | NEWS

3/1/2007 12:03:00 AM

Editor’s note: This article is the fifth in a series that highlights faculty, staff and students who embody the spirit of Rice’s Vision for the Second Century.

BY LYNETTE MCGLAMERY
Special to the Rice News

Vision point: We must invest in a select number of interdisciplinary endeavors that will enable us to leverage our own strengths as well as the strengths of potential collaborators. 

Women and gender studies, like many interdisciplinary efforts, established its roots on the Rice campus in the early 1980s when a small group of faculty from different disciplines informally came together because of a common interest.

Now, 25 years later, Rice is poised to take women and gender studies to the next level with the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality (CSWGS), created in July 2006.   

JEFF FITLOW

Rosemary Hennessy, center, director of the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality, seeks to expand on some of the innovative concepts already in place at the center to build Rice’s national reputation in women and gender studies.

Rosemary Hennessy, CSWGS director and professor of English, said elevating the center from a program provides a formal structure so the 45 affiliated faculty from 17 departments have more energy to focus on ideas and content rather than on paperwork and logistics. The center also fosters a more comprehensive, coordinated approach for teaching, research and outreach in women and gender studies — critical to raising the visibility of the university’s efforts in this area. 

“A center provides spaces for people to network and develop research,” she said. “It has generated a momentum to think new, to approach what we can do next with a coordinated and creative platform.”

Hennessy said CSWGS, housed in the School of Humanities, will expand upon some of the innovative concepts already in place to build Rice’s national reputation in women and gender studies.

For example, the graduate certificate program, established in 2004, gives students working toward their Ph.D. an interdisciplinary experience that will help them flourish in their university careers and in their primary field of study.

Students complete two core courses designed especially for the program and an elective from cross-listed women and gender studies courses. The core courses are usually team-taught by professors from different disciplines. Students also attend colloquia, where they interact with outside experts on a variety of subjects.

Currently, 43 graduate students from seven departments in the schools of Humanities and Social Sciences are participating in the program, with the first class set to graduate in May.

Ann Gleig, a third-year graduate student in religious studies, said the interdisciplinary program has challenged her to ask questions that she normally wouldn’t have asked, giving her a more provocative and different perspective on the religious material she analyzes.

“The program has made me a more well-rounded scholar,” she said. “I have the confidence to speak across the disciplines and am familiar with questions that are not just in my discipline but what is being said in the broader debate.”

Hennessy said a new core course she is team teaching this semester with Allison Sneider, assistant professor of history, helps these future scholars think through what it means to do interdisciplinary work in women and gender studies and how it will affect the direction of their core work and their careers.

“They learn that the interdisciplinary nature of women and gender studies is like putting a different lens on a camera — it can help you see the same subject differently,” she said.

In addition to refining the certificate program, CSWGS has bolstered its research capabilities by adding two postdoctoral scholars this year and supporting research working groups on both feminism and sexuality.

According to Hennessy, the focus on publishing makes these groups unique in university circles. A faculty member with a work in progress identifies a scholar, inside or outside of Rice, who is in the same field. That scholar leads the group’s discussion about the author’s work, providing the author with a valuable peer critique that enhances the possibility of their work getting published.

The center is the new home for Feminist Economics, founded 12 years ago by Rice’s Diana Strassmann. The venerable journal has a decidedly interdisciplinary look and feel, with an internationally acclaimed editorial board representing disciplines across the board.

Hennessy said the CSWGS steering committee is now looking at ways to enhance its undergraduate curriculum, including reviewing options for capstone experiences.

The steering committee also has the goal of building partnerships with scholars in Houston and Latin America by sponsoring more conferences like last fall’s gender and immigration conference and the recent conference on gender and globalization in Mexico.

Hennessy said these enhancements will firmly place CSWGS and Rice on the national radar.

“An interdisciplinary approach is central to understanding today’s most pressing societal and cultural issues,” she said. “We are fortunate to have a great mix of established and up-and-coming scholars in women, gender and sexuality. With this energetic and committed group, the center can become an important resource in addressing these topics.”