News and Events
05/02/2025: Upcoming artist talk by GWS minor Rachel Merritt
On Friday, May 2 at 5:00 pm GWS minor and studio art major Rachel Merritt will present an artist talk on her senior exhibition "Dissect, Dissent: The Art of Punk Feminism." The exhibition and talk are at the Looking Glass Gallery in the Plemmons Student Union. Congratulations to Rachel on the show--and on graduation!
04/29/2025: Congratulations to 2025 Maggie McFadden essay prize winner Evan Atkins
Congratulations to GWS major Evan Atkins on winning the 2025 Maggie McFadden Prize for best undergraduate essay in Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies. The prize was awarded for Evan's essay titled “Representing the Unheard: Power, Visibility, and Voice in Social Justice Movements,” which they wrote for Dr. Kelly Sharron’s course, GWS 2421: Sex, Gender, and Power, in Fall 2024. The prize committee was impressed by the clarity and style of Evan's writing, as well as the urgency of their argument. By looking at a range of social movement practices, from HIV/AIDs activism to the movement for Black Lives, and from debates over female sexual agency to movements for transgender rights, Evan cogently demonstrates their argument that “control over narrative is not simply a peripheral concern, but is central to broader fights for liberation, particularly at the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, and embodiment.” Crafted with accuracy, lucidity, and passion, the essay represents the strength of interdisciplinary and public-facing scholarship in Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies.
04/06/2025: GWS students Iona Blackburn and Cara Miller participate in Mellon-funded workshop on feminist, queer, and antiracist advocacy
GWS minor Iona Blackburn and GWS student Cara Miller were selected to participate in SCHEME, a workshop for students interested in organizing and advocacy from feminist, antiracist, and queer perspectives. SCHEME was hosted by the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies program at UNC - Greensboro and funded by the Mellon Foundation's Grant for "Affirming Multivocal Humanities." Congratulations to Iona and Cara!
04/11/2025: Congratulations to outstanding student award winner Scarlett Woodcook
GWS is proud to name major Scarlett Woodcook our outstanding student award winner for 2025. As the selection committee wrote, "Scarlett is a creative, interdisciplinary thinker who routinely brings together her interests in film with her interests in gender and sexuality studies and her questions about contemporary politics. As one example, take her senior capstone essay, where she has reclaimed the work of Emma Goldman as not just an anarchist and feminist, but also as a drama critic—one whose work on the social significance of the art form, Scarlett argues, can translate to the study of contemporary cinema. The essay adeptly brings together Goldman’s insistence that popular culture has an important role to play in the development of class consciousness with the subversive reading practices developed by British cultural studies in an examination of recent films like I Saw the TV Glow. In doing so, Scarlett enables a provocative critique of gender and consumer culture today while capably tracing an intellectual history stemming from the early 20th century. In addition to her academic endeavors, Scarlett has worked tirelessly to build coalitions between campus and community, spearheading a weekly reading group that brings the insights of theory to the public and the insights of the public to our students." Congratulations, Scarlett!
03/20/2025: Upcoming talk by GWS major Katie Kitchen
On Thursday, 03/20/2025, GWS major Katie Kitchen will be delivering a talk titled "Rolling in the Mud: An Analysis of the Intersections and Tensions between Women's Liberation, Animal Liberation, and Activist Methods," which is based on research she completed as a 2024 Tom Regan Visiting Research Fellow in the Special Collections Library at NC State University. The talk is at 7:00 pm in 119 IG Greer, and is organized by the App State Philosophy Club. See the flier here for more details.
03/19/2025: Congratulations to GWS minor Jaidyn Toomey on SAFE grant
GWS is delighted to congratulate minor Jaidyn Toomey for winning a grant from the College of Arts and Sciences SAFE (Student and Faculty Excellence) Fund. The grant will be used to fund Jaidyn's travel to the 2025 Black Feminist Graduate Symposium, which will be held at Duke University from May 1-2, 2025. Jaidyn will be drawing on research she completed on women of color during the feminist "sex wars" of the 1980s as she presents her paper titled "Sexuality from Creative Angles: A Queering of Feminist History."
03/07/2025: Congratulations to GWS affiliated faculty member Sunny Sinha on her new book
GWS is delighted to learn about the recent publication of a new book by affiliated faculty member Sunny Sinha, Associate Professor in Social Work. Dr. Sinha's book, published by Palgrave MacMillan, is titled Risk, Stigma, Agency: Life Histories of Women Involved in Sex Work in Kolkata, India. Read more about the book here. The book is based on two decades of research on women affected by the sex industry in India. We can't wait to read it, and are so glad to congratulate Dr. Sinha on its publication!
02/25/2025: Upcoming event - Rae Garringer reading and book signing
Please join GWS and the Appalachian Studies program for an evening with author, oral historian, and podcaster Rae Garringer, who will be discussing their recent book Country Queers: A Love Story beginning at 6:00 pm Tuesday, February 25 in the Beacon Heights Room (417) in the Plemmons Student Union. We're looking forward to seeing you there!
02/19/2025: Congratulations to GWS alum Max Story
GWS sends its heartiest congratulations to 2024 BA alum Max Story, who was recently accepted to all of the graduate programs she applied to for the 2025 academic year! Max has committed to the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, where she'll be beginning a Master's program in the School of Information and Library Science in Fall 2025. Hooray, Max!
02/14/2025: New article by GWS Assistant Professor Annu Daftuar
Congratulations to Annu Daftuar, Assistant Professor in GWS on the recent publication of her article titled "In the Aftermath of the 2015 Surrogacy Ban: Co-optation of Feminist Ideas in the Indian Surrogacy Market," which appears in the Journal of International Women's Studies. The article explicates how feminst ideas about surrogacy as a form of labor have been appropriated by the Indian surrogacy market for very different ends, ones that do not center the lives of surrogates themselves, but rather the business interests of clinics. The article is available for download here. We're so glad to have the opportunity to learn from Dr. Daftuar's important work!
01/29/2025: GWS minor Jaidyn Toomey profiled in The Appalachian
We were delighted to read the recent profile of GWS minor Jaidyn Toomey in The Appalachian, our university newspaper. The profile, written by student journalist Omar Alvarez Valencia, centers on Jaidyn's work as the creative director for another student publication, the fashion magazineThe Collective. In her role as creative director, Jaidyn brings together her thinking as a major in Apparel Design and Merchandising and a minor in GWS, cultivating content that represents the full range of Appalachian's community. She works closely with models of all body types, ethnicities, and genders who get to participate collaboratively in their representation. As Jaidyn points out in the article, fashion has tended to be dominated beauty standards that prioritized certain bodies, but this can be changed: “It’s so important for people to be able to look into the pages of a fashion magazine and see themselves represented as someone who is art, who is fashionable, who is beautiful," she says. Read more about Jaidyn and her collaborators in the article, available at this link.
01/28/2025: Congratulations to the 2025 Triota inductees
On January 28, Appalachian State's newly formed Zeta Theta Chapter of Iota, Iota, Iota (Triota), the national honor society for Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies, inducted its first class of members. These students are recognized for their academic excellence and uncommon commitment to the field of Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies. 2025 inductees were Nbonleah Kaifan Bailey, Iona Blackburn, Taylor Carnevale-Somersett, Charlotte Fuselier, Jean Carlos Gonzalez, Bryan Herpfer, Josie Kelman, Kaitlyn Kitchen, Sydney McDonald, Rachel Merritt, Kayla Norris, Morgan Scarborough, Emma Shelby, Hope Spurlock, Margaret Stoffregen, Jaidyn Toomey, Crystal Wall, Emma Wanner, and Sara Woltz. The GWS progam is proud to recognize the acheivements of all of these students--it has been our sincere joy to support their work! For more on our Triota chapter, including how to apply, follow this link.
01/19/2025: GWS affiliated faculty member Sarah J. Greenwald featured in podcast profiling women in STEM
A recent episode of the podcast "Project Root to STEM" profiles GWS affiliated faculty Sarah J. Greenwald. Project Root to STEM was developed to inspire female-identifying students to enter STEM fields in order to narrow their traditional gender gaps. In each episode, Fiona Schweig, who is carrying out the project for her Girl Scout Gold Award, interviews an inspiring woman in STEM. Her aim is to connect students to positive female role models and create a new generation of female scientists, mathematicians, and engineers who will lead the way to an equal future. You can listen to the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. We're delighted to see Dr. Greenwald profiled--and exicted about Fiona Schweig's project!
01/08/2025: Congratulations to GWS affiliated faculty member Sarah J. Greenwald
The journal PRIMUS: Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies recently released its "Editor's Picks" from 2024, and highlighted the excellent work accomplished in the special issue on "Promoting Women in Mathematics" (34.5), guest edited by GWS affiliated faculty member Sarah J. Greenwald (Professor, Mathematics) and Judy Holdener. In their assessment, the journal editors noted that "Guest Editors do a lot of exciting work in recruiting high quality papers focused on topical themes for PRIMUS, and we are often spoiled for choice in terms of excellent special issues when selecting papers from special issues that we would like to amplify." Nonetheless, they settled on “Strengthening the STEM Pipeline for Women: An Interdisciplinary Model for Improving Math Identity,” by V. Akin, S. T. Santillan & L. Valentino, which was in Dr. Greenwald and her co-editor's excellent special issue. The article is available here. Congratulations to Dr. Greenwald on this recognition!
09/12/2024: Upcoming event - welcome back pizza party
Please join the GWS program on Thursday, September 12 in 205 LLA (the Great Hall) for a pizza party! We're looking forward to welcoming our majors and minors back to campus, and to continuing to build GWS community. Let us feed you!
07/11/2024: GWS minor Juno Ormond participates in Mellon-funded workshop on feminist, queer, and antiracist advocacy
GWS minor Juno Ormond was selected to participate in SCHEME, a workshop for students interested in organizing and advocacy from feminist, antiracist, and queer perspectives. SCHEME was hosted by the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies program at UNC - Greensboro and funded by the Mellon Foundation's Grant for "Affirming Multivocal Humanities." Read more about the workshop here--and congratulations to Juno!
06/24/2024: GWS major Katie Kitchen awarded Tom Regan visiting research fellowship
GWS BA major Katie Kitchen was named a Tom Regan Visiting Research Fellow at NC State University in Summer 2024--the first undergraduate to ever win this award! The Tom Regan Visiting Research Fellowships are sponsored by the Culture and Animals Foundation. They provides four weeks of research time at the NC State Special Collections Research Center, which house one of the nation's most comprehensive collections of materials on animal rights and animal welfare. Read more about Katie's research project on the history of feminism and animal rights activism here. Congratulations, Katie!
05/11/2024: GWS celebrates 37 Spring 2024 graduates from its major and minors
GWS toasts its graduates! We had 32 students who graduated across our three minors (in GWS, LGBT Studies' and Girls' Studies) in Spring 2024, and six BA majors finish their degrees this academic year: Lily Bryson (a December 2023 graduate), Elizabeth Lassiter, Hallie McCagg, Delaney Rothschild-Ely, Gabrielle Secker, and Max Story, who was selected as our Outstanding Student Award winner this year. In addition, no fewer than four LGBT Studies or GWS minors won this award from other programs! We are thrilled for all of you--and keep us posted on your new adventures!
03/30/2024: GWS students Gabrielle Secker, Trey Best, and Gaea Polanik present at WGS South conference
Three GWS students--major Gabrielle Secker, GWS minor Trey Best, and GWS 2421 student Gaea Polanik--presented work at the WGS South Conference, which was hosted this year by the Center for Women's and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina - Upstate. Gabrielle presented her work on "The Role of Disability and Feminism in Social Change: A Restful Critique of Nonprofit Labor." Trey delivered a talk titled "Disorientation and Disruption: Queer Phenomenology in the Face of Climate Catastrophe." Gaea workshopped "Disability and Pleasure: Rethinking Sexual Education" as part of the conference's student caucus. Student travel was supported by GWS and IDS, the University Honors College, and a grant from the CAS SAFE Fund.