Our faculty come to Gender & Women's Studies by various paths and with diverse interests. These women care deeply about what they teach, and inspire and empower students every day.
"I remain convinced today, as I was the day I arrived at Minnesota State Mankato, that this is a great place to do gender & women's studies. The institutional support, the vibrant student culture, and the collegial atmosphere make this a wonderful place for feminists to work, study, and create social change."
Professor & Chair of Gender & Women's Studies
MSU faculty member since 1999
Current research: "Manfood," exploring the depiction of masculinity on the Food Network
Activist: issues include rape crisis advocacy and LGBT rights work
Non-profit: on the board of directors of Committee Against Domestic Abvuse (CADA)
Author: Rape on the Public Agenda: Feminism and the Politics of Sexual Assault (Northeastern University Press, 2000)
Author: numerous articles and book chapters on gender-based violence and LGBT politics
Global student: Los Angeles, Scotland, Michigan, San Francisco.
Innovator: created an educational outreach program about women's lives internationally for underserved communities as a Fellow the International Museum of Women in San Francisco
Researcher: intertwining of the familial and the imperial in the British Caribbean from the nineteenth-century to the present and feminist mothering
Teacher: graduate and undergraduate courses on Global Feminism and international issues
Specialty: global feminist theory and analysis
Essayist: topics include contemporary Caribbean culture and mothering
Co-editor: Before Windrush: Recovering an Asian and Black Literary Heritage Within Britain (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008); Mothers Who Deliver: Feminist Interventions in Public and Interpersonal Discourse (SUNY Press, 2010)
Ph.D.: English and Women's Studies, University of Michigan
Program Advisor: Advising students in the Law Enforcement Program.
Researcher: Interrogating diaspora identity as articulated in and through black women's diaspora fiction; focusing on maternal narratives in black women's and women of color fiction. Developing interest in Girls' Studies.
Diaspora Daughter: Interested in black women's writing of and about the African Diaspora and women of color resistance writing (fiction and non-fiction).
Educational Facilitator: Teaching undergraduate courses like Introduction to Gender, Coming of Age, Women’s Contemporary Fiction, and Writing Differences; future courses will focus on women’s resistance writing and women's narratives about migration and belonging in the diaspora.
Mentor: Contributing to student growth and development through informal and formal student mentoring.
Fellow: Office of Institutional Diversity Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, Fall 2007-Spring 2009.
Ph.D.: Feminist Studies, University of Minnesota in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies.
Research: the combined effects of race, gender, and sexuality on Black same-sex-attracted and gender-nonconforming women's experiences, particularly resilient responses to discrimination
Activism: co-founder of All My Children Project, promoting the health and well-being of Black LGBTQQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning) persons, their families, and communities through social justice research and programs.
Teaching: Black Women, Family and Society; Feminist Pedagogy and other graduate and undergraduate courses Professional Service: 2010-2011 President-Elect for the Southeastern Women's Studies Association (SEWSA); reviewer for the Journal of Homosexuality
Selected Publications: (in press). African American lesbian identity management and identity development in the context of family and community. Journal of Homosexuality; (2009). Reframing the power of Black lesbians' relationships with mothers through Black feminist theory. Special Issue: Examining the Lives of GLBTQ of Color. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services, 24(3/4).
Ph.D.: Child and Family Development, University of Georgia with Women's Studies Graduate Certificate
Maria Bevacqua
Jocelyn Fenton Stitt
Shannon J. Miller