Women’s Research Network sessions are held in
The Women’s Center, 107 Hanna Hall

Voices from a Quarter Century:  Experiences of Women with Extended Service to One University

Friday, January 20, 2012, 1:30-3 pm
Presenters:  Dr. Ellen Broido and Kirsten Ruth Brown, Higher Education & Student Affairs

In this session, the presenters will introduce the findings of a case study research project exploring the experiences of classified, administrative, and faculty women who have worked at the same university for twenty-five years or more.  The presentation explores the influence of organizational dynamics, organizational location, and institutional and state-level policy on these women’s experiences, and look at how these experiences have changed over the last quarter-century.  Additionally, the presenters will examine ways in which women have resisted and accommodated gendered dynamics in the workplace, and make recommendations for changes in organizational and public policy.

Only God Knows the Opposition We Face: Nineteenth Century Free Methodist Women Evangelists and Their Quest for Ordination

Friday, February 3, 2012, 1:30-3 pm
Presenter:  Christy Mesaros-Winckles, Media & Communication

Nineteenth century America was a time of religious fervor as revivals and new religious denominations formed. Founded in 1860 on the belief that religion should be open to all who seek it, the Free Methodist Church embraced racial, social and even gender equality. Women evangelists were foundational to spreading Free Methodism throughout the country, particularly in the Midwest. Focusing on the narratives of Free Methodist evangelists, Clara Wetherald and Ida Gage, this presentation explores the rhetorical tension both women faced as they tried craft their ministry to “pass” in the male dominated profession of preaching.  Their narratives illustrate the delicate balancing act nineteenth century women performed to gain acceptance in the professional realm.

Gender, Family, and Fear:  The Case of Contagion

Friday, April, 2012, 1:30-3 pm
Presenter:  Dr. Bill Albertini, English

Popular representations of contagious disease have historically focused on the danger posed by bodies coming into contact, especially those bodies tagged as public health problems through markers of race or ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, class, and gender, such as the famous case of “Typhoid Mary.” Contagious disease is popularly understood as a spreading through physical contact and is thus treated as something to be investigated, tracked, blocked from transmission, and inoculated against. However, stories of contagion inevitably focus not just on disease transmission, but emotional fallout, especially fear and grief. The presenter examines recent representations of contagious disease—especially the 2011 film Contagion—and pays special attention to the film’s use of gender and the heterosexual family to explore contagion.

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Women’s Research Network sessions are held in
The Women’s Center, 107 Hanna Hall