As part of our efforts to assemble a comprehensive chronology of the women’s studies program, Annie Valk, PhD, director of SIUE’s women’s studies program from 1996-2007, was kind enough to provide us with 11 years’ worth of materials from her time at SIUE. These materials were, in turn, sent to the archive in Lovejoy Library, where they will be catalogued and documented with the rest of the women’s studies materials.

The women's studies program recently completed a redesign of our website. Be sure to check it out.

We would like to congratulate Saba Fatima, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Philosophy, who was awarded a women's studies travel grant of $175 to participate in the panel, “Women in Online Philosophy,” at the American Philosophical Association's 2020 Central Division Meeting held in Chicago on February 26-29.

Visiting Fulbright scholar and Department of Foreign Languages and Literature Teaching Assistant Eyitayo Akomolafe gave a talk on January 22 about the different challenges faced by urban and rural women in Nigeria in their struggle against discrimination. In addition to her firsthand knowledge of women's roles in Nigeria, Akomolafe, who teaches Yoruba at SIUE, illustrated her talk, titled "Women Liberation Movement: the gap between the Urban Woman and the Rural Woman," with many short video clips.

Akomolafe worked as a curriculum content developer for a budding publishing house in Nigeria and had just been admitted for her doctorate program before she was selected to come to the U.S. through the Fulbright Scholar Program. Her research focuses on the effects of societal construction of norms on personal identity, naming and identity and the core of sociolinguistics, generally. Akomolafe's teaching experience in the U.S. has spurred a new research interest on issues relating to language teaching and the disposition of teachers toward building students to understand their personal identity and building a collective society where diversity is celebrated.

Our Coffee With Cool Women event on February 12 featured Alicia Alexander, PhD, professor in the Department of Applied Communication Studies, who spoke about I Support The Girls, an organization that works to bring dignity to underprivileged women across the U.S. and globally by providing them with menstrual hygiene products, gently used bras and new underwear. I Support the Girls started as a one-woman endeavor to donate her old bras to those in need, and now has active members in countries that range from Australia to Pakistan. Alexander gives SIUE students the opportunity to work at these donation events, sorting and distributing supplies for women in need.

• Gender, Global Health, and Violence: Feminist Perspectives on Peace and Disease: Feminist Studies on Peace, Justice and Violence edited by Tiina Vaittinen and Catia C. Confortini
• Gendered Journeys: Women, Migration and Feminist Psychology, 2015 Edition, edited by Oliva Espín and Andrea Dottolo
• Separated by the Border: A Birth Mother, a Foster Mother, and a Migrant Child's 3,000-Mile Journey by Gena Thomas
• Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Moonlight (2016) DVD
  • A young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence and burgeoning adulthood.
  • Won three Oscars, 225 other awards and earned 287 nominations

The Women's Studies Program will offer the following courses for the fall 2020 semester:

• WMST 200 - Issues in Feminism
• WMST 308-001 - Gender & Society
• WMST 341 - African-American Women's Writing
• WMST 428 - Topics in European Women's History
• WMST 478 - Studies in Women, Language & Literature