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Women and Gender Studies Program

Over 30 years of transformative teaching, scholarship and social change

Welcome USM Students, Faculty, and Friends,

Women and Gender Studies (WGS) at USM is the longest standing feminist studies program in northern New England and continues to be one of the most vibrant.  With a faculty drawn from across the university, WGS engages in transformative teaching, scholarship, and social change on campus and in the surrounding community. WGS not only contributes many courses to the university’s general education curriculum, it also offers a socially-engaged and academically rigorous major and minor.  This semester, WGS faculty are teaching such courses as Arab Women Writers; Gender, Race, Class and the City; and Species, Sex, Gender and Science Fiction.  In addition,WGS students are completing capstone experience internships at such community partners as Learning Works, Safe Space Shelter, and Spiral Arts. Over the summer, WGS will offer two sections of Introduction to Women and Gender Studies as well as three online electives: Gender in African Literature and Film; Gender and Aging; and Cinema and Women.

News & Events

2013 Graduating Seniors in Women and Gender Studies
Posted April 18, 2013
The USM Women and Gender Studies Program conferred its annual awards at a reception on April 12 with 75 people in attendance. Olas, a band of musicians and dancers from Portland, Maine, inspired by traditional and modern flamenco, translated through a blend of American folk, rock, Arabic and Afro-Cuban sounds provided musical entertainment. Four awards were given: the Kathleen I. MacPherson Outstanding Feminist Faculty Award for Excellence in Feminist Scholarship for Teaching and Service to Professor Rebecca Lockridge; the Nancy K. Gish Award for Excellence in Feminist Social, Intellectual, Political, or Cultural Practice to Gabrielle Demaine, Coordinator of Diversity and Inclusivity Programming; the Friend of Women and Gender Studies Award to Megan Williams, the President of Hardy Girls Healthy Women; and the Outstanding Graduate of Women and Gender Studies Award to Julia Davidson '08. In addition, the Program honored our four 2013 Women and Gender Studies graduating seniors with ceremonial purple tassels and presented three of the four with honor stoles for achieving their degrees with distinction.
Bluestockings Mug
Posted April 17, 2013
The Bluestockings Film Series celebrates the accomplishments of women directed short films. "This is the biggest, boldest screening yet! Stories run the gamut from the darkest of dark comedies to thoughtful dramas," says series organizer (and USM Communications and Media Studies Professor) Kate Kaminski. On Saturday May 18, some of the filmmakers will be on hand for post screening discussions.
Women and Gender Studies
Posted April 3, 2013
On Friday, April 12th (from 4 to 6 pm in Wishcamper 102), the Women and Gender Studies program will be hosting a special reception to present our annual awards.
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