FEATURED WOMEN'S STUDIES STUDENT AND PROFESSOR
WINTER 2005 SEMESTER

Each fall and winter semester, the Women's Studies Program celebrates a student and professor at Washington & Lee University who not only have made outstanding contributions to the study of women, gender, and feminism, but also have employed what they learned in the classroom to positively improve life on campus, in the community, and in the larger world.

In Winter 2005, we are honoring Susan Somers (History and Philosophy Double Major and Women's Studies Concentration, Class of 2005) and Professor Ellen Mayock (Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Associate Dean of the College). Each has contributed a statement to this website about what the Women's Studies Program means to her.

Susan Somers (History and Philosophy Double Major and Women's Studies Concentration, Class of 2005)

 

My participation in the Women’s Studies program at Washington and Lee has greatly enriched my college experience.  Through the program, I gained skills and knowledge that have connected together the varied interdisciplinary interests I have pursued in college. 

 

As an incoming freshman at W&L, I identified myself as a feminist but did not have a very complex view of what exactly I meant by that.  Nor did I have a conception of the vast diversity of feminist theory.  I just knew that I wanted to stand up for my rights as a woman.  The Women’s Studies program provided me with the theoretical skills to do just that.  Early on in my college career, I found that I nearly always chose research topics for my papers and projects that dealt in some way with questions of gender or women’s rights.  At first, I pursued these topics in a rather disorganized way.  Taking Interdepartmental 120 in the spring of my sophomore year helped me distill just what sort of feminism I wished to pursue in these research projects, and helped me clarify what exactly gender was, anyway.  I soon decided to add a concentration in Women’s Studies to my double majors in History and Philosophy.  I believe that Women’s Studies has been able to tie together these two key interests for me in a way that no other program could.  After graduation, I hope to pursue graduate research on issues of gender roles and social change during the Reformation.  My interest in women’s role in family and religious life in this period is influenced by my philosophical research, which is based on a feminist ethical approach.  In this respect the program has helped me link my interdisciplinary interests in a new way.

 

Most importantly, though, Women’s Studies has also improved my W&L experience in concrete, everyday ways.  Women’s Studies is a real-life discipline—it’s not just abstract theory.  More than any of my other courses at W&L, I find that things discussed in Women’s Studies are things that affect my daily life as a student.  I have been able to apply and build on what is discussed in the courses through my campus activities, my friendships, and in my own life.  If nothing else, the Women’s Studies program calls all students to work for positive change on our campus.  It has trained a new generation of students, myself among them, to question the assumptions they have made about life at Washington and Lee.

 

Ellen Mayock (Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Associate Dean of the College)

 

Societal assumptions about gender are the principal factor that determines how we are shaped and

how we attempt to shape the world in which we live.  Therefore, Women’s Studies—the study of

how gender determination has influenced the treatment, portrayal, and behavior of women (and men) in both public and private spheres—must inform all aspects of our intellectual lives. When I read the newspaper, I do so always keeping in mind how the news affects women. For example, what effect will the action of voting, or expressing one’s voice, have on women in Iraq?  How does Communist ideology in Cuba affect the length and hardship of women’s work days?  How does the Bush administration’s stance on reproductive rights influence women both here in the U.S. and abroad?  All of these are questions of equal rights and justice, and an examination of issues of justice through the lens of women’s studies must certainly improve the lives of all citizens.  I once heard it said that a society’s accomplishment of a peaceful, egalitarian way of life can be measured best by how well women are integrated into all facets of daily public and private life, and I believe this to be the case both on a personal level and on a broader, more global, political level. 

 

Women’s Studies is the axis around which my own scholarship revolves.  My specialization lies in Spanish literature, especially from the 19th century to the present day.  My book, published this past summer, examines the portrayal of the female heroine in 20th-century Spanish novels.  In my scholarly forays outside of Spain, I have adopted a Women’s Studies perspective, whether in an attempt to highlight women authors from Spanish America or Latina authors in the United States, or to examine literary themes that affect women.

 

Washington and Lee has embraced its Women’s Studies program, and I am pleased and proud to see this happen.  The Administration has supported the faculty who have worked assiduously to create an excellent program, attract students, expand curricular offerings, address women’s issues beyond the classroom, and generally improve students’ academic experience across campus.  The Women’s Studies Advisory collaborates on many issues and truly has a say in determining the direction of the Program.  The Women’s Studies Program has helped to bring questions of women’s roles and gender into a more public light on campus and has attracted students who are willing to apply their Women’s Studies knowledge to all academic endeavors.  Six years ago I taught an upper-level Spanish course that was cross-listed with Women’s Studies.  The students were engaged in the course but hesitant to push the discussions about women’s history, roles, and portrayal in literature beyond the text and into their own lives.  This past semester I taught the very same course and was delighted to find that the students actually pushed me on the gender issues that arose in the course.  I sincerely believe that the existence of the Women’s Studies Program has given our institution more credibility, has amplified our academic offerings, and has provided a forum in which to discuss how we improve the treatment of women here and in the world.  In that sense, too, the Program has helped to make my classroom a more open and intellectually vibrant place.  I am honored to have the opportunity to teach this spring’s Women’s Studies course, INTR 120 (Introduction to Women’s Studies and Feminist Theory).  In particular, I have already benefited from working with my colleagues in Women’s Studies and am thoroughly looking forward to engaging with students directly on this topic in the classroom.

 

 

Featured Women's Studies Student and Professor, Fall 2003

Featured Women's Studies Student and Professor, Winter 2004
Featured Women's Studies Student and Professor, Fall 2004