Reflection, Resilience, and Restoration: Women’s & Gender Studies Celebrates 40 Years of Excellence
The Women’s and Gender Studies Program is hosting “Reflection, Resilience, and Restoration: A Celebration of 40 Years of Women’s and Gender Studies.” The celebration includes a student and alumni roundtable, a presentation by leaders and alumni, and a reception. The Program, in conjunction with Atkins Library and the Public History Program, is also sponsoring an ongoing WGST Library Archival and Oral History Project.
These efforts offer a lens to illuminate the vital role of the WGST Program as an intellectually rigorous and interdisciplinary beacon for academic excellence. By chronicling WGST’s history and sponsoring engaging programming where students, alumni, former WGST directors, and faculty share their perspectives and experiences in networking and roundtable events, these 40th Anniversary events provide valuable support and leadership guidance to inform the educational and professional pathways of current students. Please contact WGST Director Dr. Sonya Ramsey if you have any questions about these events or the Library Project at wgst40thanniversary@charlotte.edu.
Dr. Ann C Carver Essay Contest
This year’s Ann C. Carver Essay contest will be linked with the Women’s & Gender Studies Program’s celebration of its 40 th anniversary. Rather than submitting essays produced as part of their coursework, undergraduate minors and graduate certificate students will be asked to submit essays reflecting on their experience as students in the Women’s & Gender Studies Program. This is particularly appropriate as this contest is named after the founding Coordinator of UNC Charlotte’s Women’s Studies Program. A faculty member of the English Department beginning in 1969, Dr. Carver was also a former chair of the Black Studies Committee, who selected Dr. Bertha Maxwell-Roddey to be the first director of UNC Charlotte’s Black Studies Program, later renamed the African American and African Studies Department (AAAS). Dr. Carver worked alongside with Dr. Maxwell-Roddey to teach, advise, and help students as a faculty member of the AAAS Department, now called the Africana Studies Department. After teaching in the English and AAAS Department for several years, Carver responded to student demand to offer Women’s Studies courses at the University. In spring 1984, after years of negotiations, the Concentration in Women’s Studies, an interdisciplinary program, was approved. While the Program began with a small offering of courses, today it offers over 100 courses and has over 350 minors.
Essay Prompt:
How has your experience as a student in the Women’s & Gender Studies Program or the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Graduate Certificate contributed positively to your experience as a UNC Charlotte student—on scholastic, personal, professional levels? What are the particular courses, professors, experiences or insights that you have found most meaningful, most insightful, most transformative as you’ve engaged your learning experience as a whole, your interaction with the University and Charlotte community, your preparation for a career and for life beyond college? What is the one thing—or the small cluster of things—that you will take forward as a Women’s & Gender Studies student?
Award:
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT AWARD: $500
GRADUATE STUDENT AWARD: $500
Eligibility:
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS must be declared Women’s & Gender Studies minors and have a minimum 2.5 GPA. GRADUATE STUDENTS must be enrolled in the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies Graduate Certificate and have a minimum 3.0 GPA.
Submission Guidelines:
All essays must be typed in Times New Roman, 12-point font size, double-spaced, with one-inch margins. Essays should be no more than 1,000 words in length. They must be submitted as Microsoft Word documents as email attachments to Dr. Kent Brintnall (kbrintna@charlotte.edu) with the subject line “Carver Essay Contest.” Students should not include their name in the submission itself.
In addition to the essay, students must submit two letters of reference from UNC Charlotte faculty members that can address how the student has benefitted from participation in the Women’s & Gender Studies Program. These letters may be sent directly to Dr. Brintnall by the faculty members.
Essays are due by Monday, March 11 by 5pm. Questions? Please contact Dr. Brintnall (kbrintna@charlotte.edu).
Call for Submissions: Art & Poetry Celebrating 40 years of WGST
In commemoration of 40 years of Women’s and Gender Studies at UNC Charlotte, we are creating a digital exhibit in the form of a zine to showcase the program’s history over the past several decades. This is an open call to WGST students for art and poetry submissions that celebrate this great achievement and emphasizes the impact of Women’s and Gender Studies.
Prompt: What does Women’s and Gender Studies mean to you?
As many submissions as possible will be utilized throughout the zine. The student whose art is selected for the cover will be awarded at $250 stipend!
Undergraduate students who have taken at least two WGST courses and graduate students who have taken at least one WGST course at UNC Charlotte are eligible to submit until Monday, March 11.
Please contact Staci Batchelor (sbatche4@charlotte.edu) if you have any questions.