Campus Connection

[caption id="attachment_793" align="alignright" width="134" caption="Heidi Macpherson"][/caption]UW-L’s new Provost Heidi Macpherson will give a lecture on “Political Landscapes, Private Hauntings: Violence in Contemporary American Women’s Writing” at 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 17, 2012 in 1309 Centennial Hall. Ranging across a wide range of contemporary American women’s writing, the talk will focus on how contemporary anxieties are played out in women’s fiction. She will also explore the ways women’s writing increasingly stages legal conflict or engages in representations of the aftermath of violence. A primary focus will be on Lionel Shriver’s award-winning novel “We Need to Talk About Kevin.” Discussions of other novels includes those in which mothers come into conflict with the law and negotiate their ‘innocence’ or ‘guilt’ in the face of both real and imagined courts of law. The program is sponsored by the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

UW-L Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

UW-L offers a major and minor in Women’s Studies. The major is five years old and the minor started in 1985, averaging about 45 students each year. The major has averaged about 20 students each year. The courses: Many of the courses focus on creating a greater awareness of how gender, race, class and sexuality impact a woman’s life. The courses are approached from a wide range of disciplines and cover topics such as: gender inequality in social institutions, women's history, LGBT studies, gender and violence, human rights, women in poverty, gender and health, and more. An opportunity to engage: Students are encouraged to think about ways to engage in issues of inequality that they read about in class. As part of their senior seminar, students do a practicum to explore how they can apply the skills that they have acquired through the program to work after graduation, which gives them the opportunity make real social change in communities. They are also highly encouraged to do an internship. Another opportunity for engagement is the Women’s Studies Student Association where students discuss how issues of gender affect their lives and create activities and programs that speak to students' needs.