Women And Gender Studies Symposium

Women’s and Gender Studies Symposium 2024

In Partnership with Georgia College Research Day March 26 and 27, 2024

Co-sponsored by MURACE, The Women’s Center at Georgia College & State University, the Cultural Center at GCSU, the Philosophy, Religion, and Liberal Studies Department, the College of Arts and Sciences and GCSU. 

For more information contact Dr. Katie Simon at katie.simon@gcsu.edu.

Program Schedule:

Tuesday, March 26, 2024, Pat Peterson Museum Education Room, Georgia College Library

[Note: All Tuesday events are in the Pat Peterson Museum Education Room]

9:00-9:30 a.m. Registration

Coffee and refreshments

9:30-10:45 a.m. Women’s and Gender Studies Faculty Panel

Moderator: Dr. Jim Winchester

“How Business Statistics, Business Analytics, Management Science and Management Information Systems Courses Can Support DEI Curriculum: An LGBTQ+ Example”

Allison Miller

“The Intersectional Impact of Minority Identities on University Student Experience”

Dr. Joanna Schwartz

Deconstructing Family: Adoption, Kinship and Family Diversity in India

Disha Chaudhari, special visiting guest

“Pleasure and Power in the Racializing Gaze”

Sabrina Hom

11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Beauty, Sexuality and Health

Moderator: Kaitlyn Newman

“Barbie and Beauty Standards: The Tip of the Iceberg”

Presenter: Melody Cadle

Faculty Sponsor: Brooke Rudow

“Predeterminants of Sexual Satisfaction”

Presenter: Emma Gael Humphries

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Brooke Conaway

“How cultural factors influence our perception of Women’s mental health in the United States?”

Presenter: Kristina Price

Faculty Sponsor: Kaitlyn Newman

12:30-1:45 p.m. Race and Gender in the 19th Century

Moderator: Dr. Libby Murphy

“Bonded by Blood: An Examination of the Violence and Monstrosity within the Queer Relationships of Carmilla and Hannibal”

Presenter: Elizabeth Lewis

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Katie Simon

“Heathcliff as ‘The Unfriended Creature;’ Racism, Zoomorphism and Hierarchical Oppression in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.”

Presenter: Anna Durden

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Katie Simon

“Agency After Death: A Jungian Perspective on Bronte’s Wuthering Heights”

Presenter: Katelyn Pontzer

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Katie Simon

“Tarnished Angels: Prostitution in 19th-Century France”

A Digital Humanities Project

Presenters: Lily Gauntt, Jasmine Harrison, Sophie Hardy, Madison Coleman, Grace Horton and Charlotte Aexel

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Libby Murphy

2:00-3:15 p.m. Myth, Literature and Film

Moderator: Dr. Sunita Manian

“Wait for Me: Finding Eurydice’s Voice in Hadestown and Portrait of a Lady on Fire”

Presenter: Thomas Creekmore

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jennifer Flaherty

“The Evolving Female Perspective in Greek Mythological Retellings”

Presenter: Alexia Schauer

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Sunita Manian

“Feminism & Activism in Frankenstein and Oroonoko: Analyzing Progressive Themes in Early British Women’s Literature”

Presenter: Jaci Hill

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Julian Knox

“Pride and Prejudice and Lydia”

Presenter: Katie Daniels

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jennifer Flaherty

3:30-4:45 p.m. Gender and Sexuality in Film, Television and Media

Moderator: Dr. Sandra Godwin

“Unveiling Transmasculinity: A Media Exploration”

Presenter: Sebastián Emanuelli

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Sandra Godwin

“Fangs and Good Fortunes: Lessons of Love in Pride & Prejudice (2005) and Twilight (2009)”

Presenter: Olivia Kumiko McDuffie

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jennifer Flaherty

“Furries and Beyond: The Eroticism of Becoming Inhuman”

Presenter: Diana Cazacu

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jim Winchester

***Content warning for discussion of sexual content and fetishes***

5:00-6:15 p.m. Keynote Lecture

Moderator: Dr. Katie Simon

"Loving the Land and Each Other: Environmental Eros & Trans-Species Ethics in Feminist and Queer Ecologies"

Lauran Whitworth, Agnes Scott College

Wednesday, March 27, 2023

Arts and Sciences 3-64

2:00-3:15 p.m. WGS Faculty Panel

Moderator: Dr. Katie Simon

“Feminist Understandings of Time”

Dr. Jim Winchester

“Mixing Up Culture: Community Cookbooks, Acculturation and Changing Expectations of Jewish Womanhood"

Dr. Jamie Downing

“Bright Summer Night: Shakespeare, Gender and Eco-Anxiety”

Dr. Jennifer Flaherty

“The Intimacies of Extremism and the Soundtrack of Reproductive Rights”

Dr. Dana Gorzelany-Mostak