Chair
I am delighted to share exciting developments in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies this year.
This fall, we welcomed three new tenure-track colleagues to the department. Drs. Olivia Adams, Ocqua Murrell, and Cinnamon Williams started their Assistant Professor positions with us in August (See pages 12 and 13 for more information). They have quickly become active contributors to the research, teaching, and service mission of the department, college, and UF. As the features about them in this issue indicate, they are establishing their research programs at UF and already garnering recognition in the field. They are presenting their research at national and international venues. They are advancing our core curriculum and launching exciting courses in Black feminism, girlhoods, and history of medicine. They are engaging students at welcome and recruitment events at UF and beyond. We are delighted to have their expertise and collaboration at UF!
Another key achievement is that the department was awarded a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a series of initiatives to highlight women’s studies strengths in experiential learning and career readiness. The project advances institutional priorities by a) supporting community-engaged student research, b) implementing a career pathways series that engages students and the community, and c) amplifying narratives about the significance and value of the field. We will achieve these aims through multiple activities. Specifically, we are forming faculty-student-community collaboratives to launch research projects that will benefit communities and provide students with valuable research experiences. We are organizing a series of speakers who translate gender/race/sexuality scholarship into impactful careers and entrepreneurship. We are planning a panel of alums to discuss their career pathways. And, in collaboration with Beyond120, we are offering Professional Pathways in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, a spring 2024 graduate and undergraduate course to guide students in imagining and launching their own innovative career paths.
A thread across all these activities is to showcase and celebrate all the ways our students, graduates, and friends experience the positive impact of gender, sexuality, and women’s studies in their life, work, and communities. Your stories are integral to this effort. Your stories assert our longstanding strengths in scholarship, education, and community engagement.
Please take a moment to complete our alum and friends survey and join us in telling the many inspiring stories of gender, sexuality, and women’s studies!