MA Degree Recipients
Click on name for more information
| Ellen Yeagle |
Amal Abou Halika
October 2000
Practicum
Committee: Joanna Regulska, Charlotte Bunch, Jennifer Jones
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Amy Bain
January 2005
Practicum: Creating Asian Women Space on the Rutgers Campus
Committee: Cynthia Daniels, Sue Carroll, Jane Junn
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Alyssa Best
May 2006
Practicum: Pro-Choice Public Education Project - Building an Inclusive Movement: Young Women's Leadership and the Future of Reproductive Justice
Committee: Mary Trigg, Samira Kawash, Cynthia Daniels
Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Alyssa Best focused her graduate work on reproductive politics, feminist activism, and young women's leadership. She incorporated her graduate training into her pedagogy as an Instructor of Shaping a Life, a first-year mission course at Douglass College. She also spent her graduate career working at the Institute for Women's Leadership at Rutgers, which fueled her passion for leadership development. She completed her practicum at the Pro-Choice Public Education Project in NYC, where she served as the Leadership Coordinator of a national young women's leadership council. She currently advocates for women's economic justice as the Local Programs and Policy Associate at Wider Opportunities for Women in Washington, DC. She also serves as a career coach for college women and young professionals with the ultimate goal of helping others find and sustain lifelong careers in the feminist movement. She is an aspiring Op-Ed writer and has had a piece featured in The Huffington Post.
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Emily Bent
October 2004
Thesis: Differential Consciousness and the (Re)Translation of Women's Leadership Programs: From Theory to Practice and Back Again
Committee: Joanna Regulska, Mary Trigg, Mary Hartman
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Barbara Brancaccio
May 1996
Thesis: Not Quite White, Not Quite Black
Committee: Sherry Gorelick, Louise Barnett, Dawn Esposito, Barbara Callaway
Barbara Brancaccio served as Executive Director for WomenCare Inc. and College and Community Fellowship, two nonprofit organizations for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. Her expertise lies in the development and implementation of re-entry, educational and mentoring programs for women making the transition from prison back into the community. Ms. Brancaccio is the Treasurer of the Advisory Board for Bayview Correctional Facility and is a Founding Board Member for The Learning Center for Women In Prison, a college program sponsored by Bard College for women incarcerated at the facility. Ms. Brancaccio curated the Film Festival at the 10th National Roundtable for Women in Prison, and produced Surviving Justice: The Women In Prison Film Showcase, held in 2001 at Anthology Film Archives in New York City. She produced GETTING OUT, a dramatic reading, which brought together renowned Playwright Marsha Norman, Director Bob Balaban and a variety of award winning actors to support the advocacy efforts of the Correctional Association¹s Women In Prison Project. Ms. Brancaccio began her career as Special Assistant to New York City Council Member Ronnie Eldridge. In 2003, she participated in Coro Leadership New York, a ten-month program that brought together emerging leaders from diverse fields to explore social issues and problems confronting New York City. Currently, she is the Campaign Manager for New York City Councilmember Margarita Lopez, who is a candidate for Manhattan Borough President.
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Tracy Budd
May 2001
Thesis: Homoglossia: Do Queers and Their Theorists Speak the Same Language?
Committee: Joanna Regulska, Mary Gossy, Jennifer Jones
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Jennifer Burke
October 2000
Thesis: Representing Girl Zines: the Politics of Culture
Committee: Judith Gerson, Joanna Regulska, Jennifer Jones
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Catherine Burkhart
May 1999
Thesis: On Loving Women and Writing: Contemporary Lesbian Love, Poetry and Politics
Committee: Mary Gossy, Jennifer Jones, Harriet Davidson, Barbara Balliet
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Lara Cassell
May 2006
Practicum: NARAL Pro-Choice NY - Advocacy, the State, and the Politics of Contraception
Committee: Cynthia Daniels, Ethel Brooks, Susan Carroll
Lara Cassell is originally from Brooklyn, New York. She received dual Bachelor's degrees from Stony Brook University, where she completed majors in Women's Studies and Humanities as well as minors in Philosophy and Studio Art. During her tenure at Rutgers, Lara focused on the field of reproductive politics, including public policy, the political economy of access, and the theoretical frameworks employed by feminists, the state, and anti-"choice" activists in lobbying for, and enactment of, reproductive policy. Lara conducted her practicum in the public policy department of NARAL Pro-Choice NY. After completing her degree, she relocated with her partner to Southern California, where she is now Campaign Coordinator for Sensible Santa Barbara, a community-based organization which is spearheading the reform of marijuana laws in the city of Santa Barbara. In addition to the campaign, Lara continues to work as a freelance photographer and is in the process of illustrating a children's series on environmental awareness and conservation.
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Varaporn Chamsanit
October 1998
Thesis: Repositioning "Phooying Chao Baan": Perspectives and Struggles of Grassroots Women Activists in Thailand
Committee: Leela Fernandes, Charlotte Bunch, Barbara Balliet
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Lisa Clarke
May 1999
Practicum: Transformative and Negotiable Leadership: Lessons Learned at the United National Development Fund for Women
Committee: Barbara Balliet, Harriet Davidson, Jennifer Jones
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Andrea Collard
January 2005
Thesis: On Her Knees: Eros and Elation in the Life of Mary of Egypt
Committee: Jennifer Jones, Samira Kawash, Stacy Klein
Andrea Collard graduated in January 2005 with a Master of Arts in Women's and Gender Studies, and a Certificate in Medieval Studies. The title of her published Master's thesis is "On Her Knees: Eros and Elation in the Life of Mary of Egypt", and she defended her thesis in December 2004. Her current professional life is a bit chaotic; she is an adjunct professor of English at Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey, and also a data entry operator at Rutgers University Alumni Records and Gifts Processing. She looks forward to eventually pursuing a PhD in an interdisciplinary field; she has a myriad of interests, and she hasn't settled on one area as yet.
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Ingrid Hu Dahl
May 2005
Practicum: "I Want to Rock Out" On Acting Rather Than Appearing: The Rock n' Roll Camp for Girls
Committee: Mary Trigg, Ethel Brooks, Judith Gerson
Ingrid Hu Dahl is a founding member of the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, a non-profit organization that promotes the empowerment of girls’ voices, action, identity and alliance formation, which stems from her graduate practicum work. She has developed workshops for young women to question gender, the socialized fear of difference, and the –isms of oppression using inquiry and activities to deconstruct binary opposites and ‘think outside and beyond the box.’ Having taught at Rutgers University and Douglass College while receiving her M.A. in Women’s & Gender Studies, Dahl gained expertise in teaching as the power to transgress, in activist bell hooks’ words. She now works as a consultant with Girls, Inc. NYC training leaders to be gender equitable, and on a student civic engagement publication with The Bonner Foundation in Princeton, NJ. Believing in the importance of giving back and sharing empowerment, Dahl has been involved with the Institute for Women’s Leadership as an alumnae; acting as a mentor, advisor, and co-instructor for students as well as implementing the annual “Bridging the Gap” event, which links alumnae to current scholars since 2002. Dahl is a rock musician; She recently released her debut album in 2006, Lines of Parallel Minds with her band, The 303s and is the bassist for the NYC band Lismore. She plays guitar, bass, keyboards and sings. In her spare time, Dahl freelances as a stylist, hair consultant, make up artist and designer. She is excited about representation, expression, and dialogue through the creativity of clothing as well as building communities in music and in art.
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Priti Darooka
May 2003
Practicum: Urban Justice Center, Human Rights Unit
Committee: Leela Fernandes, Jennifer Jones, Charlotte Bunch
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Jodi Delaney
January 2003
Thesis: Monsters and Angels: Discourse and Counter-Discourse on Stepmothers in the United States, 1830-1860
Committee: Nancy Hewitt, Margaret Marsh, Jennifer Jones
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Nicole De Nino
January 2006
Practicum: Perspectives From the Bottom Up: The Lived Experiences of Grassroots Women's Activism in Africa
Committee: Mary Gossy, Joanna Regulska, Julie Livingston
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Judith De Vries
January 2002
Thesis: Examining the Margins in the Life and Thought of Jane Addams
Committee: Nancy Hewitt, Jennifer Jones, Josephine Diamond
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Patricia Ditillio
October 2000
Practicum: Institute for Women's Leadership at The College of New Jersey
Committee: Leela Fernandes, Harriet Davidson, Jennifer Jones
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Gordana Duhacek
January 1997
Thesis Gender Perspectives on the Reconstruction of Political Identities in Yugoslavia<
Amal Abou Halika
October 2000
Practicum
Committee: Joanna Regulska, Charlotte Bunch, Jennifer Jones
top
Amy Bain
January 2005
Practicum: Creating Asian Women Space on the Rutgers Campus
Committee: Cynthia Daniels, Sue Carroll, Jane Junn
top
Alyssa Best
May 2006
Practicum: Pro-Choice Public Education Project - Building an Inclusive Movement: Young Women's Leadership and the Future of Reproductive Justice
Committee: Mary Trigg, Samira Kawash, Cynthia Daniels
Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Alyssa Best focused her graduate work on reproductive politics, feminist activism, and young women's leadership. She incorporated her graduate training into her pedagogy as an Instructor of Shaping a Life, a first-year mission course at Douglass College. She also spent her graduate career working at the Institute for Women's Leadership at Rutgers, which fueled her passion for leadership development. She completed her practicum at the Pro-Choice Public Education Project in NYC, where she served as the Leadership Coordinator of a national young women's leadership council. She currently advocates for women's economic justice as the Local Programs and Policy Associate at Wider Opportunities for Women in Washington, DC. She also serves as a career coach for college women and young professionals with the ultimate goal of helping others find and sustain lifelong careers in the feminist movement. She is an aspiring Op-Ed writer and has had a piece featured in The Huffington Post.
top
Emily Bent
October 2004
Thesis: Differential Consciousness and the (Re)Translation of Women's Leadership Programs: From Theory to Practice and Back Again
Committee: Joanna Regulska, Mary Trigg, Mary Hartman
top
Barbara Brancaccio
May 1996
Thesis: Not Quite White, Not Quite Black
Committee: Sherry Gorelick, Louise Barnett, Dawn Esposito, Barbara Callaway
Barbara Brancaccio served as Executive Director for WomenCare Inc. and College and Community Fellowship, two nonprofit organizations for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women. Her expertise lies in the development and implementation of re-entry, educational and mentoring programs for women making the transition from prison back into the community. Ms. Brancaccio is the Treasurer of the Advisory Board for Bayview Correctional Facility and is a Founding Board Member for The Learning Center for Women In Prison, a college program sponsored by Bard College for women incarcerated at the facility. Ms. Brancaccio curated the Film Festival at the 10th National Roundtable for Women in Prison, and produced Surviving Justice: The Women In Prison Film Showcase, held in 2001 at Anthology Film Archives in New York City. She produced GETTING OUT, a dramatic reading, which brought together renowned Playwright Marsha Norman, Director Bob Balaban and a variety of award winning actors to support the advocacy efforts of the Correctional Association¹s Women In Prison Project. Ms. Brancaccio began her career as Special Assistant to New York City Council Member Ronnie Eldridge. In 2003, she participated in Coro Leadership New York, a ten-month program that brought together emerging leaders from diverse fields to explore social issues and problems confronting New York City. Currently, she is the Campaign Manager for New York City Councilmember Margarita Lopez, who is a candidate for Manhattan Borough President.
top
Tracy Budd
May 2001
Thesis: Homoglossia: Do Queers and Their Theorists Speak the Same Language?
Committee: Joanna Regulska, Mary Gossy, Jennifer Jones
top
Jennifer Burke
October 2000
Thesis: Representing Girl Zines: the Politics of Culture
Committee: Judith Gerson, Joanna Regulska, Jennifer Jones
top
Catherine Burkhart
May 1999
Thesis: On Loving Women and Writing: Contemporary Lesbian Love, Poetry and Politics
Committee: Mary Gossy, Jennifer Jones, Harriet Davidson, Barbara Balliet
top
Lara Cassell
May 2006
Practicum: NARAL Pro-Choice NY - Advocacy, the State, and the Politics of Contraception
Committee: Cynthia Daniels, Ethel Brooks, Susan Carroll
Lara Cassell is originally from Brooklyn, New York. She received dual Bachelor's degrees from Stony Brook University, where she completed majors in Women's Studies and Humanities as well as minors in Philosophy and Studio Art. During her tenure at Rutgers, Lara focused on the field of reproductive politics, including public policy, the political economy of access, and the theoretical frameworks employed by feminists, the state, and anti-"choice" activists in lobbying for, and enactment of, reproductive policy. Lara conducted her practicum in the public policy department of NARAL Pro-Choice NY. After completing her degree, she relocated with her partner to Southern California, where she is now Campaign Coordinator for Sensible Santa Barbara, a community-based organization which is spearheading the reform of marijuana laws in the city of Santa Barbara. In addition to the campaign, Lara continues to work as a freelance photographer and is in the process of illustrating a children's series on environmental awareness and conservation.
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Varaporn Chamsanit
October 1998
Thesis: Repositioning "Phooying Chao Baan": Perspectives and Struggles of Grassroots Women Activists in Thailand
Committee: Leela Fernandes, Charlotte Bunch, Barbara Balliet
top
Lisa Clarke
May 1999
Practicum: Transformative and Negotiable Leadership: Lessons Learned at the United National Development Fund for Women
Committee: Barbara Balliet, Harriet Davidson, Jennifer Jones
top
Andrea Collard
January 2005
Thesis: On Her Knees: Eros and Elation in the Life of Mary of Egypt
Committee: Jennifer Jones, Samira Kawash, Stacy Klein
Andrea Collard graduated in January 2005 with a Master of Arts in Women's and Gender Studies, and a Certificate in Medieval Studies. The title of her published Master's thesis is "On Her Knees: Eros and Elation in the Life of Mary of Egypt", and she defended her thesis in December 2004. Her current professional life is a bit chaotic; she is an adjunct professor of English at Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey, and also a data entry operator at Rutgers University Alumni Records and Gifts Processing. She looks forward to eventually pursuing a PhD in an interdisciplinary field; she has a myriad of interests, and she hasn't settled on one area as yet.
top
Ingrid Hu Dahl
May 2005
Practicum: "I Want to Rock Out" On Acting Rather Than Appearing: The Rock n' Roll Camp for Girls
Committee: Mary Trigg, Ethel Brooks, Judith Gerson
Ingrid Hu Dahl is a founding member of the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, a non-profit organization that promotes the empowerment of girls’ voices, action, identity and alliance formation, which stems from her graduate practicum work. She has developed workshops for young women to question gender, the socialized fear of difference, and the –isms of oppression using inquiry and activities to deconstruct binary opposites and ‘think outside and beyond the box.’ Having taught at Rutgers University and Douglass College while receiving her M.A. in Women’s & Gender Studies, Dahl gained expertise in teaching as the power to transgress, in activist bell hooks’ words. She now works as a consultant with Girls, Inc. NYC training leaders to be gender equitable, and on a student civic engagement publication with The Bonner Foundation in Princeton, NJ. Believing in the importance of giving back and sharing empowerment, Dahl has been involved with the Institute for Women’s Leadership as an alumnae; acting as a mentor, advisor, and co-instructor for students as well as implementing the annual “Bridging the Gap” event, which links alumnae to current scholars since 2002. Dahl is a rock musician; She recently released her debut album in 2006, Lines of Parallel Minds with her band, The 303s and is the bassist for the NYC band Lismore. She plays guitar, bass, keyboards and sings. In her spare time, Dahl freelances as a stylist, hair consultant, make up artist and designer. She is excited about representation, expression, and dialogue through the creativity of clothing as well as building communities in music and in art.
top
Priti Darooka
May 2003
Practicum: Urban Justice Center, Human Rights Unit
Committee: Leela Fernandes, Jennifer Jones, Charlotte Bunch
top
Jodi Delaney
January 2003
Thesis: Monsters and Angels: Discourse and Counter-Discourse on Stepmothers in the United States, 1830-1860
Committee: Nancy Hewitt, Margaret Marsh, Jennifer Jones
top
Nicole De Nino
January 2006
Practicum: Perspectives From the Bottom Up: The Lived Experiences of Grassroots Women's Activism in Africa
Committee: Mary Gossy, Joanna Regulska, Julie Livingston
top
Judith De Vries
January 2002
Thesis: Examining the Margins in the Life and Thought of Jane Addams
Committee: Nancy Hewitt, Jennifer Jones, Josephine Diamond
top
Patricia Ditillio
October 2000
Practicum: Institute for Women's Leadership at The College of New Jersey
Committee: Leela Fernandes, Harriet Davidson, Jennifer Jones
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Gordana Duhacek
January 1997
Thesis Gender Perspectives on the Reconstruction of Political Identities in Yugoslavia
Committee: Joanna Regulska, Barbara Callaway, Harriet Davidson
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Ellen Edens-Richardson
January 2000
Thesis: Christian Feminist Healing Rites: The Potential for Women's Healing in Christian Feminist Liturgies, Communal Worship Services, Group Studies, Devotionals, and Public and Private Prayer
Committee: Mary Gossy, Jennifer Jones, Harriet Davidson
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Diane Erbe-Maltabes
January 2003
Practicum: Center for Women's Global Leadership
Committee: Charlotte Bunch, Ethel Brooks, Jennifer Jones
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Eleanor Esmond
January 2000
Practicum: Searching for Feminist Motives in Women Who Choose Midwives
Committee: Jennifer Jones, Harriet Davidson, Jennifer Morgan
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Jill Fink
October 1998
Practicum: ACLU Practicum Experience
Committee: Cynthia Daniels, Mary Gossy, Harriet Davidson, Charlotte Bunch
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Shana Fried
January 2001
Thesis: Feminists Publishing/Feminist Poetry
Committee: Harriet Davidson, Cheryl Clarke, Alicia Ostriker
Shana Fried graduated from the M.A. program in Women's Studies in January of 2001. Shana's master's thesis “Feminists Publishing Feminist Poetry," was a critical survey on 20th century feminist activism through independent publishing by feminist presses. Upon graduation, Shana worked at the United Nations as director of a fundraising office in the Department of Protocol and Diplomatic Affairs. While working at the U.N., she returned to Rutgers in 2002, as a part-time evening lecturer teaching the undergraduate course, Women, Culture and Society. From 2002-03, Shana volunteered as the women's program director for the Latin American Workers Project (El Proyecto) in Brooklyn, where she coordinated language and immigrants rights programs for women day laborers. Currently, she is completing her last year in the Juris Doctorate program at Rutgers Newark Law School and is working for the law firm of Reed Smith, as an associate in the Energy Law practice group. She is the associate coordinator for Reed Smith's women's rights probono program.
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Jessica Gamble
January 2006
Practicum: Bending the Boundaries of Identity: Creating & Editing a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning/Queer Youth Anthology
Committee: Cheryl Clarke, Samira Kawash, Beth Hutchison
Jessie Gamble received her B.A. with Specialized Honors from Drew University in May 2003. She majored in Women’s Studies and minored in Economics. During her senior year, Jessica completed her honors thesis, Feminist Theory’s Missing Piece: Breastfeeding, the Maternal Body, and the Motherhood Debate, which examined the conflicting definitions and concepts of mother, as well as motherhood. Set in three historical nodes during the second half of the twentieth century, multiple cultural texts, ranging from Dr. Spock to feminist speculative fiction, were set in dialogue in order to analyze the underlying meanings of their messages about breastfeeding. These texts’ discussions about breastfeeding contribute to the concept of the maternal body, which is the nexus of conflicting messages and cultural ideals that affect women. Jessie volunteers at Planned Parenthood Association of Bucks County where she interned in summer 2002. As part of her internship, she had the opportunity to assist PPABC in starting the county’s first LGBTQA youth center, the project with which she is currently working. She lives in New Hope, PA with her partner, Bob and their son, Logan. Jesse conducted her practicum on LGBT youth with Graduate Professor Cheryl Clarke.
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Cynthia Gorman
May 2006
Practicum: Institute for Women's Leadership - Feminist Experiential Learning
Committee: Mary Trigg, Joanna Regulska, Carlos Decena
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Suzanne Grossman
May 2004
Practicum: Ireland and Abortion: Analysis of a Social Movement
Committee: Joanna Regulska, Mary Gossy, Ethel Brooks
Suzanne Grossman received her MA from the Rutgers Women's and Gender Studies Department in 2004. She now works full-time at the Institute for Women's Leadership on the Leadership Scholars Program, a position she began as a graduate student. The two-year Leadership Scholars Program provides a small group of Rutgers undergraduates with the opportunity to learn about the connections between women's leadership and social change, and strengthen their own leadership abilities. Outside of her work at the IWL, Suzanne is a fiddle player and member of NYU's Ireland House music ensemble. She is also a founding member of the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls which launched last summer in NYC.
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Marcia Hanjian
May 1998
Thesis: The Heroine Transformed: a Comparative Study of the Barber of Seville
Committee: Jennifer Jones, Floyd Grave, Mary Gossy
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Stephanie Harzewski
October 1998
Thesis: A Womb Divided: Theorizing Menstruation and Feminism
Committee: Mary Gossy, Jennifer Jones, Barbara Callaway
Stephanie Harzewski recently completed her dissertation, “The New Novel of Manners: Chick Lit and the Evolution of Romance Narrative,” at the University of Pennsylvania, where she will graduate in May 2006 with a PhD in English and a graduate certificate in Women's Studies. She is currently on the market for assistant professor positions in English and Women's Studies. Her publications and teaching can be found at www.english.upenn.edu/~sharzews
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Jennifer Hedges
January 2000
Practicum: Gender Equality in Education
Committee: Jennifer Jones, Harriet Davidson
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Karen Herman
May 2001
Practicum: Feminist Teaching in the Social Work Classroom: One Path for Educating Extraordinary Social Workers
Committee: Leela Fernandes, Lynn Warner, Jennifer Jones
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Yoko Hinoue
May 1999
Thesis: Negotiating Body Politics: Discourse on Ritual Female Genital Surgery
Committee: Dorohty Ko
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Deevy Holcomb
May 1996
Thesis: Woman, Nation, Violation: Spectacle or Strategy?
Committee: Susan Carroll, Louisa Schein, Charlotte Bunch
Deevy Holcomb is a Management Analyst for a county Juvenile Community Justice department in Central Oregon. After her masters degree, she lived and worked in Johannesburg/Pretoria South Africa as writer/editor and research coordinator for a local government NGO called Idasa, for four years, which assisted in building local government institutions and practices in communities disenfranchised during apartheid. During this time, she conducted a significant amount of research, training and consulting on women's role in local government. She has been back in the US since 2000, and spends her time with her daughter Zidane, who just started 1st grade, and her husband, is paid to do her part in treating and preventing juvenile crime, providing better responses for female offenders, developing alternatives to detention, etc. She’s also involved in the regional Peace movement in her private life, trying to keep this part of the world connected to the rest of the world, and understand better its role in the greater community of our planet. No further school since Rutgers; she has discovered through the Masters program that her feminist energies and skills were most satisfied and productive outside the academy. She does miss participating in a community of thinkers and philosophers, though.
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Wen-Lung Hung
May 2000
Practicum: New York Men Against Sexism
Committee: Mary Gossy, Jennifer Jones, Harriet Davidson
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Thanya Jaidee
October 1998
Practicum: Hyacinth AIDS Foundation
Committee: Barbara Callaway, Mary Gossy, Barbara Balliet
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Soo Jung Jang
January 2003
Practicum: Center for Women and Work
Committee: Ethel Brooks, Mary Hawkesworth, Eileen Applebaum
Soo Jung Jang (Ph.D. Candidate in School of Social Work, M.A., Rutgers University, Women's and Gender Studies, 2003) is a teaching assistant in the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research at Rutgers University. She has worked to assist projects related to issues of depression care and HEDIS measures of depression in the Institute for Health. Her interests include women, social policy, and non profit organization. Recent research is focusing on the relationships of leave polices and work-life balance. Her dissertation explores how parents with serous illnesses children manage work-life balance and the effects of health outcomes, emotional well-being, family stability, and job stability.
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Sukrittaya Jukping
October 1999
Practicum: The Trafficking in Women and Women's Human Rights
Committee: Barbara Callaway, Jennifer Jones, Barbara Balliet
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Ophrah Kaunda
October 1999
Thesis: Making Domestic Violence Invisible: the Construction of Gender Relations in Malawi's Judicial System
Committee: Barbara Callaway, Jennifer Jones, Belinda Davis, Harriet Davidson
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Sharon Kenney
October 2001
Thesis: Girl Talk: Use of the Internet and the Adolescent Female Body as an Alternative Space of Discourse
Committee: Mary Gossy
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Sana Khshieboun
May 2005
Practicum: Women, War and Peace
Committee: Louisa Schein, Jasbir Puar, Charlotte Bunch
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Nora Kindley
October 2001
Practicum: The Lesbian Herstory Archives: Looking at "Theory" in Relation to a Lesbian Feminist Space
Committee: Jasbir Puar, Jennifer Jones, Judith Gerson
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Yoshiko Konishi
October 2000
Thesis: A Study of Gangurol Gonguro Gyaru (Gals): the Meaning of Blackness in Contemporary Japanese Society
Committee: Dorothy Ko, Mary Gossy, Louisa Schein
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Valsala Kumar Bhargavi
January 2004
Practicum: Center for Rural Studies and Development
Committee: Joanna Regulska, Charlotte Bunch
Valsala Kumar Bhargavi is a feminist activist and a civil servant working for the Government of Kerala, India. She served as the Director of the Social Welfare Department in charge of Women and Children in Kerala state for 3 years and was subsequently appointed as Secretary of the Statutory Women's Commission of Kerala for 2 years. In 1999 she was the recipient of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship awarded by the US Government for mid-career professionals with proven track record of leadership. Under the auspices of the Humphrey Fellowship, she completed a Masters in Planning and Urban Development at the Bloustein School of Rutgers University. She has also completed an M.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers.
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Insook Kwon
May 1997
Thesis The Relationship Between Feminis and Nationalism in Korea
Committee: Louisa Schein, Barbara Callaway, Sherry Gorelick
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Jiwoon Lee
May 2004
Practicum: Feminist Journal IF, Seoul, Korea
Committee: Ethel Brooks, Joanna Regulska, Mary Hawkesworth
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Chun-Ming Liu
January 2000
Practicum: Center for Women's Global Leadership -- Women and Social Change: Communicating and Organizing Across Cultures
Committee: Barbara Balliet, Jennifer Jones, Harriet Davidson
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Li Ma
May 1996
Practicum
Committee: Cathy Greenblat, Sherry Gorelick, Barbara Callaway
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Jemima Mawenya
May 2005
Practicum: Women and Inheritance Laws in Tanzania
Committee: Meredith Turshen, Dorothy Hodgson, Charlotte Bunch
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Sarah McCoy-Harms
January 2006
Practicum: Local, Global, or Virtual? Negotiating a Space In-Between for the Transnational Women's Human Rights Movement
Committee: Yana Rodgers, Cheryl Clarke, Evan Stark
Sarah's graduate work only galvanized her dedication to issues of gender-based violence. She has over seven years experience working to promote healthy and equitable communities, with emphasis on developing coordinated community response. In her current role at Kansas City's Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault (MOCSA), her focus is to refine the agency’s capacity and services to meet the needs of traditionally underserved communities. She serves as Project Director for the Safety First Initiative, Kansas City’s Collaboration to End Violence Against Women with Disabilities. In her less-busy time she co-manages a small composting business and tends to her garden.
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Katherine McGuire
January 1997
Thesis: The Building of Graduate Programs in Women's Studies
Committee: Nancy Hartsock, Harriet Davidson
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Simpdy Merelan
October 2005
Thesis: Speaking the Unspeakable: Trauma, Memory, and Articulations of Black Women's Subjectivity in the Works of Edwidge Danticat, Gayl Jones, and Toni Morrison
Committee: Cheryl Clarke, Wesley Brown, Harriet Davidson
Simpdy Merelan, a Haitian-American woman from Neptune, New Jersey, graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Africana Studies in 2002 and an M.A. degree in October 2005. During her undergraduate years, she played an active role with in the Rutgers University community as a member and/or chair of various organizations, such as the Paul Robeson Club, the Black Student Union, the Haitian Association of Rutgers University, and the Rutgers College Educational Opportunity Program Student Association. In addition, she volunteered for Elijahxs Promise Soup Kitchen of New Brunswick, N.J. and the Rutgers University Womenxs Center. Simpdy also participated in research programs such as the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Program and the New Jersey, Minority Academic Careers Program. As a McNair and MAC Scholar, she undertook research on how oral traditions were used to render and to resist the sexual abuse of Black women in African-American literature. Using Gayl Jonesx neo-slave narrative, Corregidora, she explored the authorxs use of the traditional blues form as a means of testifying to Black womenxs subjugation. Through her analysis of Jonesx work, she began to see how Black women writers were agents in their struggle for liberation. Black women were not just creating art for xart's sake.x Instead, Black women writers, like Jones, were collectively working to use their creativity and intellect to create literature that would combat their social oppression. As an aspiring professor, she plans to examine further how African-American women and Black women from the African Diaspora have used different literary techniques to produce works that would serve as a means of resistance to their objectification. Simpdy has presented her research at several McNair and MAC Symposiums at Rutgers University and Pennsylvania State University.
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Julie Miele
January 2006
Practicum: Girls Incorporated: Media Literacy
Committee: Barbara Balliet, Ed Cohen, Harriet Davidson
Julie Miele came to Rutgers from Glendale, New York, where she has lived for most of her 28 years. She is a graduate of Hunter College of the City University of New York, where she earned a Bachelor of the Arts in English and Secondary Education in 1999. While at Hunter, Julie began her career as a teacher, tutoring at the college's Writing Center and instructing an undergraduate writing course. For the last five years, she has been a high school teacher in New York City teaching English Language Arts both to American students and to foreign students for whom English is a second language. Her professional goal is to combine her background in education with her interest in gender studies to teach others - particularly women - to read literature, to write, to think critically, to appreciate the history of women and to understand and overcome the challenges that women face today. Her interests include reading, writing, traveling, the media, and all things natural. Julie conducted her practicum at the Girls Inc Media Literacy Program in New York City.
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Jennifer Miller
May 2002
Thesis: When Boy Meets Girl: The De-Politicalization of Fraternization in the American-Occupied Zone of Germany, 1945-1947
Committee: Belinda Davis, Jennifer Jones, Margaret Marsh
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Jenni Moberly Westra
October 2001
Practicum The Politics of Feminism
Committee: Cynthia Daniels, Susan Carroll, Jennifer Jones
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Elizabeth Montegary
January 2004
Practicum: Center on North American Politics and Society
Committee: Mary Hawkesworth, Louisa Schein, Ethel Brooks
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Mohini Mukherjee
January 2001
Practicum: Non-Governmental Organizations and their Capacity to Facilitate Social Change: The Empowerment of Women in Musabani, India
Committee: Judith Gerson, Harriet Davidson, Jennifer Jones
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Ha Nguyen
May 1996
Practicum: HIV/AIDS and Asian American Women
Committee: Meredith Turshen, Sherry Gorelick, Sara Rosenfeld
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Carolin Nunez Puente
October 2002
Thesis: The Feminist Dialogics of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Meridel Le Sueur. Gender, Genre, and the (Female) Subject
Committee: Ben Sifuentes-Jaragui, Jennifer Jones, Mary Gossy
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Anastasia Ordonez
October 2000
Practicum: International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Committee: Meredith Turshen, Charlotte Bunch, Judith Gerson
Anastasia Ordonez is currently the Director of Communications for UNITE HERE, a labor union representing approximately half a million members employed in apparel/textile manufacturing, hotels, restaurants, and laundries in the United States and Canada. The majority of UNITE HERE's members are women. After receiving her Master's degree from Rutgers University, Anastasia worked as a Researcher/ Liaison for INSTRAW, a United Nations agency located in the Dominican Republic that provides comprehensive research and training on gender issues for the international community. Following her work at INSTRAW, Anastasia began work on a multi-media website, BehindTheLabel.org, geared at developing a global network of activists and labor unions to end sweatshops. Her interests and work in multi-media communications technologies have helped her utilize innovative "e-activism" tools to assist in organizing the global labor movement.
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Susannah Orenstein
October 1998
Thesis: Deceptive Discourse: The Intersection of Women's Bodies, Science, and the Media
Committee: Harriet Davidson, Jennifer Jones, Barbara Balliet
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Kristen Pipes
May 2004
Practicum: The Lilith Camp Program: The Context of Adolescence, Effective Strategies, and Future Steps
Committee: Mary Hawkesworth, Joanna Regulska, Mary Gossy
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Lea Popielinski
January 2001
Thesis: Queer Theory and Activism: Forging a Postmodern Identity Politic
Committee: Jennifer Jones, Cathy Greenblatt, Harriet Davidson
After Lea Popielinski finished the M.A. program at Rutgers, she worked as a court advocate at the Passaic Count Women's Center (domestic violence/sexual assault victim advocacy) for several years. In the fall of 2004 she began working toward her Ph.D. in Women's Studies at Ohio State.
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Sara Radjenovic
May 2001
Practicum: Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
Committee: Beth Hutchison, Linda Steiner, Jennifer Jones
After receiving her Master's in 2001, Sara Radjenovik completed a development internship at the Women's Sports Foundation in East Meadow, NY. From there she made the move to the District of Columbia where she worked in fundraising and event planning for several women's organizations, including NARAL Pro-Choice America and the National Women's Law Center. Sara also worked as an events consultant for the Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund for the past two summers and plans on going back there this summer. After leaving DC, she worked briefly for a workers' rights/compliance organization called Verite in Amherst, MA and was the interim executive director for the Washington County Literacy Council in southwestern Pennsylvania. She is currently getting a master's in public policy (with a self-designed concentration in international feminist organizations and minors in population studies and human rights) at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. She will also be joining the board of NARAL: Pro-Choice Minnesota in January.
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Marisa Ragonese
May 2004
Thesis: No Man's Land: Lesbians, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, and Camp Trans
Committee: Judith Gerson, Joanna Regulska, Mary Gossy
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Sharice Richardson
May 2004
Thesis: Locating Female Participation in American Indian Uprisings in South Dakota and Nebraska, 1972-1973
Committee: Dee Garrison, Barbara Balliet, Mary Hawkesworth
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Seunghee Ryu
January 2001
Thesis: Women and Childcare Policy in South Korea
Committee: Barbara Balliet, Jennifer Jones, Harriet Davidson
Cindy Serrato
May 2008
Practicum: Lunch, Business Cards, and Skills Provided
Committee: Susan Carroll, Mary Trigg, Mary Hartman
Cindy Serrato was born in Mexico and raised in the United States southwest. She served two AmeriCorps terms under the National Civilian Community Corps (NCC) in Washington, D.C. Thereafter, she returned to Las Vegas where she earned a Bachelors degree in Anthropology from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. As an undergraduate she was involved in Residence Life as a Resident Assistant and then in the capacity of a Multicultural Assistant. Before saying goodbye to UNLV, she spent a semester abroad in Chengdu, China. She also had the privilege of participating in the National Education for Womens (NEW) Leadership, Nevada that furthered her feminist involvement on campus and in the community. Cindy completed her practicum at the Center for American Women and Politics as the NEW Leadership, NJ Program Assistant in 2007. Cindy's interests include women's leadership, leadership development, and munticultural education.
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Amber Shipley
October 2005
Thesis: Practical Theory and Feminist Politics: An Analysis of Feminist Political Organizations and the Current Women's Electoral Movement
Committee: Susan Carroll, Mary Hawkesworth, Judith Gerson
Amber Shipley graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington in 2000 with a degree in politics. She spent the next four years working with nonprofit organizations in Seattle and New York including: Women's Funding Alliance, Washington Community Alliance for Self-Help (CASH), SMARTgirls, Girls Incorporated, and SeattleWomen.org, an> organization she founded. Amber also managed the reelection campaign for a State Representative in Washington State and participated in a nine month program for future Democratic leaders. These experiences helped develop her interest in women and politics, which she pursued as a Master's degree student in the Women's and Gender Studies program. Amber is currently working toward a Master's in Public Policy with a concentration in Women and Public Policy and working with Center on Women and Public Policy at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota.
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Rosalie Siemon
October 2005
Thesis: No One is Never the Other: Translation and an Ethics of Cohabitation in Difference
Committee: Harriet Davidson, Mary Gossy, Jasbir Puar
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Amanda Smith
October 2004
Thesis: Fake-ing It: Toward a Genealogy and Appropriation of a Discourse on the Female Orgasm
Committee: Elizabeth Grosz, Mary Hartman, Barbara Balliet
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Juyeon Son
October 1998
Thesis: Economic Restructuring and Part-Time Pink-Collar Working Women in Korea
Committee: Leslie McCall, Barbara Callaway, Mary Gossy
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Elizabeth Spohr
May 2003
Practicum
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Jessica Valenti
May 2002
Practicum: Women's Environment and Development Organization's Gender and Governance Program
Committee: Mary Hawkesworth, Ethel Brooks, Joanna Regulska
Jessica Valenti is a 26 year-old feminist writer/blogger and creator of feministing.com. She graduated with a Masters degree in Women's and Gender Studies and a concentration in Political Science in 2002. She has worked for organizations such as NARAL Pro-Choice America, Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund), Planned Parenthood, the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) and Ms. magazine. She has also volunteered at Mount Sinai's Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Program (SAVI) as an emergency room advocate and taught Women's Studies at SUNY Albany. Jessica lives in Brooklyn with two roommates and a tremendously overweight cat.
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Ann Wallace
October 1996
Thesis: Women With Cancer: Writing their Way Out of Abjection
Committee: Harriet Davidson
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Amy Weintraub
October 2002
Practicum: Women Aware, Inc.
Committee: Particia Roos, Mary Hawkesworth, Joanna Regulska
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Johanna Willems
October 2000
Practicum: The National Council for Research on Women, Or: What 'Global' Means in the Daily Work of a Feminist Organization
Committee: Joanna Regulska, Judith Gerson, Jennifer Jones
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Tara Wisniewski
May 2005
Practicum: Center for Reproductive Rights
Committee: Samira Kawash, Arlene Stein, Beth Hutchison
Tara Wisniewski graduated with a Master’s from the Women’s and Gender Studies Department in May 2005. She had begun work at the Center for Reproductive Rights in Feb 2001 as a Development Associate and was promoted to Foundation Relations Manager in January 2005. In addition to this work, she also as a husband and a 7-year old daughter.
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Terry Elizabeth Woodruff
October 2006
Essay: Writing the Body in Literature and Art
Committee: Mary Hawkesworth, Harriet Davidson, Elizabeth Grosz,
In the spring of 2001 Elizabeth graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington with a BA in Global Development Studies. Eager to apply a critical feminist lens to areas of inquiry imbued in analyses of commodification, power, and resistance Elizabeth began work in the Womenxs and Gender Studies Department at Rutgers as a member of the first incoming class of Ph.D. students in the fall of 2002. Since Elizabeth decided to pursue an M.A. degree and received it in October. Her area of sustained study is the corporeality of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Elizabeth is explored the possibility that material bodies will manifest dissent to dominant institutional contradictions and political processes somatically before there exists the language to express that dissent through verbal articulation. She began field-work in Mexico in the summer of 2004 supported by a grant from the North American Mobility Project. She is deeply committed to contributing to feminist writings on embodiment, especially as they relate to theories of resistance and pedagogy. She has taught the W&GS; undergraduate introductory course, and a theory course. She is currently attempting to integrate her research interests and academic training with a career in radio journalism as a form of creative praxis. Elizabeth is the mother of a budding feminist; two-year-old River Woodruff. Political Activism: Intern and student organizer, Amnesty International; Volunteer work in Mexico and Nepal.
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Mayumi Yamasaki
January 2001
Practicum: Mentoring for Corporate Women
Committee: Jennifer Jones, Barbara Balliet, Mary Trigg
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Fu-Chia Yang
May 2002
Practicum: WOW's Café Theater
Committee: Mary Gossy, Mary Hawkesworth, Judith Gerson
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Ellen Yeagle
May 2001
Thesis: Feminist Constructions of Subjectivity
Committee: Leela Fernandes, Sarah Rosenfield, Jennifer Jones
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Ruth Dill Johnson Crockett Building