About the authors
Sonja Andrews (she/her/they): I am originally from Miami, Florida. I earned a BA in History with a minor in Women and Gender Studies from Georgia Regents University (now Augusta University) in 2015. In 2018 I earned a Master of Divinity Degree from Duke Divinity School with a concentration certificate in Gender, Sexuality, Theology and Ministry and African American Studies. Currently I am pursuing a PhD in Humanities with a concentration in Africana Women’s Studies at Clark Atlanta University. I have presented at several conferences, including: Just Space (Duke University), Planet Deep South (Clark Atlanta University), National Association of African American Studies (Atlanta, Georgia), and the National Council of Black Studies (Dallas, Texas).
Dr. Carrie N. Baker (she/her/they): Originally from Connecticut, I am a Professor in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College. I have a BA (’87) in philosophy from Yale University, a JD (’94) from Emory University School of Law, and an MA (’94) and a PhD (’01) from Emory University’s Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. I have published The Women’s Movement Against Sexual Harassment (Cambridge University Press, 2007), Fighting the US Youth Sex Trade: Gender, Race and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2018), and co-authored Sexual Harassment Law: History, Cases, and Practice (Carolina Academic Press, 2020). I write regularly for Ms. magazine and am co-chair of the Ms. Committee of Scholars. I am also part of the Women’s Media Center SheSource and the Scholars Strategy Network.
Dr. Michele Tracy Berger (she/her/hers): I am from New York City. I earned my BA (’91) at Bard College, Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies (‘95), and PhD from the University of Michigan in Political Science (‘98). I am an Associate Professor in Women’s & Gender Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am author and co/editor of several books, including Workable Sisterhood: The Political Journey of Stigmatized Women with HIV/AIDS; The Intersectional Approach: Transforming the Academy Through Race, Class and Gender; and Transforming Scholarship: Why Women’s and Gender Studies Students Are Changing Themselves and the World. Inheriting Health: African American Mothers and Adolescent Daughters on Wellness, Sexuality, and HIV will be published in 2021 by NYU Press. I served as Vice-President of the National Women’s Studies Association from 2010-2014.
Dr. Amy Bhatt (she/her/hers): I am from Philadelphia, PA. I earned my BA (‘02) in Women’s Studies and Political Science from Emory University. After graduating, I worked for Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington, D.C. In 2004, I began my PhD in the Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies Department at the University of Washington Seattle. I graduated in 2011 and joined the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies Department, where I earned tenure in 2017. I am the co-author/author of two books, the co-chair of the South Asian American Digital Archive’s Academic Council, and was recently the curator for Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation at Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry.
Nicole Carter (she/her/hers): I was born in Dallas, Texas but grew up in Kirkland, WA. I earned my BA in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies and Community Psychology in 2020 at the University of Washington in Bothell. I was a peer facilitator for Dr. Julie Shayne in a course where students designed a zine titled Badass Womxn in the Pacific Northwest. I co-presented with Professor Shayne about this project at the National Women’s Studies Association conference in San Francisco (2019). I plan on attending graduate school to become a mental health counselor. I am also known as GWSS’s unofficial artist and baker.
Melinda Chen (she/her/hers): I am a Taiwanese-American who grew up in NY/NJ and Taipei. I earned my BA in Global Liberal Studies from NYU (‘18) and an MA in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Kansas (‘20). I am presently a Dean’s Doctoral Fellow and Graduate Teaching Assistant in the PhD program at the University of Kansas. My research intersects sexual violence, queer theory, and East Asian feminisms, and I aim to queer anti-rape responses in transnational contexts to support survivors with marginalized identities. Along with my dissertation, I assist Professor Sarah Deer, J.D. on the Native Justice Project, a study that seeks to develop tangible changes to the tribal legal system for American Indian/Alaska Native women and Two Spirit (LGBTQ+) survivors.
Dr. Elena Tajima Creef (she/her/hers): I was born in Massachusetts, and grew up in Southern California where I navigated my way through the University of California system and graduated from UC Riverside (BA, English), UC Santa Barbara (MA, English), and UC Santa Cruz (PhD, History of Consciousness). I have been teaching in Women’s and Gender Studies at Wellesley College since 1993 where I offer courses in everything from Asian Women in Film, The Multicultural American West, Techno-Orientalism, to Elvis Presley and 1950s America. I have written a couple of books (in Asian American Cultural Studies), and am now working on a new project about The Return of the Lakota Horse Culture and am co-creating a Public Humanities podcast on how The Battle of Little Bighorn is remembered.
Dr. Kandace Creel Falcón (she/her/they): I was born in Kansas but grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I earned a BA in Women’s Studies from the University of Kansas (2004) and following graduation immediately pursued a PhD in Feminist Studies at the University of Minnesota (2010). After graduating I taught Ethnic Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies at Minnesota State University Moorhead, as the then first and only tenure-track, later tenured professor with a line in WGS. In 2019 I made the difficult decision to leave that position. My writing most pertinent to the themes of this book is: “Courageous Xicanas: Living Legacies of Comadrazgo in the Academy.” When I’m not tweeting or writing, I am painting. I most recently expanded my interdisciplinary feminist scholarly goals by attaining an AFA in Visual Arts.
Dr. Akosua K. Darkwah (she/her/hers): I am from Ghana. I earned a BA in Psychology and Sociology from Vassar College in 1996 and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002. Since then, I have been teaching in the Department of Sociology at the University of Ghana. I am an active member of the feminist collective at the University of Ghana. I joined the Development and Women’s Studies programme in my early years and co-wrote the initial funding grant for setting up the Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy. Between 2012 and 2016, I served as the Director and now participate in the activities of the Centre as an affiliate. I also served as an editorial board member for Gender & Society between 2014 and 2016. My research focuses primarily on Ghanaian women’s work.
Dr. Adrianna L. Ernstberger (she/her/hers): I was born in Monterey, CA. I earned a BA in History with a minor in Women’s Studies from the University of Alaska, Anchorage (2006), followed by an MA (2008) and PhD (2017) in History with a graduate certificate in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Purdue University. I have taught Women’s and Gender studies courses at multiple universities, including Butler University, and the University of South Carolina, Upstate. In 2018 I joined the faculty at Marian University as an Assistant Professor of History and the Director of Gender Studies. My work bridges feminist activism, women’s tertiary education, and feminist study abroad development. I recently published an article in the Journal of International Women’s Studies on the history of women’s and gender studies in Uganda.
Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall (she/her/hers): I am from Memphis, Tennessee and at sixteen, I entered Spelman College, majored in English and minored in secondary education. After graduating with honors (1966), I attended Wellesley for a fifth year of study in English and in 1968 entered Atlanta University to pursue an MA in English. In 1971, I returned to Spelman to teach in the English department. I completed a PhD at Emory University in the Institute of Liberal Arts (1984.) I am the founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center (1981), Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies, and Chair of Comparative Women’s Studies, all at Spelman College. I am author of many books, including the first anthology on Black women’s literature, Sturdy Black Bridges, co-edited with Roseann P. Bell and Bettye Parker Smith; Words of Fire; Gender Talk, coauthored with Johnnetta B Cole; and Still Brave, co-edited with Stanlie James and Frances Smith Foster. I am also the founding co-editor of Sage: A Scholarly Journal of Black Women which is devoted exclusively to the experiences of women of African descent.
Estephanie Guzman (she/her/hers): I was born in Wenatchee, Washington and lived there for two years, eventually moving north. I earned my BA in 2020 in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington Bothell. My future goals include going to graduate school and becoming a GWSS professor. While a student at UWB, I was an Interdisciplinary Arts & Science (IAS) Interdisciplinary Scholar and Peer Navigator at the Diversity Center. I am one of the contributors to and co-creators of Badass Womxn in the Pacifc Northwest, a zine made by students in Professor Shayne’s class “Rad Womxn in the Global South.” As part of that project, two other students and I co-created a video documenting the process, from idea to end-product.
Dr. Rosanna Hertz (she/her/hers): I am from Connecticut and went to Brandeis (BA, Philosophy & Sociology) and Northwestern (PhD, Sociology.) I have taught at Wellesley College since 1983, arriving after I received my PhD. At Northwestern I was a teaching assistant to one of the earliest Women’s Studies courses offered. Wellesley hired me to teach courses on families, work and gender, including “The Social Construction of Gender,” one of the few courses in those years centered on gender. After earning tenure in the sociology department, I was asked to chair Women’s Studies, moved to WGST in 1996, and am the current Chair. My books include: More Equal than Others: Women and Men in Dual-Career Marriages; Single by Chance, Mothers by Choice: How Women are Choosing Parenthood without Marriage and Creating the New American Family and a co-authored book, Random Families: Genetic Strangers, Sperm Donor Siblings, and the Creation of New Kin.
Dr. Judy Howard (she/her/hers): I was born in Waterville, Maine. I earned my BA (’69) at Cornell University, my MA (’77) from the University of Oregon, and my PhD (’82) in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I have spent my whole career at the University of Washington. I am now an Emeritus Professor in the Departments of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies and Sociology. I served as Chair of GWSS (then Women Studies) from 2001 to 2005. I then served as Divisional Dean of Social Sciences in the College of Arts & Sciences from 2005 until my retirement in 2017. I am the co-author of Gendered Situations, Gendered Selves: A Gender Lens on Social Psychology (Rowman & Littlefield, Rev., 2011), and have co-edited five volumes. I served as the Co-Editor of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society from 1995-2000.
Lori Loftin (she/her/they): I am originally from Tampa, Florida. I received my BA in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Mathematics from the University of Maine (Hearty Maine hello, black bears!) and my MA in Women’s Studies from San Diego State University (SDSU). I am currently the Assistant Director at the SDSU Women’s Resource Center. My research interests include university women’s and gender centers, sexual and domestic violence prevention, and gender inclusivity in feminist spaces.
Dr. Erika Márquez-Montaño (she/her/hers): I was born in Colombia and naturalized in the United States. I earned a BA in Law from Universidad Externado de Colombia, and an MA and PhD in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. I am an Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Program Director in the Sociology program at Universidad Icesi – located in Cali, Colombia. At Icesi, I have served as the director of the Gender Studies Program, and simultaneously I was the co-chair of the Latin American Studies Association’s Gender and Feminist Studies section. My current research focuses on gender equality in the context of higher education. Previous work includes my piece, “Colombia’s Gallery of Memory: Reexamining Democracy Through Human Rights Lenses,” published in Latin American Perspectives. I can be reached at emarquez@icesi.edu.co
Dr. Nicole Morse (they/them/theirs): Originally from Colorado and Vermont, I came to Florida Atlantic University’s School of Cinema and Media Studies after earning my PhD in Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago. At FAU, I am an Assistant Professor and Director of the Center for Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. My research and teaching focus on LGBTQ media studies and I have published in Feminist Media Studies, Porn Studies, and Jump Cut. My book Selfie Aesthetics: Seeing Trans Feminist Futures in Self-Representational Art is currently under review. Previously a filmmaker, my video essay on Transparent was included in the British Film Institute’s list of the best video essays of 2018.
Daniella Orias (she/her/hers): I hail from sunny Coral Springs, Florida. I am in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies MA program at Florida Atlantic University, where I am also a Teaching Assistant. I published an article in the FAU Undergraduate Research Journal with Dr. Jane Caputi entitled “Monoculture & Mono-woman: An Ecofeminist Critique” (2013). My main areas of interest are ecofeminism, literature/art/media, and queer theory.
Donielle “PacePoetry” Pace (she/her/hers): I am a performance poet from Houston, TX, and a mother of two teenage boys. I have a BA in English and an MA in Mass Communication from the University of Houston. Currently, I am pursuing my PhD in Humanities with a concentration in Africana Women’s Studies at Clark Atlanta University. For six years, I taught middle school English and served as an English adjunct professor at Houston Community College. As a performance poet, I have performed and spoken at several significant conferences and events such as the National Council of Black Studies Annual Conference (2020) and Removing the Mask 2020 Women’s Retreat. I am currently researching ancestral African technologies in the poetry of Black women performance poets.
Dr. Cheryl Radeloff (she/her/hers): I was born in Dayton, Ohio. My BA in Popular Culture and Women’s Studies (1996) is from the University of Toledo and I earned my PhD in Sociology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2004. My dissertation explored the development of mandatory testing laws for legal and non-legal sex workers in the state of Nevada. I am currently a Senior Health Educator with the Southern Nevada Health District Office of Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance. In addition, I am also an adjunct professor of Sociology at UNLV as well in Women’s Studies at the College of Southern Nevada. I am the co-author of both the first and second editions of Transforming Scholarship: Why Women’s and Gender Studies Students Are Changing Themselves and the World.
Carmen Rios (she/her/hers): I am a New Jersey born, Los Angeles-based freelance feminist writer, editor, and broadcaster who has spent the last decade creating and curating content that translates feminist theory and strengthens the feminist movement, and whose digital work has been taught in GWSS courses nationwide. I graduated with honors from American University in 2012 with a BA in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Public Communication. After graduation I went on to work as an editor at Ms. Magazine and Autostraddle; contribute writing to platforms like Bitch, DAME, Everyday Feminism, ElixHER, Feministing, GirlBoss, GrokNation and SIGNS on issues of gender, race, class and sexuality; launch the Webby-nominated intersectional magazine Argot; and produce and host feminist programs like Bitch Media’s Popaganda podcast, The Bossy Show podcast and the webseries Trigger Happy.
NaTasha Robinson (she/her/hers): I am a first-generation graduate student from Richmond, VA. I earned my BA in Sociology from Norfolk State University and an MA in Applied Sociology with a Women’s Studies graduate certificate from Old Dominion University. I am currently pursuing my PhD in Humanities with a concentration in Africana Women’s Studies at Clark Atlanta University. I have presented at several conferences and events, including, the National Council for Black Studies Annual Conference and Virginia Social Science Association Annual Conference. In addition, I’ve implemented community projects regarding sexual and domestic violence in Richmond, VA. As a “sophistiratchet” scholar-activist, I am dedicated to using my platform to cultivate activism, Black consciousness, bridging the gap between communities and academy, and uplifting the African diaspora.
Temperance Russell (she/her/hers): I was born in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and earned my BA in Communications and Women and Gender Studies from the College of Charleston. I earned my MA in Women’s Studies from San Diego State University (SDSU). For my thesis project, I focused on celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Women’s Studies Program at SDSU. I conducted oral history interviews of key figures who helped start and continue this fundamental program for the past 50 years.
Dr. Stephanie Sears (she/her/hers): I was born in Waterbury, Connecticut. I earned my BA in Religion at Spelman College (‘93). I earned both my Master of Theological Studies (‘99), and PhD in Religion from Emory University (‘08). My dissertation is titled “Spiritual Quest and Crisis in African American Liberative Writing: Seeking Complementarity, Generative Power and Constructive Agency through a Womanist Psychology and Religion Framework.” My current research investigates black women’s psychological and emotional health, focusing on musical healing paradigms, culture and religion. I teach classes in Africana Women’s Studies, Psychology and Religion. I am presently the Graduate Advisor of the Africana Women’s Studies Program and Assistant Professor of African Women’s Studies and Religion at Clark Atlanta University.
Dr. Julie Shayne (she/her/hers): I was born in Los Angeles. I earned my BA (‘93) & MA (‘95) in Women’s Studies from SF State University and my PhD in Sociology (2000) from UC Santa Barbara. My first job was at Emory University but my heart stayed on the west coast so I resigned and left the tenure track. I am a Teaching Professor in Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell, and co-founder, and Coordinator of our GWSS program. I am a passionate teacher and in 2019 was UWB’s recipient of the UW Distinguished Teaching Award. I am author/editor of three other books, most recently, Taking Risks: Feminist Activism and Research in the Americas, and committed to public scholarship, especially about GWSS.
Dr. Shereen Siddiqui (she/her/hers): I was born in New York but grew up in Southern California. I earned BAs in Sociology and Women’s Studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an MA in Sociology with a Graduate Certificate in Gender Studies from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. My first career was in College Student Affairs, and I have training and volunteer experience in violence prevention. Those experiences shaped me as an educator and led to my doctoral research on praxis in Women’s Studies. I earned my PhD in Comparative Studies from Florida Atlantic University in 2015, and in 2016, returned to California to pursue my passion as an Associate Professor of GWSS at Santiago Canyon College.
Brea Stevenson (she/her/hers): I am currently pursuing my PhD in Humanities with a concentration in Africana Women’s Studies at Clark Atlanta University. I am originally from Bakersfield, CA. I am a first generation college student and the beneficiary of a transformative HBCU experience at Howard University where I earned an MSW and BA in English and Criminal Justice. I was a McNair scholar as an undergraduate student and published research focused on African American Vernacular English. Most recently, I was the discussant for a book talk at the Planet Deep South Conference and co-presented “BREATHE, Stretch, Shake, and Let It Go: An Examination of Africana Women’s Mental Health and Wellness within the Africana Women’s Studies Program at Clark Atlanta University.” As a scholar-Activist, I am committed to the healing and wholeness of African diaspora.
Dr. Lourdes Torres (she/her/hers): I am from the Bronx, New York. I earned my BA at Stony Brook University (1981), MA (1983), and PhD from University of Illinois Champaign Urbana in (1987). I am the Vincent de Paul Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies and Affiliate Faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies at DePaul University. My research and teaching interests include sociolinguistics, Spanish in the US, and Queer Latinx Literature. I have written and co-edited several books, including Puerto Rican Discourse: A Sociolinguistic Study of a New York Suburb; Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism; and Tortilleras: Hispanic and the Latina Lesbian Expression, and am editor of the journal Latino Studies.
Sarah Valdez (she/her/hers): I am originally from New Milford, New Jersey. I am a senior working on my BA in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and English at the State University of New York at Albany, scheduled to graduate in December 2020. My interests include racial justice, Black feminism, and social equity. During my undergraduate career, I had the pleasure of being a part of the WGSS Teaching Collective, a cohort of undergraduate students who serve as facilitators for all WGSS 101 classes. I also had the opportunity to do community-oriented research through the Albany Birth Justice Storytelling Project, a collaborative research project that seeks to understand the pregnancy, birth, and early parenting experiences of people living in local areas impacted by racial disparities in birth outcomes. In my free time, I also write for my blog on Medium.
Dr. Luhui Whitebear (she/her/hers): I am an enrolled member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation and the Assistant Director of the Oregon State University Native American Longhouse Eena Haws. I completed my PhD in Spring 2020 through the Women, Gender, & Sexuality program at OSU. I also received my BS in Ethnic Studies, a second BS in Anthropology, and MA in Interdisciplinary Studies (WGSS, Ethnic Studies, and Queer Studies focus), all from OSU. I am a mother, poet, and Indigenous activist. My research focuses on Indigenous rhetorics, Indigeneity & reclaiming Indigenous identity/gender roles, missing & murdered Indigenous women, Indigenous resistance movements, and national laws & policies that impact Indigenous people. I am passionate about disrupting systems of oppression and creating positive change in society.
