A season of hard work and celebration: That is how the 1999-2000 academic year has seemed to those of us involved in the Center for Gender Studies.  In the fall, we welcomed the inauguration of a new academic program that is synergistic with the Center: The Minor in Women’s Studies.  Together, the Center for Gender Studies and the Women’s Studies Program co-sponsored a variety of events designed to highlight scholarship focused on gender and women.  We joined with the International Programs Office to bring in three speakers on women and gender in China, under the umbrella of Radford University’s Festival of Chinese Culture.  We pooled our efforts to arrange a concert by feminist folksinger and historian Gerri Gribi, who spent an evening delighting her RU audience with songs that revealed forgotten pieces of women’s history.  Our offices worked together to attract students to the study of gender-related issues, and our joint efforts increased the visibility of both programs.

     In April the Center hosted the Fifth Radford University Student Research Conference on Gender.  As usual, the conference drew participants from other institutions to our campus: a bus-load of students from the University of Virginia at Wise, an enthusiastic group from Roanoke College, faculty and students from Emory and Henry College, Virginia Tech, the University of Tennessee, and William Patterson University.  The discussions were lively; the presentations showed the effects of much diligence, insight, and heart.  Those of us who spent the day at the conference had the opportunity to listen to presentations on such diverse topics as views of power among women and men in India, artists’ portrayals of Joan of Arc, body image among college students, and images of gender in Greek mythology.  The keynote speaker, Connie Nicholas Carnes of the National Center for Child Advocacy, captured the emotions and intellect of her audience with her multi-media presentation on issues surrounding child abuse.  More than one student later wrote to me emphatically that they would never forget that presentation.

     We at the Center have our work cut out for us in the coming summer and academic year.  A research grant received this year from the Saint Albans Foundation has given us the resources to expand our work on gender and academic self-views.  Titled Gendered Dreams, Gendered Fears: Young Women’s and Young Men’s Views of their Future Selves, the project focuses on the exploration of the pushes, pulls, and obstacles that female and male students experience as they make academic decisions that affect their future.  Past research carried out at the Center has demonstrated an enduring pattern of gender-stereotyped self-views, with young women showing less confidence and interest than young men in the possibility of pursuing future studies in fields such as mathematics, physical sciences, and business, and young men showing less confidence and interest in areas such as writing and working with people.  With this grant, we will be working to discover some of the specific events, ideas, and anxieties that underlie this gender-differentiated pattern of self-views.

As usual, there are many people to thank for the year’s successes.  I am grateful to the staff of the Radford University Foundation for their support and assistance in applying for and obtaining the research grant.  I thank the co-chairs of the Center’s annual fundraising campaign and all the Friends of the Center who contributed to it.  I deeply appreciate the efforts of the faculty members who served on the Center’s Advisory Board and those who supported their students’ participation in our conference, and of the students and volunteers who worked with the Center on research projects or on preparing for the conference.  Finally, many thanks to the Center’s tiny, overworked, and very efficient staff: our graduate assistant and our computer and web page consultant.  The Center has flourished this year because of the efforts and commitment of these individuals.

Hilary Lips
Director

This Year’s Activities

Presentations Sponsored by the Center:

Dr. Kimberly Chang, Associate Professor of Social Sciences, Hampshire College.  Gender, Guanxi, and Power: Women Entrepreneurs in China’s Socialist Market Economy.  The presentation was co-sponsored by the Office of International Programs,  the Center for Gender Studies, and the Women’s Studies Program, January 19, 2000.                     

Dr. Xiaomei Chen, Associate Professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature, Ohio State University.  The Representation of Women in Chinese Theater.  The presentation was co-sponsored by the Office of International Programs, the Center for Gender Studies, and the Women’s Studies Program, February 24, 2000.

Dr. Esther Ngan-Ling Chow, Professor of Sociology, American University.  The Impact of Economic Reform on Work and Family in China.  The presentation was co-sponsored by the Office of International Programs, the Center for Gender Studies, and the Women’s Studies Program, March 16, 2000. 

Gerri Gribi, Freelance Artist/Folk Musician.  A Musical Romp Through Women’s History.  The presentation was sponsored by the Center for Gender Studies and the Women’s Studies Program, March 21, 2000.  Support was provided by the Scholarly Lectures Committee. 

Connie Nicholas Carnes, Clinical Director for the National Children’s Advocacy Center in Huntsville, Alabama.  Empowering Families Touched by Abuse.  Keynote address at the Fifth Annual Radford University Student Research Conference on Gender, April 8, 2000.  Support was provided by the Scholarly Lectures Committee. 

The Eleanor Kemp Award:

A fund to encourage and support undergraduate research and scholarship has been established in memory of Dr. Eleanor E. Kemp.  Dr. Kemp was a dedicated professor of psychology at Radford University for many years, and was a founding member of the Center for Gender Studies.  This year,  one award was presented in a brief ceremony at the Student Research Conference on Gender. 

Dr. Marie Waters, who was responsible for initiating the awards, made the presentation.  Congratulations to the Kemp Award recipient of 1999-2000: Michelle Rice.  The title of Michelle Rice’s research project was “Female College Students and Perceived Relationship Problems in Powerful Roles.”  She presented her findings from this project at the Southeastern Psychological Association Conference, March 31, 2000, and at the Radford University Student Research Conference on Gender.

Presentations of the Center’s Research:

            Fancher, G. N. (2000, April).  Adolescent Student Self-Assessment of Possible Academic Selves.  Paper presented at the Fifth Annual Student Research Conference on Gender, Radford University.

            Freedman-Noa, S. A. (2000, March).  Harsh judgements and sharp impressions: Audience responses to participants in a study of heterosexual feminist identities.  Paper presented as part of symposium on Researching Sensitive Topics: A Personal View, at the annual meeting of the Association for Women in Psychology, Salt Lake City, UT. 

            Hudson, G. (2000, March).  Media violence and its disempowering effects on women.  Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Women in Psychology, Salt Lake City, UT.

            Lips, H. M. (2000, March).  Discussant for symposium on Researching Sensitive Topics:  A Personal View, at the annual meeting of the Association for Women in Psychology, Salt Lake City, UT. 

            Murthi, M. & Painter, A. (2000, March).  Influences of gender and experiences on perceptions of powerful people.  Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, New Orleans, LA.

            Murthi, M. & Painter, A.  (2000, April).  Influences of gender and experiences on perceptions of powerful people.  Poster presented at the Fifth Annual Student Research Conference on Gender, Radford University.

            Murthi, M.  (2000, April). The powerful self: Perceptions of professional men and women in India.  Paper presented at the Fifth Annual Student Research Conference on Gender, Radford University. 

            Rice, M.  (2000, April) Educational environment and its effects on college women’s ratings of relationship problems in powerful roles.  Paper presented at the Fifth Annual Student Research Conference on Gender, Radford University. 

            Rice, M & Fancher, G. N..  (2000, March).  Female college students and perceived relationship problems in powerful roles.  Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, New Orleans, LA.

Publication:

            Lips, H. M..  (2000).  College students’ visions of power and possibility as mediated by gender.  Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24, 37-41.

 Research grant:

            Gendered Dreams, Gendered Fears: Young Women’s and Young Men’s visions of their Future Selves (Saint Albans Foundation).  .

            People Who Kept the Center Going in 1999-2000

Director: Hilary M. Lips

Graduate Research Assistants: Ellen Wrisley        (Fall Semester)

                                                  Johanna Trumbull (Spring Semester)

Student members of the research group: G. Nathan Fancher,  Meera Murthi, Angela Painter, Michelle Rice

Advisory Board: Dr. Mary Atwell, Dr. Ann Elliott, Linda Farynk, Dr. Dianne Friedman, Dr. Alastair Harris, Dr. Hilary Lips, Dr. Dorothy Mercer,  Dr. Nora Reilly, Dr. Lynn Saubert

Conference Planning Committee: Pam Alexander, Mary Atwell, Rashada Cherry, Ann Elliott, Linda Farynk, Hilary Lips, Dottie Mercer, Michelle Rice, Erica Taylor, Johanna Trumbull

Co-chairs of the Friends of the Center Campaign: Marie Waters and Jo Alderman

Friends of the Center for Gender Studies: Ms. Jo Alderman, Dr. Jill Alcorn, Ms. Jane Francis Bolin, Dr. Jeffrey L. Chase, Dr. Alastair Harris, Ms. Eleanor Harris, Dr. Robert W. Hiltonsmith, Dr. Diane M. Hodge,  Mr. James Hughes, Dr. Jan N. Hughes, Ms. Marcelline J. Hutton, Ms. Brenda Lott, Dr. J. Kendall Lott, Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Majoy, Ms. Carolyn L. Matthews, Dr. Curtis S. McKee, Ms. Cynthia Louvenia Mikoychik, Dr. Nancy W. Morehouse,  Dr. Nora Reilly, Dr. Frank Scott, Dr. Paula H. Stanley, Dr. Janet Wagner, Dr. Marie Waters, Ms. Lauren Kimberly Young. 

Web page: Wayne Andrew