Alma College faculty, Dr. Chih-Ping Chen and Dr. Joanne Gilbert, along with women's studies students, attended the Annual Conference for the Michigan Women's Studies Association this April. The theme for this year's conference was "Feminist Grassroots Activism and the Academy: Theory in Action. " The group traveled to Oakland University to present on the topic of "Integrating Activism into Women's Studies Courses and Student Performance."
Alma’s innovative PRISM project—Positive Routes Into Science and Mathematics—gets more students excited about science. It engages students in research opportunities not only in their first, second, third and fourth years of college but also in the summer prior to taking their first college course. PRISM is funded by a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.
Buddy Scarborough
Graduation: 2009
Major: Sociology
Minor: Women’s Studies
Prior to an “eye-opening freshman year,” Buddy Scarborough ’09 had never thought about the lived experiences of women. Once he started reading about the concepts of gender and social construction, however, he says he couldn’t get enough.
“The more I learned and understood, the more I wanted to be active in breaking down these constructs,” he says. “I broke down my own perceptions and actions and saw how the things I do on daily basis perpetuate or disintegrate restrictive constructions of gender.”
