WST - Women's Studies Times

Letter from the Director

Spring 09

By the time you receive this newsletter, the new administration of President Barack Obama will be three months old. Given the historically unprecedented nature of an Valentine African-American head of state, this is a very exciting time for the United States. Many parts of the world have also welcomed the new administration, because the policies of the past eight years were polarizing and unpopular, and not only in the Muslim world. To be sure, President Obama's administration faces daunting challenges, not least the mind-boggling debt and the severe economic crisis.

And there are so many other challenges, some of them heart-rending, such as the horrors perpetrated on women of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the context of that country's civil conflict. How will justice be served there, and what kind of moral leadership and financial assistance will the new American administration offer? Perhaps we can take some solace in the beautiful and intelligent poem read at the president's inauguration by Elizabeth Alexander:

I know there's something better down the road.

We need to find a place where we are safe.

We walk into that which we cannot yet see.
…

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air,

Any thing can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

Praise song for walking forward in that light.

In other news, the Women's Studies Program is very happy to report that we will be joined by three new joint-appointed faculty members in Fall 2009: Jennifer Freeman Marshall (ENGL/WOST), Marlo David (ENGL/WOST), and Cheryl Cooky (H&K/WOST). More information on our new colleagues is in the newsletter.

Enjoy the Spring.

Dr. Valentine Moghadam, Director

 

Highlights from this issue

Graduate Instructor Sherrema Bower presents a feature article on the significance of the election of President Barack Obama and his family for us. The article is based on interviews with Renee Thomas, Director of Black Cultural Center, and Dr. Venetria Patton, Director of African American Studies. (page 3)

Also, we present the profiles of the three new joint faculty members who will start in Fall 2009: Cheryl Cooky accepted a joint appointment in Health and Kinesiology and Women's Studies, while Marlo David and Jennifer Freeman Marshal accepted joint appointments in English and Women's Studies. (page 7)


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