A Letter from Hope College’s Women’s Empowerment Organization–a Student Club
Dear WEO Community, The Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade weighs heavily on my heart. After taking a few days to process, I feel it is appropriate to release a statement to the community regarding my, and the Women’s Empowerment Organization’s, stance on the matter. The overturning of Roe does not only affect the right to get an abortion. It threatens our bodily autonomy, our humanity, and our freedom. We must understand the greater implications that this ruling will have on the lives of all women.
WEO以作为一个交叉的女权组织而自豪。这意味着我们为所有人的自由而战。这包括跨性别女性和男性、有色人种女性、酷儿女性和非二元性别人群。除非所有女性都受到保护,否则女权主义就不是女权主义。黑人女权主义者贝尔·胡克斯写道:“只要女性还在利用阶级或种族权力支配其他女性,女权主义的姐妹情谊就无法完全实现。”争取权利需要包括所有妇女,否则会使情况变得更糟。为所有女性而战的一部分包括支持堕胎。支持堕胎和支持堕胎是不同的。支持堕胎意味着你相信女性有权选择她们自己的身体发生了什么,即使这与你为自己做出的选择不同。贝尔再次完美地表达了这一点:“赋予女性控制自己身体的公民权利是女权主义的基本原则。 Whether an individual female should have an abortion is purely a matter of choice. It is not anti-feminist for us to choose not to have abortions. But it is a feminist principle that women should have the right to choose.”
In short, we want Reproductive Justice. This term was coined by a group of Black women in Chicago in 1994. According toblackradicals.com, “Reproductive Justice is the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.” Anne Lamott, another social justice writer says, “As a Christian and a feminist, the most important message I can carry and fight for is the sacredness of each human life, and reproductive rights for all women are a crucial part of that. It is a moral necessity that we not be forced to bring children into the world for whom we cannot be responsible and adoring and present. We must not inflict life on children who will be resented; we must not inflict unwanted children on society.” Roe protected our right to choose, but ultimately, we deserve much more than this. We deserve the right to choose, the right to make other decisions about our own bodies, have the ability to keep our health private, and to have our humanity recognized. While we are focused on the abortion aspect of the Supreme Court ruling, all of these things are now threatened.
WEO wants to make it clear that we stand with ALL women and offer a safe place for those struggling with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. I have listed below some additional readings and ways to get involved in the fight for reproductive freedom. We have lost this battle, but we will not lose the war on reproductive rights.
Nina Cuthrell President of Women’s Empowerment Organization
Favale began the lecture by introducing two paradigms that she called the “gender paradigm” and the “Genesis paradigm.” In her discussion of the gender paradigm, she shared research that she had done around the history of the word gender. She shared works from John Money, discussions of second wave feminism, and perspectives from Judith Butler on gender. After providing this brief overview, she stated, “The concept of gender has been helpful, but it has driven a wedge between body and identity.” I find this statement interesting because I don’t disagree, but I also do think that the rest of this lecture could have gone a different direction to try to understand how to find our bodily identity in God. Instead she used this point to make an argument for the Genesis paradigm, where we are to build our bodily identity in our male or female-ness.
当谈到大部分经文时,我们看到没有多少是非黑即白的,同样的情况也适用于性别。我知道我们每个人都有不同的观点,我认为这应该被纳入希望学院和所有学术/宗教领域的讨论。然而,当一个选择被认为是优越的或唯一的选择时,我认为我们应该后退一步,记住并不是每个人都是天主教信仰的追随者。通过以黑人或白人的结构来展示她的观点,我认为在我们讨论如何定义性别时,它会引发更多的分歧。我们开始站队,忘记了还有其他的方式来指代它。当我进一步反思这件事时,我对圣本笃学院决定举办这次讲座的方式感到不安。法维尔博士的讲座结束后,有一个问答环节,听众可以向她提出与讲座有关的问题,让她回答。这些问题被提交给圣本尼迪克特研究所的执行主任奥尔蒂斯博士,由他从法维尔博士中做出选择,并向法维尔博士汇报。我提交了六个不同的问题。然而,只有两个关于她对女权主义的看法的“更安全”的问题呈现在她面前。 While I understand that there was a limited amount of time for questions, I think there should have been someone else who was not from the Saint Benedict Institute facilitating the Q&A session, in order to promote a more open and well-rounded discussion in which attendees do not feel their questions are being cherry-picked to avoid controversy.
我还发现法维尔博士对女权主义的定义是简化和不包容的。这次活动被宣传为是基督教和女权主义角度的思想,所以我提出的第一个问题是关于她作为女权主义者的观点。我写道:你怎么能认为你的女权主义观点是真正的女权主义,当它是如此排外?对此,她回答说,她是女性的女权主义者,她说:“如果女性纯粹是一种语言身份,那么我认为女权主义没有意义。”坦白地说,我被这种说法吓了一跳。在过去三年半的时间里,我一直在性别研究课上学习,我了解到女性主义中交叉性的重要性,它包容那些因社会经济地位、种族、民族、性取向和性别而被边缘化的社区。在我看来,法维尔博士对女权主义者的定义非常狭隘,仅仅基于“女人”这个词的语言学。“从我在霍普大学上的课来看,我已经非常清楚地意识到,作为一个女权主义者,不仅仅是想要挑战性别规范。While that is an important aspect of feminism, it is also crucial to acknowledge how this damaging system of patriarchal culture has affectedallpeople.
Ultimately, I feel as though I could say quite a bit about what else in Dr. Favale’s presentation did not reflect what I have learned these past three and a half years in my study of the intersection of gender studies and religion here at Hope. Despite the fact that I didn’t agree with Dr. Favale on some of her points about gender, I believe that discussing gender is an important conversation that should be ongoing and welcomed at Hope College. I am hopeful that there will be other lectures in the future about Christian thought on gender that will be holistic and open to a wider range of more difficult questions. I think it’s important to have more events that aren’t strictly limited to a specific ideology. Gender is not black and white and our views on it should be built off of more than one person’s ideas of it.
Sperais Hope College’s annual research magazine, a publication that highlights the scholarly accomplishments of Hope’s faculty. This year, the Women’s & Gender Studies program is thrilled to see the work ofDr. Lynn JapingaandDr. Sarah Kornfieldfeatured in this prestigious publication.
Dr. Lynn Japinga’s new bookFrom Daughters to Disciplesfeatures research that developed out of her WGS course on Christian feminism.
“I joke that stories about women are always about either sex, violence, or sexandviolence, but I think there’s a lot of substance and significance in these stories,” Japinga says. “People need to hear these stories, because reading about women and their struggles can make the Bible come to life in ways that it doesn’t if all you hear about is the men — even the heroic men.”
Dr. Sarah Kornfield’s research on television’s portrayals of #MeToo is a joint project with WGS MajorHannah Jones.他们一起分析了电视节目帮助结束性暴力的叙事和技巧。
“People’s sense of ‘normal,’ and thus ‘real,’ are significantly derived from the images and narratives they see in media entertainment,” Kornfield says. “Essentially, the time people spend watching television each daymatters.它塑造了我们的思维、假设和期望……为了带来治愈,美国文化需要就什么构成性暴力以及如何结束性暴力达成新的公开协议——没有什么比电视更公开了。”
During the 2019-2020 academic year, Hope College’s Women’s & Gender Studies students won several college-wide and academic awards. We are excited to celebrate WGS students’ accomplishments! Each student is featured with a photo of their choosing, the award they won, and a quote that inspires their feminist scholarship.
Madeleine Zimmerman (’20) won the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Scholars in the Arts and Humanities award and was awarded membership into the Phi Beta Kappa honors society. Maddie’s quote features the words of Audre Lorde–a black feminist, lesbian, poet activist.
“[W]e have been taught either to ignore our differences, or to view them as causes for separation and suspicion rather than as forces for change. Without community there is no liberation… But community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist.”
Audre Lorde
Emily Wolfe (’20) won the Excellence in Scholarship Award and the A.A. Raven Prize in Communication. Emily’s quote also features the words of Audre Lorde.
“Your silence will not protect you.”
Audre Lorde
Sage Mikkelsen won the Center for Ministry Studies Lilly Scholars award. Sage’s quote is the closing lines from black feminist scholar bell hooks’ famous book,Feminism is for Everybody.
Corri Zimmerman获得了James M. Zoetewey政治科学二年级图书奖。黑人女权主义学者bell hooks引用Corri的话关注的是交叉的女权主义。
“The process begins with the individual woman’s acceptance that American women, without exception, are socialized to be racist, classist and sexist, in varying degrees, and that labeling ourselves feminists does not change the fact that we must consciously work to rid ourselves of the legacy of negative socialization.”
bell hooks
格里尔·加德纳获得了戏剧系二年级奖。格里尔的这句话借用了一位伟大文学人物的声音。
“I intend to make my own way in the world.”
Jo March in Greta Gerwig’s (2019) rendition of Louisa May Alcott’sLittle Women
Gracyn Carter won the James M. Zoetewey Political Science Sophomore Book Award. Gracyn’s quote by Nigerian author and feminist advocate Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie highlights the role that people play in creating culture and the potential we have to create better lives for everyone.
“Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.”
“We Should All Be Feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Rev. Dr. Japingateaches a number of courses that are cross-listed between Religion and Women’s & Gender Studies at Hope College–and she teaches WGS 494 Keystone Seminar. But she might be best known on campus for her WGS cross-listed course, REL 264 Christian Feminism.
Grace Mitchell rendered her learning as a short story titledThe Prodigal Daughter.This story imagines sisterhood and community, contrasting cycles of insecurity with cycles of grace.
Grace Kennedy artistically rendered her learning through this artwork, “She, God’s Masterpiece.” This artwork incorporates quotes from feminist theologians and visually echo’s van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”
Katy Smith created apoetic videoto express women’s voices and history. Through prayer, dance, and poetry, Katy Smith celebrates the lineage and holy callings portrayed through the lives of biblical women and women from more recent history. Throughout, Katy calls upon God asEl Shaddai, a maternal name for God.
Riki Ediger’s artwork focuses on the way humans reflect God’s glory, depicting God as a black, queer, feminist woman. Riki describes her painting, saying, “She wears the pride flag on her shoulder to represent her queerness. She is depicted as naked to show her femininity and the vulnerability that goes along with that.” The globe’s symbolism is twofold: God is pregnant with the earth and she is holding the weight of the world. Riki doubled this imagery in order to “encompass what it means to be a woman and what it means to carry the weight of the world.”
Rachel Johnson featured her learning through aportfoliothat highlights the voices and ideas that most influenced her thinking. Her portfolio answers the intertwining questions, “Why would a self-respecting feminist be a Christian?” and “Why would a self-respecting Christian be a feminist?”
As these final course projects demonstrate, Rev. Dr. Japinga teaches her courses with the same creativity and expertise that led to her most recent book,Teaching the Women of the Old Testament.这本书是为任何有兴趣了解更多关于旧约中这些未被教授的部分的人准备的,特别是为那些可以学习将这些经文融入他们的讲道的牧师。
I (Hannah Jones, ’21) attended a screening of the filmForbidden Voiceson November 18, 2019, at the Knickerbocker Theater in downtown Holland. This event was sponsored by Hope College’s Markets & Morality students organization and co-sponsored by the Center for Global Engagement, Global Studies Program, Asian Studies Program, Phelps Scholars Program, Department of Political Science, Department of Religion, Women’s and Gender Studies Program, and a chapter of Engineers Without Borders.
Forbidden Voices着重讲述三位女性博主的故事Yoani Sanchezfrom Cuba,Zeng Jinyanfrom China, andFarnaz Seififrom Iran. The film is specifically interested in the ways that the Internet can be a platform for those who are silenced by oppressive governments. Sanchez, Jinyan, and Seifi have all used the Internet to draw attention to human rights violations in each of their countries. One of the most powerful aspects of the documentary was the way that it showed the consequences of speaking out in protest– Sanchez has been beaten and arrested, Jinyan has been forced into house arrest, and Seifi has been forced to leave her country.
After the film, WGS student Maddie Zimmerman hosted a talk-back. Before entering the theater, attendees were given a slip of paper with post-film discussion questions about our initial reactions to the film, the importance of free speech as it contributes to human flourishing, and how blogging is a powerful tool for women living in oppressive societies. We were encouraged to form small groups and discuss these questions before sharing our answers with everyone else.
The screening ofForbidden Voiceswas part of the NEA Big Read Lakeshore. This year, the Big Read chose Julia Alvarez’s booksIn the Time of the ButterfliesandBefore We Were Free, which was selected for middle-grade readers. These historical fiction books are set in the Dominican Republic during the Trujillo dictatorship that lasted from 1930-1961 and ended when he was assassinated. Although both accounts are fictional, they focus on themes of resistance and silence, and more specifically, speaking out when doing so is punished by the government.
The Little Read Lakeshore chose the children’s picture bookThe Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet!, written by Carmen Agra Deedy and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin. The theme of this book is similar to those written by Alvarez– when the mayor of the city of La Paz institutes a new law against singing, one rooster speaks up in protest.
The concept of speaking up for one’s self or for others when they are unable to do so has been an important and ongoing discussion in my WGS classes. It can be challenging to know how and when to speak up for others, but the Internet has emerged as a powerful tool for the oppressed to talk back. Various platforms– blogs, Twitter, and Facebook, among others– have been excellent resources for many women like Sanchez, Jinyan, and Seifi. Because voices on the Internet can be so easily shared, blogs and other platforms are able to reach an unprecedented number of people and do so quickly. This has created the opportunity for widespread, international attention to violations of human rights and free speech around the world. In societies in which women are not respected and valued as fully human, online tools give voices to those who have for so long been rendered voiceless.
Finding one’s voice during a time of political unrest and violence has been a theme in the Children’s and Young Adult Literature that I took this semester. As both an English and a WGS major, one of my favorite things is finding interdisciplinary connections. My class read Alvarez’s bookBefore We Were Freeand focused on the protagonist’s journey to use diary-keeping as a tool of resistance. Anita, the protagonist, begins her diary as a way to leave a record that will help others who are in hiding. She discovers the power of using words to document her trauma and gain control over her voice. Towards the end of the book, Anita writes, “if I stop now, they’ve really won. They’ve taken away everything, even the story of what is happening to us” (Alvarez 124). Alvarez expands on this idea in the author’s note, writing, “the silencing of those who have lived in terror is not just an external thing; it’s also a way in which the whole self shuts down. Anita’s silence is symbolic of what is happening to her country” (177). Like Anita, Sanchez, Jinyan, and Seifi have used online writing as a tool of resistance during a time of intense oppression. This documentary, especially when paired with the Big Read, serves as a great testimony to the power of finding one’s voice when it is forbidden.
At the end of this module, students readGabi: A Girl in PiecesbyIsabel Quintero.这本书让学生们有机会读到一个成长故事,有力地将身体、身份和塑造女孩对自己身体的理解的经历编织在一起。
After reading this book, we were joined by Dr. Regan Postma-Montaño for a special round-table discussion as Dr. Postma-Montaño shared her experiences writing an analysis ofGabi,与赫苏斯博士合著Montaño。These Hope professors include their analysis ofGabiin their upcoming book,Tactics of Hope in Latinx Children’s and Young Adult Literature.
Discussing the power of literature to capture and convey difficult experiences, and to spark a sense of creativity and excitement, Dr. Postma-Montaño recommended some additional reading!
Research is the process of asking questions that have yet to be answered and then discovering the answer. Hope College is excited to welcome students into this process, teaching students the methods of research and supporting students as they discover answers to their own questions. Hope’sWomen’s & Gender Studiesstudents engage in research—studying how sexism affects people, examining and developing strategies for challenging sexism, and theorizing new models for social interactions that are free of oppression. Hope isranked 4th在美国新闻和世界报道的本科生研究,我们奖励我们的学生和教师之间的研究合作。事实上,女性与性别研究学院的教师们乐于帮助毕业生培养新知识,并将这些知识传播给我们当地和全球的社区。
今年夏天,林赛·海斯女士和莎拉·科恩菲尔德博士合作研究了莎拉·贝西是如何向美国福音派教会宣扬耶稣女权主义的。This research began in the classroom where Lindsay Hayes learned the methods of critical research and applied them to study Sarah Bessey’s featured sermon, “Bearing the Image: Jesus Feminist.” Then Hayes and Kornfield decided to collaborate over the summer, developing this project further and preparing it for publication.
Bessey concludes her sermon with a prophetic prayer. “I pray for women who are dreamers and schemers. That women here would live just a little bit outside that ‘good Christian Lady’ box and I pray somebody would clutch their pearls over you. I pray for spiritual midwives in your life: Women who will breathe alongside of you as you are giving birth to the new you, over and over and over again. I pray that you would have friends and mentors and pastors and leaders and preachers and policymakers and poets and prophets, moms and a few saucy aunties.”
WGS in Review: Reflections from the Interim Director
by Kendra R. Parker
We have had a busy academic year in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, and I have been pleased to serve as the interim director for the Spring 2019 semester.
It is only fitting, then, that our last blog post of the 2018-2019 academic year offers some of our Program’s highlights. Check out our infographic for a snapshot. Want additional details or to know our plans for next academic year? Scroll down for more!
In Review: WGS 2018-2019
Our2019 Phi Beta Kappa recipient她是Nina D. Kay,主修女性与性别研究和艺术史,辅修创意写作。妮娜在霍普的成绩很好,无论是在课堂内外。Nina is a Mellon Scholar, the founder and past president of the Women’s Empowerment Organization, and a co-director of Hope’s 2019 Vagina Monologues production. Additionally, Nina is therecipient of several awardsincluding the 2017 Recipient of Arts & Humanities Dean’s Award for Research and the2016年度史蒂芬森写作奖得主。The latter wasawarded for her fall 2015 essay, “Bowing to No One: Black Feminism in Frances E.W. Harper’s ‘Vashti’ and Janelle Monae’s ‘Q.U.E.E.N.’” Nina’s research interests in children’s media led to a national presentation at theSouth Atlantic Modern Language Association会议将于2017年11月召开。祝贺你,妮娜!
This academic year, WGS co-sponsored2 Panel Discussions.In October, WGS Program was one of several co-sponsors for “A Civil Dialogue on Abortion,” a two-person panel featuring philosophers Dr. Jack Mulder (Hope Philosophy) and Dr. Bertha Manninen.
In January, WGS co-sponsored and organized three-week series withS.T.E.Pand the Communication Department to educate Hope’s campus about sexual assault, provide historical context for contemporary discussions, and offer safe spaces for discussion. The three-week series began with the screening ofConfirmation(2016), and the second event was a moderated faculty and staff panel. The final event was a small group discussion series. Special thanks go out to Dr. Marissa Doshi, Christian Gibson, and Dr. Sarah Kornfield for their work in organizing the event series.
In early April, we hosted Sara Wachter-Boettcher, author ofTechnically Wrong(2016). In addition to her lecture, “Inclusive Design, Ethical Tech, and All of Us,”(reviewed by Gracyn Carter)Sara dined with two WGS faculty and several students enrolled in WGS 200. They enjoyed a candid dinner conversation and got a sneak peek at some of her insights for her lecture.
The third speaker, Crystal Carr, a Ph.D. Candidate in Biopsychology at the University of Michigan, spoke on “A Novel Model of Cocaine Addiction.” Part of Carr’s presentation included a discussion of sex differences in cocaine addiction (among mice), and students were fascinated with the results.
Four WGS majors/minorsparticipated in the 2019 Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity held on Friday, April 12, 2019, in DeVos Fieldhouse.
Hannah Barnes, “Disability in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction”
Ester Fletcher, “The Alternative Black Girl in Popular Culture: An Examination”
Cadence Jones, “Hysteria: A Look at Sexism in Medicine”
Kamryn Ramsay, “Legalized Abortion and Women’s Health: The True Defender of Life”
For the 2018-2019 academic year,5 faculty publishedarticles and books. Check out the list below!
Dr. Marissa J. Doshi, “Barbies, Goddesses, and Entrepreneurs: Discourses of Gendered Digital Embodiment in Women’s Health Apps”
Doshi,“Hybridizing National Identity: Reflections on the Media Consumption of Middle-Class Catholic Women in Urban India.“
Dr. Sarah J. Kornfield, “Speaking in the Language of White Women: Second- and Third-Wave Metaphors”
Dr. Kendra R. Parker,She Bites Back: Black Female Vampires in African American Women’s Novels, 1977-2011
Dr. Jeanne Petit, “’We Must Not Fail Either the Church or the Nation’: Mobilizing Laywomen in the World War I United States.”
We honored8 Graduating Seniorsat the 2019 Senior Celebration “Brinner,” held Monday, April 29, 2019, at Haworth Inn.
今年,即将毕业的学生们从WGS老师策划的8份礼物清单中选择了自己的图书礼物。他们选择的书?
Living a Feminist Life(Sara Ahmed)
Thick: And Other Essays(Tressie McMillan Cottom)
Essential Essays: Culture, Politics, and the Art of Poetry(艾德丽安丰富;edited by Sandra Gilbert)
Written on the Body: Letters from Trans and Non-Binary Survivors of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence(edited by Lexie Bean)
The Meaning of Freedom: And Other Difficult Dialogues(Angela Davis)
Below is a photo gallery of the 2019 Senior Celebration, featuring guests, students, and faculty (current and emeritus).
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In a new move this year, Hope’s Day of Giving allowed for donors to give to their areas of choice, and we are so thankful for our9 Day of Giving Donors! Thank you for giving to the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.
Last, but not least, we showcased10 Interviewson our blog. Did you miss the interviews? No worries! They are hyperlinked below for your convenience.
On behalf of the WGS Program, I’d like to thank the 7 WGS alumni who offered interviews for our blog. Your insight and experiences are invaluable, and I thank you for contributing to the life of the program. Your blogs were also quite important for incoming students. Dr. Sarah Kornfield, who hosted admitted student day, remarked, “[the alumni interviews] made it so easy to put together brief alumni profiles and show a range of careers and applications of WGS.”
Looking Back, Looking Forward: Final Remarks
当我们回顾这个学年的时候,可以肯定地说这是一场旋风;we completed an external review;我们有好几位演讲者;我们在博客上展示了学生的见解;我们庆祝科恩菲尔德博士的任期和晋升等等。所以,接下来是什么?除了我们的秋季课程(如图所示),我们还有一门新的课程正在向你招手。
In Spring 2020, Dr. Marissa Doshi will offer a new 300-level course: WGS 395. WGS 395, or “Transnational Feminisms:From Allies to Accomplices,” will meet on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridaysfrom 9:30-10:20 AM.
And still, there’s more. The “what’s next?” question also warrants a personal response from me:
随着我辞去WGS的临时主任一职,我也离开了希望学院;世界杯荷兰vs厄瓜多尔走地我将加入位于乔治亚州萨凡纳的南乔治亚大学阿姆斯特朗校区的文学系。我期待着新的机会,我也带着WGS项目、WGS同学和WGS校友的智慧和美好回忆。To each of you, I tip my proverbial hat.