Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
at Miami University
Welcome to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies!
Dear Friends:
Autumn means a new year for our academic program, and we are gearing up for some exciting events. Our personnel are a little different—Director Madelyn Detloff is on a research leave for the fall. Former Directors Ann Fuehrer and Sally Lloyd are acting Co-Directors; they are available to answer questions and make connections. In some ways, the academic year didn’t stop over the summer—in August, Ann Fuehrer, along with Kelly Quinn in American Studies, offered our first study-away workshop, Local/global Food and Communities. Over the course of 10 intensive days, 8 faculty and students visited local farms, social service agencies, retail outlets, wetlands, and a landfill, to build communities in service of responsible eating. Check out the photos! 
This workshop is part of a new thematic sequence, structured around summer engaged experiences. This is just one of a number of new initiatives we have pursued this past year. Most notably, we shifted from Women's Studies to a more inclusive identity of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGS). We now have 3 thematic sequences that build on our global foundation course, Introduction to Women's Studies (WGS 201), or on our new Introduction to GLBT Studies (WGS 202). Curricular changes are in process to increase the flexibility of our Women and the World (WGS1) thematic sequence. Last spring, we offered a successful section of WGS 201 exclusively for women who are members of sororities at Miami—we will offer a similar section next spring. We have increasingly emphasized the Social Justice orientation of our courses—WGS courses are featured prominently in the third track of the new major in Social Justice Studies.
A look at a number of the programs we are co-sponsoring [PDF] this year shows the diversity of our endeavors.
The heart of our Program is our faculty and students, and what they are doing. Recently, our core faculty and affiliates won significant awards from Miami: Sally Lloyd and Mary Jean Corbett, Women’s Leadership Awards; Kathleen Johnson, E. Phillips Knox Teaching Award; Charlotte Newman Goldy, Alumni Association Effective Educator; Nicholas Money, Sigma Xi Researcher of the Year; and Carolyn Haynes, Distinguished Service Award.
Academic awards are based on years of work and accomplishment. View a few of the projects [PDF] our faculty and students are currently exploring.
If you are interested in becoming involved in courses or research projects like these, you may want to consider majoring or minoring in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, or at least taking one of our courses. Employers are eager to have the skills our students acquire. A recent (2010) AACU survey of potential employers
[PDF], "Raising the Bar: Employers' Views on College Learning in the Wake of the Economic Downturn," that 65% of employers want colleges to place greater emphasis on the "ability to understand the global context of situations and decisions," and "global issues and developments and their implications for the future." At the same time, 57% of potential employers place a high value on their future employees' knowledge of "cultural diversity in American and other countries." In the areas of civic responsibility and integrative learning, an authoritative 75% of employers would like to see more emphasis on "the ability to connect choices and actions to ethical decisions," 52% value "civic knowledge, civic participation, and community engagement" and, significantly, 79% want their future employees to possess "the ability to apply knowledge and skills to real-world settings through "the ability to apply knowledge and skills to real-world settings through internships or other hands-on experiences." According to these data, the education provided by the WGS Program, with the strong emphasis we place on engaged learning, intercultural and civic awareness, and connecting theory with practice, is the wave of the future.
Browse our curriculum section on this website or stop into our Programs Office at 120 MacMillan Hall and pick up a brochure to learn more about how we are making these learning opportunities real for students at Miami. Check back here for news and information about our courses, co-curricular programs, student and faculty achievements, and further developments on the cutting edge of 21st century education.
For more information, please contact:
Programs Office
120 MacMillan Hall
Oxford, OH 45056
Phone: (513) 529-5333
Fax: (513) 529-1890
or
Director: Madelyn Detloff
126 MacMillan Hall
Oxford, OH 45056
Phone: (513) 529-4616
Email: detlofmm@MiamiOH.edu
Fax: (513) 529-1890Acting Co-Director & Chief Program Advisor: Ann Fuehrer
119 MacMillan Hall
Oxford, OH 45056
Phone: (513) 529-6827
Email: fuehrea@MiamiOH.edu
Fax: (513) 529-1890

Support the Program