Thanks to all of the students, staff and faculty that made the 2013-2014 a wonderful year!
You may have noticed that the SBAI blog has been fairly quiet over the past couple of weeks. We have been busy gearing up for summer: sending off our senior students, tying up the loose ends from spring semester, preparing for our annual “If I Had a Camera…” photo exhibit, and inviting into our classroom the eight wonderful students who are participating in the Rocxxy Summer Internship Program in Feminist Activism and Leadership (more on them soon!)
Last weekend, Sunday May 18, we celebrated commencement in the Welles-Brown Room with a small, but lovely, ceremony.
Serenity Sutherland receiving her Graduate Certificate from Jennifer Creech
While this year we had no graduating majors, we were pleased to send off three Women’s Studies minors: Alyson Baker, Mara Hyatt, and Katie Adams. As Director Honey Meconi says, “SBAI minors are just majors in waiting.” We believe that a student chooses to minor in Women’s Studies only because they are unable to fit the major into their schedule, or they already have too many majors! We can count on Women’s Studies students to be incredibly active both in the classroom and the community.
Katie Adams and Marie-Joelle Estrada
In addition to receiving her minor certificate, Katie Adams also received the SBAI award for Independent Research, an annual award presented to the student who has completed the best undergraduate research project in gender and women’s studies during the academic year. SBAI’s award was not the only recognition that Katie’s “A Study of Women’s Experiences With Hooking-Up” received. She also received the Deans’ Award for Social Science for this sophisticated and insightful research. Congratulations, Katie!
Emily Sumner received the SBAI Community Connections Award, an annual award presented at to the student whose work in gender and women’s studies has contributed most significantly to the local campus or Rochester community during the academic year. This year, Emily co-founded the University of Rochester Survivor Empowerment Group (UR SEGway) which has been active in offering informational meetings for students to become better versed in issues relating to sexual assault and rape culture, as well as lectures and gatherings to discuss body positivity, how to combat gender-related violence in our society, how to promote consensual sexual activity, and more. This group successfully engaged a broad group of students and raised awareness on campus about these topics. We’re glad to have Emily for another year at the University of Rochester!
Angela Clark-Taylor, Jennifer Creech and Honey Meconi
We were so happy to award Graduate Certificates in Gender and Women’s Studies to SBAI’s Program Manager Angela Clark-Taylor who is a student with The Department of Educational Leadership at the Warner School of Education, and to one of our Graduate Conference Chairs, Serenity Sutherland, a student in The Department of History at the University of Rochester.
The Dissertation Award is awarded annually to the most distinguished dissertation in gender and women’s studies at the University of Rochester. This year Rebecca Burditt, a student in the Visual and Cultural Studies Program and a beloved adjunct professor here at the SBAI, was our honored recipient.
Congratulations to all of you! We wish all of our students the best of luck and invite you to stay in touch!
