News and Announcements

WGS Faculty member Jeanette Jones' research on representations of Africa and cultural and intellectual reponses to them and her soon to be published book, "In Search of Brightest Africa: Imagining Africa in America, 1884-1936" were featured in an article in the Scarlet.

WGS faculty member Amelia Montes will read from her new book "Who Would Have Thought It" at 2:00pm at the Bennett Martin Public Library, 136 S. 14th Street, Lincoln. The reading will also be aired on the Lincoln government access channel, 5 City TV.

WGS faculty member Chantal Kalisa took a class of UNL students to Rwanda from July 12-25. A articles about the trip is available on the Scarlet website: scarlet.unl.edu and on the Daily Nebraskan website dailynebraskan.com.

An endowed scholarship fund has been established in honor of professor emeritus Louis Crompton a longtime English professor at UNL and an early leader in gay and lesbian studies. For more information go to www.nufoundation.org/crompton or call 458-1156.

Serving as a a representative of the Women and Gender Studies' Transnational Feminism group, Carrie Walker attended the Commission on the Status of Women Conference at the United Nations in New York from February 28th - March 7th, 2009. The CSW is dedicated exclusively to gender equality and the advancement of women. Representatives from member states gather to identify problems and issues affecting women internationally. CSW meetings are typically attended by thousands of women affiliated with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world. Along side the official discussions and reports, these NGOs sponsor hundreds of "side events" such as panels, workshops and performances addressing local and international issues affecting women.

The Women's and Gender Studies program has received a two-year grant from the University of Nebraska's Kelly Funds to improve teaching. We won the grant for our proposal, "Developing Cross-Cultural Competencies in Global Womens Rights And Transnational Feminism." This fall, we have formed a team of about fifteen faculty and graduate students who are meeting with consultants, developing a speaker series and study abroad opportunities, and creating a team-taught interdisciplinary class on Transnational Feminism and Global Womens Rights.

The annual No Limits Conference will be held at UNO. The theme will be "Feminisms, the Environment, and New Media," and the conference will take place from March 6-7. More information and call for papers is forthcoming. Student presentations on any topic related to women's and/or gender studies are welcome.

WGS faculty member Wendy Weiss is currently in India on a Fulbright scholarship. Upates of Wendy's trip are availlable at: cehs15.unl.edu

Mary Anne Holmes (Geosciences) applied for and received for the university a $3.8 million ADVANCE grant from the National Science Foundation to develop programs for recruiting, promoting and retaining female faculty in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The number of women faculty in UNL's STEM fields is below the national average. The goal of UNL's project is to ensure that applicant pools for jobs in these areas match or exceed the percentage of women who earn doctoral degrees in those disciplines. For more information on ADVANCE-Nebraska, visit http://advance.unl.edu/.