Our academic year in review, 2020-2021

Photo Credit: Year in Review 20-21
July 15, 2021

During a challenging yet remarkable academic year, our faculty, students, and staff demonstrated grit by keeping our teaching, research, and service going strong. Here are some highlights.

Student Awards

Jordan Malzer earned the Outstanding Student Achievement Award for achievements in courses, research, and community activism.

She completed a UCARE project under the mentorship of Dr. Kelsy Burke that examined feminist perspectives on pornography and compared anti-pornography feminists' involvement in the 1980s sex-wars to current conversations. Jordan also had an internship at Friendship Home.

Jordan Malzer
Jo Schroer

Jo Schroer earned the Karen Dunning Undergraduate Award for the Planned Parenthood Instagram Infographic project that provided useful information and dispelled common myths about the organization.

Zaineb Saleh earned the Karen Dunning Graduate Award for the paper "Resisting the Eurocentric Through Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino: Hair Discourse Surrounding the Black Female Body," a compelling analysis of hair discourse surrounding the Black female body transatlantically, from Africa to America in both postcolonial and contemporary standards.

Zaineb Saleh
Lizzy Lavin

Lizzy Lavin earned the Melba Cope Scholarship and the Dr. Christine Black Undergraduate Scholarship. She has numerous accomplishments within this program and across campus.

She works in the Women’s Center and developed a podcast that covers local issues surrounding gender studies and helps to spread awareness of issues facing women in our community.

Clare Frances Kennedy earned the Dr. Christine Black Undergraduate Scholarship for numerous contributions to women's and gender studies.

She is a representative on the Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of Women and worked on an advocacy project promoting the University Health Center’s gynecologic care.

Clare Frances Kennedy

Graduation

Congratulations to those who finished degrees with undergraduate majors or minors (August 2020, December 2020, and May 2021) and graduate specializations (August 2020, December 2020, and May 2021).

Faculty Achievements

Christina Falci

Christina Falci (interim chair) earned the James A. Lake Academic Freedom Award, which recognizes efforts that have helped to preserve the freedom to seek and communicate the truth. The award was given by the Faculty Senate.

Katy Holland was nominated for the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program, and she was published in Psychology of Violence, Psychology of Women Quarterly, and Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy.

Katy Holland
Rose Holz

Rose Holz is a member of the working group "Practices and Social Relations of Obstetrical Objects" with the Consortium for History of Science, Technology, and Medicine.

She also participates in the "Creating Informed Learners in the Classroom" project, a partnership with University of Arizona and Purdue University.

Margaret Jacobs received the Charles Mach University Professorship, which represents an extraordinary level of scholarly or creative achievement, documented excellence in various aspects of teaching and outreach, and extensive involvement and service in the advancement of the university's mission.

Margaret Jacobs
Jeannette Jones

Jeannette Jones was selected for the Distinguished Visiting Scholars program at the University at Buffalo's Center for Diversity Innovation.

Emily Kazyak earned the College Distinguished Teaching Award for consistent excellence in teaching. One student said she is kind, attentive, reliable, prepared, and "a great force in the classroom".

She also edited a special issue of Journal of Lesbian Studies.

Emily Kazyak
Carole Levin

Carole Levin earned the Louise Pound-George Howard Distinguished Career Award for exceptional contributions through teaching, research, public service, or administration, reflecting a long-standing commitment to the university.

Jennifer Rome (Kruse) was published in Women's Studies in Communication.

Jennifer Rome

Events

Guest speaker and trans trailblazer Kate Bornstein gave the virtual lecture "On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us," on September 16, which was co-hosted by UPC Nebraska, the LGBTQA+ Resource Center, and the Women's Center.

Jeannette Jones and guest speaker Zakiya Luna of University of CA-Santa Barbara led the Zoom discussion "Say Their Names: Centering Black Women Activists in the Struggle for Justice" on October 12.

It examined the often-overlooked activism and leadership of women of color in the United States.

Say Their Names flyer
No Limits Conference flyer

The annual No Limits conference, featuring student research and creative activity, was held online on March 5 with the theme "Shaping Worlds, Shaping Futures". The University of Nebraska–Omaha hosted the event, and our campus and the University of Nebraska–Kearney co-sponsored it.

On March 23, Gabrielle Owen gave a lecture based off of her book "A Queer History of Adolescence: Developmental Pasts, Relational Futures".

Her research reveals categories of age—and adolescence, specifically—as an undeniable and essential mechanism in the production of difference itself

A Queer History of Adolescence book cover
Gender Qualification Gap flyer

On March 29, Nicole Bauer of Louisiana State University gave a talk on her book, "The Gender Qualification Gap."

She examined how the perception of political leadership through the lens of masculinity poses gendered obstacles for women running for elected office and explained what women have to do to overcome these challenges to win elected office.

In the News

Return of the Pawnees screenshot

The short film “Return of the Pawnees” premiered on April 29.

Produced by the Reconciliation Rising project, which is co-directed by Jacobs, the film chronicles how Roger and Linda Welsch returned land near Dannebrog, Nebraska to the Pawnees.


We look forward to seeing where curiosity takes us in the next year.