Some of Our Grad Students and their Accomplishments

 

Jaime Allesandrine

Allesandrinej33@rsd17.org

Graduation Date: May 2003

Field of Interest: Feminist Pedagogy, Third Wave Feminism, limits and freedoms inherent in Liberal Feminism

Thesis: “An Analysis of Feminist Pedagogy and its Transformative Possibilities in the Secondary English Classroom”

With today’s heavy demands placed on public secondary school teachers, it is important to keep a keen eye on the interpersonal aspects of education.  Teaching from a feminist perspective fosters communication between students and their teacher while fostering an inquisitive environment.  Feminist pedagogy in the English classroom draws attention to a diverse range of writers and schools of social literary criticism.

 

Jacquelyn Arsenuk

Jax27@hotmail.com

Anticipated Graduation: Spring 2005

Fields of Interest: Jackie’s interests revolve around the body and it’s interaction with religion, media, law and healthcare. She hosts a radio show with a past women’s studies graduate student named Lacey Midkiff called The F-Files: Dialogues in Feminism which can be heard on Wednesdays from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm on 88.7 FM WNHU, West Haven.  One may also email her at ffileswnhu@yahoo.com.

Thesis: “Orbs of Power: The Political, Social and Health Consequences of Sexualizing Women’s Breasts”

 

Carol Avery
carolavery@charter.net
Anticipated Graduation Date:  May 2006
Research Interests:  Women's History, Women and Education

 

Karina A. Danvers

karina.danvers@yale.edu

Anticipated Graduation: Spring 2005

Fields of Interest: Women and HIV/AIDS

Karina Danvers is the Coordinator of the Connecticut AIDS Education and Training Center.  She holds a Human Services degree and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health.  Karina has worked in the AIDS field for the past 15 years and has received numerous awards for her work, including The Commissioners AIDS Leadership Award for exceptional commitment in providing advocacy and support for people living with HIV/AIDS, The United Nations 100 Top Connecticut Women for her accomplishments as an HIV/AIDS activist and educator.  In her work, she provides information on realistic and workable tools regarding HIV/AIDS that can be implemented by providers, patients, and communities on a daily basis.

 

Barbara Gurr

Gurrb1@southernct.edu

Graduation Date: Spring 2003

Fields of Interest: Indigenous Studies

Thesis: “Win Oye Ya - The Women’s Way: An Examination of American Indian Women’s Resistance to Colonization”

 

Maura Jo Lynch

WMS@feminist.and.org

Anticipated Graduation: Spring 2005

Fields of Interest: Third Wave Feminism, Medical Anthropology, Women’s involvement with Nonbiomedical Healing Modalities, Women and Film, Riot Grrls/DIY Movements, Postmodern Feminism/Cultural Studies, Women’s Cultures and Spiritualities in contemporary US society.

Thesis: “Women and Nonbiomedical Healing Modalities”  This manuscript includes a brief literature review, overviews of several nonbiomedical (CAM) healing modalities and qualitative interviews.  Research was conducted in Southern Connecticut and the Mid-Hudson Valley of NYS in the Winter of 2002.  Study participants were interviewed in-depth about their experiences as clients, and in two cases, providers of several modalities including Straight Chiropractic, Homeopathy, Reiki and the Wise Woman Herbal Tradition.  The thesis is concluded with the author’s connections between biomedicalization (Foucault), situated knowledges (Harraway), and the body of knowledge on women’s health and healing in patriarchal society.

 

Kristine Sisbarro

kjfri@aol.com

Graduation Date: May 2003

Special Project: “Writing About Me: A Journaling Program for Tean Parents Using Literary Materials from Women in History”

 

Patricia P. Spoor

ppSpoor@sbcglobal.net

Anticipated Graduation: Spring 2005

Fields of Interest: Women, Religion and Spirituality

Special Project Topic: “A Pedagogical Approach to Christian Feminism: Western Women’s History through the Lens of Religion”

This project assumes that to tell women’s history is to tell their struggle against a patriarchal interpretation of the Bible which served to justify women’s oppression. It is designed for lay women who are passionate to fully participate in human experience but are unaware of women’s contribution to Western history, are unsure of their role in today’s feminists struggles for equal rights, and are unacquainted with new possibilities to be spiritually whole in a patriarchal system. Women who are actively working and mothering can be better advocates for feminism if they know what has happened before, how it influenced what is happening today and how to critically evaluate the systems which govern our society.

 

Susan Sullivan

Suezq09@aol.com

Graduation Date: May 2004

Field of Interest: Domestic Violence

Thesis: “Law Enforcement Response to Domestic Violence: Early Intervention Strategies, Dual Arrest and Multidisciplinary Intervention

 

Jessica York

Yorkie8shu@aol.com

Graduation Date: May 2003
Research Interests: Women's History, History of the Police, Women's Studies, Capital Punishment, Modern Japanese History
Thesis: My thesis was on the last three years of the life of suffragist Inez Milholland Boissevain.

 

Ellen Zitani

ezitani@hotmail.com

Anticipated Graduation: Spring 2005

Fields of Interest: Modern European Women’s History, Italian Women’s History, Italian Feminist Theory, Oral History, Immigration/Emigration/Migration.

Thesis: “Una Donna Femminista: Sibilla Aleramo’s First Autobiographical Novel and the Italian Feminist Movement.”

Sibilla Aleramo published her groundbreaking novel in 1906 in Italy. This thesis examines her text and explores its effect on the first wave of feminism in that country.  Exploring themes of motherhood, rape, marriage, domestic violence and liberation, Aleramo points to feminism itself as an inspiration for her own liberation. While virtually unused in American Women’s Studies curricula, I argue how her novel served as a basis for Italian Feminist Theory and should be considered for use in the classroom.