Lin Elected to National Office

Mon., Jun 04

Yi-Chun Tricia Lin, director of the Women's Studies Program, has been elected president of the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) and will begin serving her two-year term on November 11, 2012.

"It was a tremendous honor for me to have been asked to serve by leading women's studies scholars," says Lin. "I know I couldn't have run without my own home institution's support." She calls the presidency of this organization "a hefty mission" but hopes to have fun with it.

Lin is the first person from the state of Connecticut to be elected president of NWSA.

Established in 1977, NWSA has as one of its primary objectives promoting and supporting the production and dissemination of knowledge about women and gender through teaching, learning, research and service in academic and other settings. Its annual conference now attracts over 1500 attendees. Lin says that the conference is "where feminist scholarship happens." In her role as president, she says, her job is to "make sure we keep this going, keep building up the conference."

Lin will also be working on policy and looking at guidelines for teaching women's studies on the national level. She has served as vice president of NWSA in the past, from May 2006-November 2010, and in that position worked on the organization's strategic planning process. "This work was so critical," Lin says, helping to shape the future of NWSA and the conference. 

Lin, who has been at Southern since 2004, focuses her research and teaching on ethnic, feminist, and post-colonial studies.