After graduating from a women’s college, I was disheartened to discover, when I entered the work force, that the outside world treated women as less competent, valued, and deserving than men. Working as a writer/photographer for St. Louis’ antipoverty agency, however, I also found exemplars of nonviolent resistance and community action, who demonstrated that a critical stance and hard work could redeem life in a bigoted society. My intellectual interests have focused on issues of social justice ever since. While teaching Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies courses, I am also pursuing an MSW at the Brown School.
My concentration on sexuality studies comes at least partly from working for several years in the family planning field. There, I saw that taking control of their sexuality helped women make life-enhancing decisions in other areas of their lives. This observation fueled my doctoral studies. Exploring how Victorian women writers confronted their society’s rigid sex/gender system became the subject of my dissertation. To find the tools I needed to ask the questions I was interested in, I became a four-year candidate at a psychoanalytic institute and completed the Women’s Studies Graduate Certificate here at Washington University. Along with teaching, I am currently researching some of the factors that help and hinder young women’s development of sexual confidence. Courses I teach include The Social Construction of Female Sexuality, Introduction to Sexuality Studies, and Contemporary Female Sexualities. Although I see denying women a fair shake as just as threatening to the social fabric as when I first became aware of it as a young woman, my students fill me with hope that we are making progress.
LECTURER
Faculty Advisor, X Magazine, a Washington University student publication dedicated to discussing sex and sexuality
SPECIALIZATIONS
Sexuality studies
Women’s literature
Psychoanalytic cultural criticism
TRAINING
PhD. English and American Literature (2001), Washington University
Women’s Studies Graduate Certificate (2001), Washington University
Advanced Candidate, St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute
MBA, University of Missouri, St. Louis (1985)
RESEARCH
In progress: “Framing Young Women’s Sexual Self-Efficacy”
PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
“Cultural Cliteracy: The Contexts of Women’s Not Coming” (July 2007). Panel presentation, Law and Society Conference, Berlin.
“What Would Sex Education From the Left Look Like?” (November 2006). Poster for the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality Conference, Las Vegas. Co-authored with WU students Kristi Nigh and Amanda Hastens.
“Harsh Beauty” (2006). Review of Alesandra Zeka’s 2005 film. Contemporary Sexuality, Publication of the American Society for Sex Educators, Counselors & Therapists (ASSECT), November, 2006.
“Do We Need a New Psychology of the Clitoris?”. (2005) Presentations, St. Louis Psychoanalytic Society and American Psychoanalytic Association Winter Meeting.
“Transforming Feminine Categories: Genealogies of Virginity and Sainthood,” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (53/4) 2004. Co-authored with Britt-Marie Schiller. 2002 Affiliate Council Scientific Paper Prize runner-up.
“Artemisia’s Narratives: Reflections of Maternal Contributions to Creativity” (2002). Presentations at the St. Louis Art Museum and the Spring Meetings of the American Psychoanalytic Association.
COURSES TAUGHT
Introduction to Sexuality Studies
The Social Construction of Female Sexualities
Contemporary Female Sexualities
CONTACT
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Campus Box 1078
McMillan Hall, Room 210
Washington University
St. Louis, MO 63130
(314) 935-5102 - office
(314) 935-8678 - fax
Email
