GWS Students

GWS People

Core Faculty

Students

GWS Students

The profiles below will introduce you to a few of our students and give you a snapshot of their intellectual work.

Gabrielle Anderson
Sociology and Gender and Women's Studies Major
I'm a fourth year student who transferred into UIC and I am pursuing a double major in Sociology and GWS. I'm also a student in the Honors College, am the co-chair of Feminists United, and research assitant for Professor John D'Emilio. I plan on continuing my education through grad school in the Gender Studies field, and I eventually want to work with a women's advocacy organization. My academic interests include girls' advocacy, international feminisms, and sexuality studies. When I'm not studying I love to camp out in small neighborhood coffee shops and have impromptu picnics!

Heather Benjamin
Sociology Major/GWS Minor
I have a Phi Kappa Phi Undergraduate Research Fellowship for a project comparing aspirations and achievement among low-income, African American versus middle-class, white high school girls. I participated in the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) at the University of Michigan, working with Dr. Karin Martin, jointly appointed in Sociology and Women's Studies. I assisted in Dr. Martin's research on the sexual socialization of preschool aged children and presented my work at Purdue University's Consortium for Institutional Cooperation SROP Conference in July, 2007.

Sarah Bickerton
Ph.D. Candidate: Sociology/GWS Graduate Concentrator
I am a have completed my coursework in Sociology, and have a background in Physics and Computer Science. My main areas of academic interest are gender and sexuality, principally from a post-structural social-narrative approach to identity work. My MA thesis research was on how interaction was made to be embodied in an online text-based queer-youth support-group. Currently I am researching, from a social-narrative approach, how hate-crime perpetrators construct moral justifications for their deviant acts, linking these to wider societal narratives of gender and sexuality. My intent is to challenge the notion of such individuals as being outside of conventional systems of norms, but rather rely, and hence employ, such norms in their justifications. Thus placing their behaviors on a continuum, connecting them to wider accepted societal assumptions of gender and sexuality, which in turn get reified by such 'deviant' acts.

Zachary Blair
Ph.D.Candidate: Anthropology
I am interested in cultural anthropology, queer culture, and queer communities. I'm doing my dissertation on Boystown, an ethnography and community study focusing on the construction of space, neighborhood change, and how race and gender play out in the gay urban setting.

Ausra Buzenas
Gender and Women's Studies and Psychology Majors
Ausra won the 2007 Mary B. Bialas Award, which is given annually to a student who strongly demonstrates a commitment to women and/or children's issues and actively works to improve the lives of women and children. She is an undergraduate research assistant for GWS/LALS professor Elena Gutierrez and serves as a Queer Peer and mentor on campus. Ausra was recently admitted to the M.A Program in Counseling Psychology at Roosevelt University.

Mike Gill
Ph.D. Candidate: Disability Studies/GWS Graduate Concentrator
I am working on my dissertation which examines sex education, abuse, and representation of sexuality for people with intellectual disabilities. Mike received the 2007 GWS Graduate Student Award and had an article published, “The Disabled Male Gaze: Expressions of Desire and Emotion in Rory O'Shea Was Here” in the Fall, 2006 issue of Disability Studies Quarterly.

Jane Hereth
MSW Candidate/GWS Graduate Concentrator
My research interests include social welfare policy, specifically related to criminal justice and LGBTQ folks. I am also interested in social movements, queer and feminist theory. As a social worker, I hope to work with people in prison and/or the LGBTQ community.

Cat Jacquet
Ph.D Candidate: History/ GWS Graduate Concentrator
My dissertation is about sexual violence and the cultural, legal, medical understandings & responses to sexual violence, 1950-1980. I volunteer as a medical advocate with Rape Victim Advocates, serving the needs of sexual assault survivors in the emergency room. I am also a guest lecturer for their volunteer advocate training program and lecture on the history of rape and anti-rape organizing.

Aarati Kasturirangan
Ph.D Candidate: Psychology/ GWS Concentration
Aarati was a panelist at the Free Minds, Free People Conference on Education for Liberation that took place in Chicago on June 22-24, 2007. The panel was entitled “Teaching Truth to Power” and focused on the challenges of and strategies used to speak to people with privilege (i.e., white people, men, straight people, the able-bodied) about systems of oppression and their role in change. Aarati had an article accepted in Violence Against Women entitled “Empowerment and Programs Designed to Address Domestic Violence.” Aarati served as the Graduate Advisor for the 2007 production of the Vagina Monologues and developed curriculum and taught GWS 294/ Peer Educators, Reducing Campus Violence in spring, 2007. She was also awarded the 2007 GWS Graduate Student Award, and the 2007 Graduate Student Award in the Psychology Department. Aarati served as the Graduate Advisor for the 2007 production of the Vagina Monologues and developed curriculum and teaches the GWS 294/ Peer Educators, Reducing Campus Violence course.

Sandhya Krishnan
Ph.D. Candidate: Psychology
I am a 4th year graduate student in the 'Community & Prevention Research' division of the Psychology department. Right now I am looking at the impact of ethnic identity on people's perceptions of emotional abuse. I'm hoping this will provide a deeper understanding of how the intersection of ethnicity and gender affect perceptions of violence. I am also interested in looking at how people hear lyrics about violence against women (both supporting and denouncing it), as well as community responses to violence.

Darlene Nava Munoz
Gender and Women's Studies Major and Latin American and Latino Studies & African American Studies Minor
Currently a McNair Scholar, I am working on an undergraduate research project that seeks to examine historical and contemporary struggles for social justice, interviewing activists working on a breadth of issues across ethnic and generational lines. I will soon be applying to graduate school, mostly on the west coast and looking for a doctoral program in interdisciplinary studies. I want to write books and be a professor someday, like the many amazing mentors that I've worked with within the departments of UIC, who remain actively engaged in being agents of social change.

Neslihan Sen
Ph.D. Candidate: Anthropology/GWS Graduate Concentrator
I am interested in female sexuality and construction of women's bodies and heterosexuality through medicalization in Turkey. I will look at some sexual disorders to see how 'disorders' are defined by the medical authorities. And I will try to see how medical power along with the state power in Turkey reveals about modernization and Islamic life.

Tara Theobald
English and Gender and Women's Studies Major
I am a fourth year student double-majoring in Gender and Women's Studies and Teaching of English. Currently, I am completing my student teaching semester, and I am a Resident Assistant in Campus Housing. I am the co-chair of Feminists United, participated in three years of UIC's production of the Vagina Monologues, and I am a member of the Honors College. After I graduate, I plan on either teaching English on the secondary education level, attending law school with in an interest in lobbying, running away across the country, and/or running for president. My academic interests particularly include: Romantic literature, feminist and queer history, politics, and activism, the influence of the media on contemporary issues, and interpretations and implications of the Bible on contemporary society. I can mostly be found around campus, riding my bike all around the city, at coffee shops with live music, or getting lost within Chicago's many bookstores.

Joyce Yin
Gender and Women's Studies Major
Joyce received the 2007 Gender and Women's Studies Undergraduate Award and participated in the 2007 production of the Vagina Monologues . Joyce is an intern with the Young Women's Leadership Council at the Chicago Foundation for Women. In 2006-2007 she served as publications coordinator in UIC's Asian American Resource and Cultural Center. She is involved in the Asian American Coalition Committee, a student group working for the development of an Asian American Studies Program on campus. She plans to study in Asia in 2007-2008.




	GWS People Core Faculty Affiliated Faculty Associated Faculty Administration Students GWS Home Class Schedule Web For Students	GWS Students The profiles below will introduce you to a few of our students and give you a snapshot of their intellectual work. Gabrielle Anderson Sociology and Gender and Women's Studies Major I'm a fourth year student who transferred into UIC and I am pursuing a double major in Sociology and GWS. I'm also a student in the Honors College, am the co-chair of Feminists United, and research assitant for Professor John D'Emilio. I plan on continuing my education through grad school in the Gender Studies field, and I eventually want to work with a women's advocacy organization. My academic interests include girls' advocacy, international feminisms, and sexuality studies. When I'm not studying I love to camp out in small neighborhood coffee shops and have impromptu picnics! Heather Benjamin Sociology Major/GWS Minor I have a Phi Kappa Phi Undergraduate Research Fellowship for a project comparing aspirations and achievement among low-income, African American versus middle-class, white high school girls. I participated in the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) at the University of Michigan, working with Dr. Karin Martin, jointly appointed in Sociology and Women's Studies. I assisted in Dr. Martin's research on the sexual socialization of preschool aged children and presented my work at Purdue University's Consortium for Institutional Cooperation SROP Conference in July, 2007. Sarah Bickerton Ph.D. Candidate: Sociology/GWS Graduate Concentrator I am a have completed my coursework in Sociology, and have a background in Physics and Computer Science. My main areas of academic interest are gender and sexuality, principally from a post-structural social-narrative approach to identity work. My MA thesis research was on how interaction was made to be embodied in an online text-based queer-youth support-group. Currently I am researching, from a social-narrative approach, how hate-crime perpetrators construct moral justifications for their deviant acts, linking these to wider societal narratives of gender and sexuality. My intent is to challenge the notion of such individuals as being outside of conventional systems of norms, but rather rely, and hence employ, such norms in their justifications. Thus placing their behaviors on a continuum, connecting them to wider accepted societal assumptions of gender and sexuality, which in turn get reified by such 'deviant' acts. Zachary Blair Ph.D.Candidate: Anthropology I am interested in cultural anthropology, queer culture, and queer communities. I'm doing my dissertation on Boystown, an ethnography and community study focusing on the construction of space, neighborhood change, and how race and gender play out in the gay urban setting. Ausra Buzenas Gender and Women's Studies and Psychology Majors Ausra won the 2007 Mary B. Bialas Award, which is given annually to a student who strongly demonstrates a commitment to women and/or children's issues and actively works to improve the lives of women and children. She is an undergraduate research assistant for GWS/LALS professor Elena Gutierrez and serves as a Queer Peer and mentor on campus. Ausra was recently admitted to the M.A Program in Counseling Psychology at Roosevelt University. Mike Gill Ph.D. Candidate: Disability Studies/GWS Graduate Concentrator I am working on my dissertation which examines sex education, abuse, and representation of sexuality for people with intellectual disabilities. Mike received the 2007 GWS Graduate Student Award and had an article published, “The Disabled Male Gaze: Expressions of Desire and Emotion in Rory O'Shea Was Here” in the Fall, 2006 issue of Disability Studies Quarterly. Jane Hereth MSW Candidate/GWS Graduate Concentrator My research interests include social welfare policy, specifically related to criminal justice and LGBTQ folks. I am also interested in social movements, queer and feminist theory. As a social worker, I hope to work with people in prison and/or the LGBTQ community. Cat Jacquet Ph.D Candidate: History/ GWS Graduate Concentrator My dissertation is about sexual violence and the cultural, legal, medical understandings & responses to sexual violence, 1950-1980. I volunteer as a medical advocate with Rape Victim Advocates, serving the needs of sexual assault survivors in the emergency room. I am also a guest lecturer for their volunteer advocate training program and lecture on the history of rape and anti-rape organizing. Aarati Kasturirangan Ph.D Candidate: Psychology/ GWS Concentration Aarati was a panelist at the Free Minds, Free People Conference on Education for Liberation that took place in Chicago on June 22-24, 2007. The panel was entitled “Teaching Truth to Power” and focused on the challenges of and strategies used to speak to people with privilege (i.e., white people, men, straight people, the able-bodied) about systems of oppression and their role in change. Aarati had an article accepted in Violence Against Women entitled “Empowerment and Programs Designed to Address Domestic Violence.” Aarati served as the Graduate Advisor for the 2007 production of the Vagina Monologues and developed curriculum and taught GWS 294/ Peer Educators, Reducing Campus Violence in spring, 2007. She was also awarded the 2007 GWS Graduate Student Award, and the 2007 Graduate Student Award in the Psychology Department. Aarati served as the Graduate Advisor for the 2007 production of the Vagina Monologues and developed curriculum and teaches the GWS 294/ Peer Educators, Reducing Campus Violence course. Sandhya Krishnan Ph.D. Candidate: Psychology I am a 4th year graduate student in the 'Community & Prevention Research' division of the Psychology department. Right now I am looking at the impact of ethnic identity on people's perceptions of emotional abuse. I'm hoping this will provide a deeper understanding of how the intersection of ethnicity and gender affect perceptions of violence. I am also interested in looking at how people hear lyrics about violence against women (both supporting and denouncing it), as well as community responses to violence. Darlene Nava Munoz Gender and Women's Studies Major and Latin American and Latino Studies & African American Studies Minor Currently a McNair Scholar, I am working on an undergraduate research project that seeks to examine historical and contemporary struggles for social justice, interviewing activists working on a breadth of issues across ethnic and generational lines. I will soon be applying to graduate school, mostly on the west coast and looking for a doctoral program in interdisciplinary studies. I want to write books and be a professor someday, like the many amazing mentors that I've worked with within the departments of UIC, who remain actively engaged in being agents of social change. Neslihan Sen Ph.D. Candidate: Anthropology/GWS Graduate Concentrator I am interested in female sexuality and construction of women's bodies and heterosexuality through medicalization in Turkey. I will look at some sexual disorders to see how 'disorders' are defined by the medical authorities. And I will try to see how medical power along with the state power in Turkey reveals about modernization and Islamic life. Tara Theobald English and Gender and Women's Studies Major I am a fourth year student double-majoring in Gender and Women's Studies and Teaching of English. Currently, I am completing my student teaching semester, and I am a Resident Assistant in Campus Housing. I am the co-chair of Feminists United, participated in three years of UIC's production of the Vagina Monologues, and I am a member of the Honors College. After I graduate, I plan on either teaching English on the secondary education level, attending law school with in an interest in lobbying, running away across the country, and/or running for president. My academic interests particularly include: Romantic literature, feminist and queer history, politics, and activism, the influence of the media on contemporary issues, and interpretations and implications of the Bible on contemporary society. I can mostly be found around campus, riding my bike all around the city, at coffee shops with live music, or getting lost within Chicago's many bookstores. Joyce Yin Gender and Women's Studies Major Joyce received the 2007 Gender and Women's Studies Undergraduate Award and participated in the 2007 production of the Vagina Monologues . Joyce is an intern with the Young Women's Leadership Council at the Chicago Foundation for Women. In 2006-2007 she served as publications coordinator in UIC's Asian American Resource and Cultural Center. She is involved in the Asian American Coalition Committee, a student group working for the development of an Asian American Studies Program on campus. She plans to study in Asia in 2007-2008.

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